Talk:Lists of named passenger trains

Untitled
Fritzgoebel (talk) 22:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Hello,

I have just proposed a new page entitled Named passenger trains of the United States. My idea is that the page 'Lists of named Passenger Trains', will link to it, while the proposed page will then itself link to the pages of alphabetized lists of American trains. In short, the proposed page provides background for the Wikipedia user to help them understand that there can never be a 'definitive' list of named American trains, given that there is often uncertainly about whether a train designation is really a name or just a description. Please tell me what you think. Here is my new proposed page:

Railroad companies in the United States have long given special names to their passenger trains that they consider noteworthy in terms of their speed, comfort, or distance travelled. However, there is no way to determine precisely how long American trains have borne names, which means that there is no way to identify precisely the first American train to bear a name. Railroad schedules as early as the middle of the nineteenth century would identify the more important trains as the 'Cincinnati Express', the 'Fast Mail', and so on, but these identifiers were more likely to be simple descriptions of the train’s destination or speed than to be actual names. The practice of the Pennsylvania Railroad was probably typical:

The use of names to distinguish certain major passenger trains had a long history on the Pennsylvania Railroad system. However, for the first fifty years or so the names were simply descriptive, usually the destination paired with the term "Express", which set such trains apart from "Accommodations" or locals. A more select category, the "Limited" with all first-class accommodations (parlor or sleeping cars), made its debut with the New York and Chicago Limited of 1881. The "Special", just as exclusive as the Limited, but making fewer stops or running extra-fast, appeared in 1902. However, it was not until the railroad began to encounter competition for passenger traffic around the time of World War I that the Passenger Department began giving its deluxe trains more colorful or evocative names.[1]

Nevertheless, that same publication describes the 'Fast Line' as "one of the oldest named trains in US, taking name [sic] from D. Leech & Co.’s 'Fast Line' operating over old Main Line of Public Works and train est. on Philadelphia & Columbia RR (1844-1847)." [2] In the mid 1850s, this train, by then operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad, the successor of the Philadelphia and Columbia, carried passengers between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Perhaps the first American train whose schedule description was neither purely geographical nor a bland characterization of its function was the Erie Railroad’s 'Lightning Express', which in 1868 left Buffalo, New York at 2:35 pm, arriving in New York City at 7:40 the following morning, with a change at Hornellsville, New York (now Hornell).[3]

In any event, the transition from train descriptions to actual names took place gradually over the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was rarely, if ever, the case that some particular railroad announced publicly that its 'New York Day Express', for example, was now a name as opposed to a general description.

The primary source for American passenger train names is the Official Guide of the Railways, which has been published since 1868, with changing titles as illustrated below:

1868-1869 Travelers’ Official Railway Guide of the United States and Canada. New York: Sanford, Cushing & Co. New York: National Railway Publication Co. 1870-1896 Travelers' Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines in the United States and Canada. New York: National Railway Publication Co. 1897-1900 Travelers’ Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines in the United States, Canada and Mexico. New York: National Railway Publication Co. 1901-1973 The Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines of the United States, Porto Rico, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba.[4] New York: National Railway Publication Co. 1974-1989 The Official Railway Guide North American Passenger Travel Edition: United States, Canada and Mexico. New York: National Railway Publication Co.   1989-2016 Amtrak National Train Timetables[5]

The following are alphabetized lists of the named passenger trains in the United States, along with their years of operation and destinations:

List of named passenger trains of the United States (A–B) List of named passenger trains of the United States (C) List of named passenger trains of the United States (D–H) List of named passenger trains of the United States (I–M) List of named passenger trains of the United States (N–R) List of named passenger trains of the United States (S–Z)

These lists contain passenger trains based in the United States and those based in Canada with American destinations.

Todo

 * There are an enormous number of named trains to add to the list.
 * Add sections for each continent's named passenger trains
 * Fill in missing data for those trains that are known

N.B.
Eurostar and Thalys are not named trains; they are train types -- Picapica 11:45, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

Have just added a few randomly chosen European named trains from the hundreds of them running now (not even considering all the ones that formally ran -- there must be at least 150 past-and-present named trains in Great Britain alone!), for the purpose of trying out the table (very hard work in that format, I'm afraid!) -- Picapica 16:34, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

Jslasher
Much work needs to be done to update the list of named passenger trains in North America. Having travelled on many trains, the information of which I have recently updated to the best of my ability, I am pleased to contribute where ever possible. I expect to submit a contribution on the Illinois Central Panama Limited in the near future.--Jslasher 22:25, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Seperate subheading for great britain?
The Great Britain list has now grown considerably. Should it now have its own subheading, like India, Australia and Japan? Our Phellap 00:07, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

You ain't seen nothing yet!
If you look at this list you will see that there is rather a long way to go!. If Cecil J Allen didn't include it, then it didn't exist ... Peter Shearan 12:41, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Merger proposal
It is proposed to merge List of passenger trains into the lists indexed by this article. This is under discussion at Talk:List of passenger trains. --RFBailey (talk) 04:23, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
 * This merge has now been done. While I was at it, I took the opportunity to give this page a revamp, and rename the sub-lists into a consistent naming scheme of List of named passenger trains of X.  Hopefully, this is an improvement!  --RFBailey (talk) 03:40, 22 August 2008 (UTC)


 * The article is better for it. Thank you. The only issue that concerns me is the issue of WP:NOT in relation to lists. I think it would pass on the basis that it assists navigation and disamibuation. Olana North (talk) 06:54, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

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