How you got between
Chicago and
New York in the
1930s, if you were a
politician,
movie star,
businessman, or society
swell. Commercial
aviation wasn't developed yet, and to make the 961 mile trip, if you wanted to go in style (meaning no
working class folk,
children, or minorities) you took this train. After all, you might want to catch up with
J.P. Morgan,
William Randolph Hearst,
James Cagney, or
Gene Tunney, all noted riders.
Paparazzi would wait at the
end of the line, in expectation that someone
famous would step off the
train.
Made its first run out of Grand Central Station in 1902, and featured Pullman cars (no coaches), dining cars, sleepers, valets, barbers, hourly stock market reports, plush carpeting, and electric lights. At the time, it was billed as the "Fastest Long Distance Train in the World". (It cut the 30 hour trip down to 20 in 1902, and later improvements would bring some runs down to a 16 hour trip.) As a commitment to punctuality, passengers received a dollar for each hour the train was late to its final stop. The train ran for nearly 70 years.