Royal Blue (B&O train) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Royal Blue was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O)

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...

's flagship passenger train between New York City and Washington, D.C., in the United States, beginning in 1890. The Baltimore-based B&O also used the name between 1890 and 1917 for its improved passenger service between New York and Washington launched in the 1890s, collectively dubbed the Royal Blue Line. Using variants such as the Royal Limited and Royal Special for individual Royal Blue trains, the B&O operated the service in partnership with the Reading Railroad

Reading Company

The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...

and the Central Railroad of New Jersey

Central Railroad of New Jersey

The Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...

. Principal intermediate cities served were Philadelphia, Wilmington

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

, and Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

. Later, as Europe reeled from the carnage of World War I and connotations of European royalty fell into disfavor, the B&O discreetly omitted the sobriquet Royal Blue Line from its New York passenger service and the Royal Blue disappeared from B&O timetables. Beginning in 1917, former Royal Blue Line trains were renamed: the Royal Limited (inaugurated on May 15, 1898), for example, became the National Limited

National Limited

The National Limited was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on its route between New York City and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. The all-Pullman version of the National Limited was introduced by the B&O on April 26,...

, continuing west from Washington to St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

via Cincinnati. During the Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, the B&O hearkened back to the halcyon pre-World War I era when it launched a re-christened Royal Blue train between New York and Washington in 1935. The B&O finally discontinued passenger service north of Baltimore on April 26, 1958, and the Royal Blue faded into history.

Railroad historian Herbert Harwood said, in his seminal history of the service, "First conceived in late Victorian times to promote a new railroad line ... it was indeed one of the most memorable images in the transportation business, an inspired blend of majesty and mystique ... Royal Blue Line ... Royal Blue Trains ... the Royal Blue all meant different things at different times. But essentially they all symbolized one thing: the B&O's regal route." Between the 1890s and World War I, the B&O's six daily Royal Blue trains providing service between New York and Washington were noted for their luxury, elegant appearance, and speed. The car interiors were paneled in mahogany

Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....

, had fully enclosed vestibules (instead of open platforms, still widely in use at the time on U.S. railroads), then-modern heating and lighting, and leaded glass

Lead glass

Lead glass is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40 weight% lead oxide , while modern lead crystal, historically also known as flint glass due to the original silica source, contains a minimum of 24% PbO...

windows. The car exteriors were painted a deep "Royal Saxony blue

Royal blue

Royal blue describes both a bright shade and a dark shade of azure blue. It is said to have been invented by millers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of which won a competition to make a dress for the British queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz....

" color with gold leaf

Gold leaf

right|thumb|250px|[[Burnishing]] gold leaf with an [[agate]] stone tool, during the water gilding processGold leaf is gold that has been hammered into extremely thin sheets and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades...

trim.

The B&O's use of electrification

Railway electrification system

A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...

instead of steam power in a Baltimore tunnel on the Royal Blue Line, beginning in 1895, marked the first use of electric locomotives by an American railroad and presaged the dawn of practical alternatives to steam power in the 20th century. Spurred by intense competition from the formidable Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

, the dominant railroad in the lucrative New York–Washington market since the 1880s, the Royal Blue in its mid-1930s reincarnation was noted for a number of technological innovations, including streamlining

Streamliner

A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...

and the first non-articulated

Articulated car

Articulated cars are rail vehicles which are consist of a number of smaller, lighter cars which are semi-permanently attached to each other and which share common trucks. They are much longer than single passenger cars, and on the TGV Réseau, for example, 8 cars are joined this way...

diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

on a passenger train in the U.S., a harbinger of the steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

's eventual demise.

1880s–1918

Prior to 1884, the B&O and the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

both used the independent Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad

Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad

The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad was the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania southwest to Baltimore, Maryland in the 19th and early 20th centuries...

(PW&B) between Baltimore

Baltimore

, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for their New York–Washington freight and passenger trains. In 1881, the Pennsylvania Railroad purchased a controlling interest in the PW&B, and in 1884 it denied the B&O further use of the PW&B to reach Philadelphia.

The B&O then built a new line from Baltimore to connect to the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in Philadelphia, completed in 1886. The B&O's passenger trains then used the Reading's tracks northward from Philadelphia to Bound Brook, New Jersey

Bound Brook, New Jersey

Bound Brook is a borough in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. At the United States 2010 Census, the population was 10,402.Bound Brook was originally incorporated as a town by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 24, 1869, within portions of Bridgewater Township...

, where the Jersey Central's rails were used to reach the Communipaw Terminal

Communipaw Terminal

Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, sometimes known as Communipaw Terminal was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal at the mouth of the Hudson River at the Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey.-Designation:...

in Jersey City

Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

connecting to ferry for a twelve-minute crossing of the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

to Manhattan.

The new route presented problems in Baltimore, because a ferry boat was necessary to cross the harbor between Locust Point

Locust Point, Baltimore

Locust Point is a peninsular neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland. Located in South Baltimore, the neighborhood is entirely surrounded by the Locust Point Industrial Area; the traditional boundaries are Lawrence street to the west and the Patapsco River to the north, south, and east...

and Canton to connect with the B&O's Washington Branch. The solution was the Baltimore Belt Line

Baltimore Belt Line

The Baltimore Belt Line was constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the 1890s to connect the railroad's newly constructed line to Philadelphia with the rest of the railroad at Baltimore, Maryland. It included the Howard Street Tunnel, the Mount Royal Station and the first mainline...

, which included a 1.4 miles (2.3 km) long tunnel under Howard Street in downtown Baltimore. Work began on the tunnel in 1891 and was completed on May 1, 1895, when the first train traversed the tunnel. To avoid smoke problems from steam engines working upgrade in the long tunnel under the middle of Baltimore, the B&O pioneered the first mainline electrification

Railway electrification system

of a U.S. railroad, installing an overhead third rail

Third rail

A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...

system in the tunnel and its approaches. An electric locomotive first pulled a Royal Blue train through the Howard Street tunnel on June 27, 1895.

The project also included the construction of B&O's second passenger terminal in Baltimore, Mount Royal Station

Mount Royal Station

The Mount Royal Station and Trainshed was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's third train station in Baltimore, Maryland, at the north end of the Baltimore Belt Line's Howard Street tunnel in the fashionable Bolton Hill neighborhood...

, at the north end of the Howard Street tunnel in the fashionable Bolton Hill neighborhood. Designed by Baltimore architect E. Francis Baldwin

Ephraim Francis Baldwin

Ephraim Francis Baldwin was an American architect, best known for his work for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and for the Roman Catholic Church.-Personal life:...

in a blend of modified Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

and Renaissance

Renaissance architecture

Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...

styling, the station was built of Maryland granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

trimmed with Indiana limestone

Indiana Limestone

Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....

, with a red tile roof and landmark 150 feet (46 m) clocktower. The station's interior featured marble mosaic flooring, a fireplace, and rocking chairs. It opened the following year on September 1, 1896. "It was considered," said the Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore Sun is the U.S. state of Maryland’s largest general circulation daily newspaper and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries....

, "the most splendid station in the country built and used by only one railroad." That evaluation was shared by railroad historian Lucius Beebe

Lucius Beebe

Lucius Morris Beebe was an American author, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist.-Early life and education:...

, who proclaimed Mount Royal "one of the celebrated railroad stations of the world, ranking in renown with Euston Station, London, scene of so many of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

' departures, the Gare du Nord

Gare du Nord

Paris Nord is one of the six large terminus railway stations of the SNCF mainline network for Paris, France. It offers connections with several urban transportation lines, including Paris Métro and RER...

in Paris, and the feudal fortress of the Pennsylvania [Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

] at Broad Street, Philadelphia

Broad Street Station (Philadelphia)

Broad Street Station at Broad & Market Streets was the primary passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1881 to the 1950s...

".

Even before the Baltimore Belt Line project was finished, the B&O launched its Royal Blue service on July 31, 1890. Powered by 4-6-0

4-6-0

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 4-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. This wheel arrangement became the second-most popular...

steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

s having exceptionally large 78 inches (198 cm) diameter driving wheel

Driving wheel

On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons...

s for speed, the Royal Blue trains occasionally reached 90 mph (145 km/h). After the Baltimore Belt Line project was completed, travel time between New York and Washington was reduced to five hours, compared to nine hours in the late 1860s.

The trains were noted for their elegance and luxury. The parlor cars' ceilings and upholstery were covered in royal blue, and the dining cars Queen and Waldorf, panelled in mahogany

Mahogany

, featured elaborate cuisine such as terrapin

Terrapin

A terrapin is a turtle living in fresh or brackish water.Terrapin may also refer to:* Terrapin , a transport vehicle used for amphibious assault by the Allies during the Second World War...

and canvasback

Canvasback

The Canvasback is the largest of the North American diving ducks, that ranges from between long and weighs approximately , with a wingspan of . The canvasback has a distinctive wedge-shaped head and long graceful neck. The adult male has a black bill, a chestnut red head and neck, a black...

prepared by French-trained chefs. A Railway Age magazine article of the time reporting on the Royal Blue called it "the climax in railway car building".

1918–1920s

As a result of the U.S. entry into World War I and resulting congestion on the nation's railroads, the wartime U.S. Railroad Administration (USRA)

United States Railroad Administration

The United States Railroad Administration was the name of the nationalized railroad system of the United States between 1917 and 1920. It was possibly the largest American experiment with nationalization, and was undertaken against a background of war emergency.- Background :On April 6, 1917, the...

ordered the Pennsylvania Railroad to permit B&O passenger trains to use its Hudson River tunnels and Pennsylvania Station

Pennsylvania Station (New York City)

Pennsylvania Station—commonly known as Penn Station—is the major intercity train station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. It is one of the busiest rail stations in the world, and a hub for inbound and outbound railroad traffic in New York City. The New York City Subway system also...

in Manhattan, beginning April 28, 1918, eliminating the B&O's need for the ferry connection from Jersey City. Following the end of World War I, the Pennsylvania Railroad continued to allow B&O passenger trains to use Pennsylvania Station for another eight years. On September 1, 1926, the Pennsylvania Railroad terminated its contract with the B&O, and the latter's trains reverted to the use of the Jersey Central

Central Railroad of New Jersey

's Jersey City terminal

Communipaw Terminal

. Passengers were then transferred to buses that met the train right on the platform. These buses were ferried across the Hudson River into Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

and Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, where they proceeded to various "stations" around the city on four different routes, including the Vanderbilt Hotel, Wanamaker's

Wanamaker's

Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...

, Columbus Circle

Columbus Circle

Columbus Circle, named for Christopher Columbus, is a major landmark and point of attraction in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located at the intersection of Eighth Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South , and Central Park West, at the southwest corner of Central Park. It is the point from...

, and Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...

. B&O's busiest Royal Blue bus terminal at in Manhattan opened on December 17, 1928. Connected to Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...

by an underground concourse

Concourse

A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.-Examples:Examples of concourses include:* Meeting halls* Universities* Railway stations...

, it was trimmed in marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

and furnished with Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

lighting fixtures and leather sofas. This arrangement would continue until the eventual demise of the Royal Blue in 1958.

1930s–1940s

As the 1930s dawned, the B&O's New York passenger service faced two significant competitive disadvantages, compared to the Pennsylvania Railroad. First, the B&O lacked direct access to Manhattan, resulting in slower overall travel time. Second, the Pennsylvania's move in the early 1930s to replace steam power with modern, smoke-free electric service

Railway electrification system

along its entire New York–Washington mainline was met with enthusiastic public approval. The B&O responded by introducing diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

s, air conditioning, and streamlining

Streamliner

on its New York trains. On June 24, 1935, the B&O inaugurated the first lightweight, streamlined train in the eastern U.S., when it began operating a re-christened Royal Blue train between Washington and New York. The B&O partially dieselized the train with locomotive # 50, buying the nation's first non-articulated

Articulated car

road diesel from General Motors' Electro Motive Company. Previously, early experiments with internal combustion engine

Internal combustion engine

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high -pressure gases produced by combustion apply direct force to some component of the engine...

s to replace steam in railroad applications were limited to short, articulated trainsets (such as Burlington

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad

The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...

's Pioneer Zephyr

Pioneer Zephyr

The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies, built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , commonly known as the Burlington...

) or to motive power using distillate fuels (such as Union Pacific

Union Pacific Railroad

The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....

's M-10000

M-10000

The Union Pacific Railroad's M-10000, delivered to the railroad on February 12, 1934, at a cost of $230,997, was the first internal combustion engine, lightweight streamlined express passenger train in the United States. The carbodies and interior fittings were built by Pullman-Standard...

). The B&O's pioneering introduction of its diesel-powered Royal Blue demonstrated the improved efficiency and reduced maintenance costs of diesel power in daily service compared to steam and gave impetus to the dieselization of the railroad industry.

Recalling the past glamor of the 1890s Royal Blue Line, the B&O introduced its Martha Washington-series dining cars, which were particularly noted for their fresh Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

cuisine, served on Dresden china in ornate cars with glass chandeliers and colonial-style furnishings. The B&O's manager of dining car services said his department's objective was "...to be hospitable to our patrons in all respects – to make them feel the comfort, convenience and homelike atmosphere of our accommodations as soon as they step on our trains." Dining car specialties included oysters and Chesapeake Bay fish served with cornmeal muffins. B&O president Daniel Willard

Daniel Willard

Daniel Willard was a railroad executive best known as the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1910 to 1941. He served on or headed several government railroad commissions in World War I and appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1932 due to his part in negotiating wage cuts in the...

personally sampled his dining cars' cuisine while traveling about the line, and recognized particularly pleasing meals with letters of appreciation and autographed pictures given to the dining car chefs.

The B&O was not entirely satisfied with the ride quality of the lightweight Royal Blue train, however, and replaced it on April 25, 1937, with streamlined, refurbished heavyweight equipment, painted light gray and royal blue with gold striping, designed by Otto Kuhler

Otto Kuhler

Otto Kuhler was an American designer, one of the best known industrial designers of the American railroads. According to Trains magazine he streamstyled more locomotives and railroad cars than Cret, Dreyfuss and Loewy combined...

. The train was pulled by the first streamlined diesel locomotive, B&O # 51, the 3,600 h.p.

Horsepower

Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...

EMC EA/EB model built by Electro Motive Company. Praised for its beauty and handsome profile, this first streamlined production model diesel "dazzled the press and public", said one magazine writer of the groundbreaking locomotive's introduction. Kuhler also streamlined one of B&O's 4-6-2 "Pacific"

4-6-2

4-6-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle .These locomotives are also known as Pacifics...

steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

s for use on the Royal Blue. Its bullet-shaped shroud became an iconic image for the Royal Blue and was modeled for years by American Flyer

American Flyer

American Flyer was a popular brand of toy train and model railroad in the United States in the middle part of the 20th century.- The Chicago era, 1907–1938 :...

. Time magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, in reporting on the precarious financial condition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and other Depression-ravaged rail lines in 1937, referred to the B&O's "swashbuckling" Royal Blue streamliner launched that year as having "symbolize[d] the new era in railroading ..."

President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...

was a frequent passenger on the B&O's Royal Blue Line during his time in office (1933–1945), when he traveled between Washington and his family home in Hyde Park, New York

Hyde Park, New York

Hyde Park is a town located in the northwest part of Dutchess County, New York, United States, just north of the city of Poughkeepsie. The town is most famous for being the hometown of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt....

. A special presidential train from Washington used the regular B&O–Reading–Jersey Central route to Jersey City, continuing on the New York Central Railroad

New York Central Railroad

The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...

's West Shore Line

West Shore Railroad

The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad from Weehawken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, north along the west shore of the river to Albany, New York and then west to Buffalo...

along the Hudson River

Hudson River

to Highland, New York

Highland, Ulster County, New York

Highland is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,060 at the 2000 census.Highland is a community in the Town of Lloyd, on U.S. Route 9W. Routes 44 and 55 run through it as well...

(opposite Poughkeepsie

Poughkeepsie (city), New York

Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...

), where the President was met by automobile.

Along with most other rail passenger services in the U.S. during World War II, the Royal Blue enjoyed a surge in passenger traffic between 1942 and 1945 as volume doubled to passengers annually on B&O's eight daily New York–Washington trains. Following the end of the war, however, passenger volumes soon dropped below prewar levels and the B&O discontinued one of its daily New York–Washington trains. In addition to its flagship Royal Blue, six other B&O passenger trains continued to serve New York until April 1958: the Metropolitan Special

Metropolitan Special

The Metropolitan Special was the workhorse passenger train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad during the 1920s–1960s between New York City and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. The New York station was actually in Jersey City, New...

, Capitol Limited, National Limited

National Limited

, Diplomat, Marylander, and Shenandoah.

1950s and the end

Although all of B&O's Washington–Jersey City passenger trains had been fully dieselized by September 28, 1947, no new passenger cars were built for the Royal Blue in the postwar period. The refurbished 1937 Royal Blue trainset continued in operation to the end. The overwhelming market dominance of the Pennsylvania Railroad was evident when it introduced the stainless steel

Stainless steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

Morning Congressional and Afternoon Congressional streamliners in 1952. By the late 1950s, most U.S. passenger trains suffered a steep decline in patronage as the traveling public abandoned trains in favor of airplanes and automobiles, utilizing improved Interstate Highway

Interstate Highway System

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...

s. The Royal Blue was no exception, as operating deficits approached annually and passenger volume declined by almost half between 1946 and 1957. Amidst the downward trend, the Royal Blue Line briefly recaptured the regal splendor of its early years on October 21, 1957, when Queen Elizabeth II

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

and Prince Philip

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....

travelled on the B&O from Washington to New York.

As financial losses mounted, the B&O finally ceded the New York–Washington market to the Pennsylvania Railroad altogether, discontinuing all passenger service north of Baltimore on Saturday, April 26, 1958, and bringing the venerable Royal Blue to an end. As the engineer was about to ease the locomotive's throttle open for the Royal Blue's final departure from Washington Union Station

Union Station (Washington, D.C.)

Washington Union Station is a train station and leisure destination visited by 32 million people each year in the center of Washington, D.C. The train station is served by Amtrak, MARC and Virginia Railway Express commuter rail services as well as by Washington Metro subway trains and local buses...

at 3:45 p.m., the event was covered in a trainside remote broadcast

Remote broadcast

In broadcast engineering, a remote broadcast is broadcasting done from a location away from a formal television studio and is considered an electronic field production . A remote pickup unit is usually used to transmit the audio and/or video back to the television station, where it joins the...

by Edward R. Murrow

Edward R. Murrow

Edward Roscoe Murrow, KBE was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States and Canada.Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, and Alexander Kendrick...

on a CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

network See It Now

See It Now

See It Now is an American newsmagazine and documentary series broadcast by CBS from 1951 to 1958. It was created by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, Murrow being the host of the show. From 1952 to 1957, See It Now won four Emmy Awards and was nominated three times...

television special

Television special

A television special is a television program which interrupts or temporarily replaces programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Sometimes, however, the term is given to a telecast of a theatrical film, such as The Wizard of Oz or The Ten Commandments, which is not part of a regular...

. The train's 7:49 p.m. arrival at Jersey City Terminal was met by news reporters from The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, the New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

, Life magazine

Life (magazine)

Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

and The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

, on hand to cover the legendary Royal Blues demise. In an editorial the next day, the Baltimore Sun lamented the end of the Royal Blue, saying it "may have been one of the most famous named trains in history. There were faster ways to get to New York and cheaper ones, but no one who had the time ever found a better way to enter New York, especially for the first time, than by the Royal Blue, with the cross-harbor boat trip and the profile of Manhattan thrown in".

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, in a ffront page article accompanied by a photograph of train engineer Michael Goodnight bidding farewell to a 7-year old passenger, said "It was a sad and simple story yesterday as the nation's oldest railroad discontinued its crack Royal Blue and its five other passenger trains ... end[ing] sixty-eight years of continuous through service, operated in a gentlemanly fashion ... a kind of ante-bellum, gracious way of life ... and the reputation for very special service."

Mount Royal Station continued as the eastern terminus of B&O's passenger service until June 30, 1961, when it closed permanently as a rail passenger facility. It was one of thirteen Baltimore buildings selected in 1959 for the Historic American Buildings Survey

Historic American Buildings Survey

The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...

. The building and trainshed

Train shed

A train shed is an adjacent building to a railway station where the tracks and platforms are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof...

were subsequently acquired by the Maryland Institute College of Art

Maryland Institute College of Art

Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...

(MICA) in 1964 and are preserved as examples of late 19th century industrial architecture.

Schedule and equipment

In the 1890s–1910s period, the Royal Limited operated in both directions simultaneously, with 3 p.m. departures in New York and Washington, arriving at its destination five hours later, at 8 p.m. By the 1930s, travel time between Jersey City and Washington was reduced to four hours. From 1935 to the end of service in 1958, the Royal Blue made a daily round trip, departing New York in the morning and returning from Washington in the evening. According to the Official Guide

Official Guide of the Railways

The Official Guide of the Railways, now known as the Official Railway Guide, was originally produced by National Railway Publication Company of New York City, beginning in 1868...

of February, 1956, the Royal Blue operated on the following schedule as train (unconditional stops highlighted in blue, bus connections in yellow):

City	Departure time
New York (Rockefeller Center) Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th and 51st streets in New York City, United States. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning the area between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. It was declared a National...	8:30 am
New York (Grand Central Terminal) Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...	8:45 am
Brooklyn, NY	8:45 am
Jersey City, NJ	9:30 am
Elizabeth, NJ	9:46 am
Plainfield, NJ	9:59 am
Wayne Junction, Pa. Wayne Junction (SEPTA station) Wayne Junction is a SEPTA Regional Rail station located at 4481 Wayne Avenue, extending along Windrim Avenue to Germantown Avenue, bordering the Nicetown and Germantown neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Station:...	10:54 am
Philadelphia, Pa. 24th Street Station (Philadelphia) 24th St. Station was an intercity railroad station built for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, designed by architect Frank Furness. It stood at 24th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and opened in 1888....	11:10 am
Wilmington, Del.	11:35 am
Baltimore, Md. (Mt. Royal Station) Mount Royal Station The Mount Royal Station and Trainshed was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's third train station in Baltimore, Maryland, at the north end of the Baltimore Belt Line's Howard Street tunnel in the fashionable Bolton Hill neighborhood...	12:38 pm
Baltimore, Md. (Camden Station)	12:45 pm
Washington, D.C. (Union Station) Union Station (Washington, D.C.) Washington Union Station is a train station and leisure destination visited by 32 million people each year in the center of Washington, D.C. The train station is served by Amtrak, MARC and Virginia Railway Express commuter rail services as well as by Washington Metro subway trains and local buses...	1:30 pm
Source: Official Guide of the Railways Official Guide of the Railways The Official Guide of the Railways, now known as the Official Railway Guide, was originally produced by National Railway Publication Company of New York City, beginning in 1868... , p. 418

Eastbound, the train departed Washington at 3:45 p.m. as train # 28, arriving at Jersey City 7:40 p.m.

Between 1937 and 1958, the Royal Blue was equipped with air-conditioned coaches, parlor cars with private drawing rooms, a lounge car

Lounge car

A lounge car is a type of passenger car on a train, where riders can purchase food and drinks. The car may feature large windows and comfortable seating to create a relaxing diversion from standard coach or dining options...

for coach passengers, a full dining car

Dining car

A dining car or restaurant carriage , also diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant....

serving complete meals, and a flat-end observation car

Observation car

An observation car/carriage/coach is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the last carriage, with windows on the rear of the car for passengers' viewing pleasure...

with a "cafe-lounge" bringing up the rear of the train. Beginning in mid-August 1947, onboard telephone service was provided, making the B&O (along with the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad

New York Central Railroad

The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...

) one of the first three railroads in the U.S. to offer telephone service on its trains, using a forerunner of cell phone

Mobile phone

A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...

technology.

External links

Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, via New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. It is a member of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities....

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

1880s–1918

1918–1920s

1930s–1940s

1950s and the end

Schedule and equipment

See also

External links