Капитол Лимитед: История легендарного поезда Нью-Йорк – Чикаго

Former B&O train between New York and Chicago
the current Amtrak train of the same name

The Capitol Limited was an American passenger train run by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, originally between New York City and Grand Central Station in Chicago, Illinois, via Union Station, Washington, D. C., Baltimore and Pittsburgh. For almost 48 years, it was the B&O's flagship passenger train, noted for personalized service and innovation. At the time of its discontinuation on May 1, 1971, when Amtrak took over most rail passenger service in the U. S., the Capitol Limited operated between Washington and Chicago.

The Capitol Limited was inaugurated on May 12, 1923, as an all Pullman sleeping car train running from Pennsylvania Station in New York City to Chicago, via Washington, D. C. Once west of the Pennsy's Newark station in New Jersey, the train used the Lehigh Valley and Reading Railroad as far as Philadelphia, where it reached B&O's own rails to Chicago. The Capitol's "Martha Washington" series dining cars were particularly noted for their Chesapeake Bay cuisine, served in ornate cars with leaded glass windows, glass chandeliers and colonial style furnishings. The Capitol Limited derived much of its passenger traffic from businessmen and government officials traveling between Washington and the midwest. Thereafter, the Capitol Limited, along with all other B&O passenger trains to New York, operated over the Jersey Central's main line from the connection with the Reading in Bound Brook into its Jersey City terminal, where passengers were then transferred to buses that met the train right on the platform. These buses were ferried across the Hudson River into Manhattan, where they proceeded to various "stations" including the Vanderbilt Hotel, Wanamaker's, Columbus Circle and Rockefeller Center, as well as Brooklyn. In 1938, the B&O dieselized the train after purchasing two sets of the new EA and EB locomotives from General Motors' Electro Motive Corporation.

Following World War II, the B&O and the Santa Fe railway launched through sleeping car service between Washington, D. C., and Los Angeles on the Capitol Limited and the Santa Fe's Chief. In February, 1956, the Capitol Limited departed Jersey City at 12:45 p. m. as train # 5. As an express, all Pullman sleeping car train, the Capitol Limited made limited stops along its 991 mile (1595 km) route to Chicago. This all Pullman configuration allowed passengers to avoid the process of transferring between the B&O's Grand Central Station and Dearborn Station, where the Santa Fe's trains departed from. Eastbound, the train departed Chicago at 4:30 p. m. as train # 6. This scheduled departure was timed so that travelers riding western railroads such as the Santa Fe, Chicago and North Western Railway or the Burlington could readily connect for an eastward journey on B&O's deluxe train. During the height of train travel in the 1920s, the Capitol Limited occasionally ran in multiple sections, although never as frequently or extensively as the competing Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited and New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited. The B&O was the first railroad to introduce air conditioning on its trains, beginning with the Columbian in 1931, followed by the Capitol Limited on May 22, 1932, well ahead of its competitors. By the early 1950s, the B&O had combined through cars for the Capitol Limited, the Columbian (# 25), and the Ambassador (# 19) into one train between New York and Washington. Beyond Washington, the three trains then operated separately, with several additional Washington to Chicago Pullman sleeping cars added to the Capitol Limited, along with a twin unit dining car, two Strata Dome dome cars, club car, and a flat end observation car. The B&O re equipped the Capitol Limited with new, streamlined sleeping cars in 1950 and 1954, including the new duplex roomette type. The Pullmans were named after rivers and lakes along the train's route, such as "Cacapon" and "Wawasee". Dome cars "Moonlight Dome" and "Starlight Dome", having sleeping compartments on their lower levels, were added on January 8, 1951. by the year's end it was changed to the Capitol. The renamed train began stopping in both directions at intermediate stations such as Akron Union Station and Youngstown Station. (The B&O restored the Limited part of the name by 1967, but kept the stops at intermediate stations.) The loss in 1967 of mail and express contracts, which by then accounted for almost 70 percent of passenger train revenue for the B&O, severely affected the B&O's passenger service. The Post Office Department's cancellation of its mail contract for the Capitol Limited and other trains, on October 28, 1967, was the death knell. By June, 1969, two E diesel electric engines pulled a train consisting of one baggage car, sleeper (10/6), one diner / lounge, one dome coach, and four coaches. Additionally, by that year, with the cancellation of the Washington Chicago Express, the Capitol Limited became the B&O's only Washington Chicago train. With the advent of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, the Capitol Limited was discontinued by the B&O, along with all of its other passenger trains save local commuter services. For the final run of the old Capitol Limited on April 29, 1971, the B&O ran the entire trainset from Baltimore's Camden Station, including the dome car. At its inception, Amtrak did not continue any of the B&O's former passenger train routes, and the Capitol Limited ended its 48 year run on the B&O. After a lapse of ten years, Amtrak revived Washington–Chicago service, using the same B&O tracks (now CSX Transportation) between Washington and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the Amtrak Capitol Limited''.