User:Plojjer/sandbox/Congressional

The Congressional Services The Pennsylvania Railroad's regional Congressional was in some ways a truncated version of its Senator, a train operating all of the way to Boston. The Northeast services were also known by other names and offered perhaps the preeminent way for commuters, business interests, and local travelers to make their way to and from the Northeast's largest cities. Today, of course, Amtrak provides these services although they are not quite the same as in the PRR era when passengers were treated as royalty and trains were filled with on board amenities and accommodations. The Congressionals slowly declined into the 1960s, especially under the Penn Central. They initially remained under Amtrak but were gone within a few years The origins of the Pennsy's regional service along the Northeast Corridor, between our nation's capital and New York City, dates back to the Congressional Limited Express, a train inaugurated in 1885. From an early date the PRR learned the value of offering fast, local service for commuters, which was especially true in such a populated region as the Northeast. During these early years power for the train was provided by steam and typical intermediate stops included Newark, New Brunswick, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Perryville, and Baltimore (this changed little over the years). The first real change for the Congressional Limited Express occurred during the 1920s when the Pennsylvania announced it would be upgrading the corridor to full electrified status and adding hourly stops along the route.

(The below Congressional timetable is dated effective September of 1952.) Read Down Time/Leave (Train #153)	Milepost	Location	Read Up Time/Arrive (Train #124) 4:30 PM (Dp)	0.0	New York, NY (Pennsylvania Station) (ET)	11:55 AM (Ar) 4:44 PM	10.0	Newark, NJ	11:40 AM	58.1	Trenton, NJ	10:54 AM 5:50 PM	85.9	North Philadelphia, PA (North Philadelphia Station)	10:27 AM 5:59 PM	91.4	Philadelphia, PA (30th Street Station)	10:17 AM 6:25 PM	118.1	Wilmington, DE	9:48 AM	150.3	Perryville, MD	9:16 AM 7:24 PM	186.5	Baltimore, MD	8:41 AM 8:05 PM (Ar)	226.6	Washington, DC (Union Station)	8:00 AM (Dp) Still, while the 1930s saw the PRR complete its electrification project, the fast and reliable GG1 electrics were introduced, and streamliners hit the rails (in 1934) the railroad was reluctant to spend vast amounts of capital on the latter outside of its long distance runs like the Broadway Limited (appropriately dubbed as its "Fleet of Modernism"). Interestingly, even the much smaller Reading Railroad delved into the streamliner fad when in 1937 it introduced the Crusader between Philadelphia and Jersey City (in conjunction with the Central Railroad of New Jersey) serving the exact same market as the PRR. It's safe to say the new equipment and upgraded services this train offered probably stole away a bit of the Pennsylvania's traffic base, at least for a short time.

After seeing the success of the streamliner during the 1940s the PRR finally decided to spend considerable money on purchasing new equipment for its Northeastern services. In 1951 it placed an order with the Budd Company for 64 new cars, which gave the railroad two trainsets each for each train. In terms of the Congressional this meant there would be a Morning and Afternoon daily run. The new cars were a stunning change from the old heavyweight equipment used for years and gleamed in their fluted stainless steel, Tuscan red pinstripe, and gold lettering. While today's regional commuter trains offer little more in the way of amenities aside from a snackbar this was not the case with the Pennsy's service. (The below Congressional timetable is dated effective September of 1952.) (The below Congressional timetable is dated effective September of 1952.) Read Down Time/Leave (Train #131)	Milepost	Location	Read Up Time/Arrive (Train #152) 7:30 AM (Dp)	0.0	New York, NY (Pennsylvania Station) (ET)	7:35 PM (Ar) 6:44 AM	10.0	Newark, NJ	7:20 PM 7:06 AM	32.7	New Brunswick, NJ 7:31 AM	58.1	Trenton, NJ 8:01 AM	85.9	North Philadelphia, PA (North Philadelphia Station)	6:15 PM 8:11 AM	91.4	Philadelphia, PA (30th Street Station)	6:06 PM 8:38 AM	118.1	Wilmington, DE	5:39 PM 9:39 AM	186.5	Baltimore, MD	4:40 PM 10:20 AM (Ar)	226.6	Washington, DC (Union Station)	4:00 PM (Dp)

The trains' interior featured decors matching the region in which they served; tasteful colors of red, white, and blue. Just as with the Senator a typical consist for the Congressionals included a parlor car, bar lounge, coffee shop tavern, diner, and an observation-bar-lounge. It was top-notch service with an incredible offering splendid dining services. According to Mike Schafer and Joe Welsh in their book, "Streamliners: History of a Railroad Icon," some choices from the menu included charbroiled steak and the Pennsy's legendary raisin pie. This, of course, did not include light snacks and beverages that were generally always available. Additionally, the PRR took great effort in tailoring the train to business travelers by offering comfortable seating and a seven-room conference car for meetings. Overall, no other railroad could match the Pennsylvania for regional service in the Northeast. The Morning and Afternoon Congressional remained a regular service throughout the 1950s and 1960s despite a loss of ridership as regional airlines and new interstates drove patronage away. Service continued to decline through the Penn Central era after 1968, particularly as the company eroded away into the 1970s. With the start-up of Amtrak on May 1, 1971 the Congressionals initially remained on the timetable. However, by the middle of the decade the name had been discontinued.

TRAINWEB

Pennsylvania’s Congressional, c1943-1952 Fred Klein, 2010 The Pennsylvania railroad PRR was the largest in the US by revenue and traffic, and called itself the standard railroad of the world. The Congressional was the premier day train connecting New York City with Washington DC. It catered to businessmen, politicians and government people as well as travelers in the northeast corridor. Various trains covered this route almost hourly through the day, but the Congressional featured first class parlor cars for an upscale clientele. The trains made the run in 3 hours 35 minutes with 16 stops.

The PRR began passenger service from New York City to Washington in 1885 that eventually spawned the "Congressional Limited Express." In the 1920s, all-steel heavyweight cars were the norm. In January 1935 the line was electrified and the Congressionals were the first train to get the new GG1 electric locomotives. About 1952, the New York and Washington route was served by new 18-car streamliners called the “Morning Congressional” and “Afternoon Congressional”. Until 1952, cars on the Congressional were primarily older heavyweight cars. The 7 drawing room heavyweight car Willow River (next to last car in the consist) was available to hold small, private meetings because there was no need for a sleeper on a day train.

The “fleet of modernism”, with its two-tone pinstripe paint scheme designed by Richard Loewy that started in 1938, changed the appearance of Pullman sleeper cars, but did not seem to change the Congressional. The Pennsylvania adopted a solid tuscan paint scheme with three thin yellow stripes in 1948. The Pullman parlor cars on the Congressional have detailed documentation on their paint history in this 1940s-1950s era (http://pullmanproject.com/). They never did receive the Loewy FOM paint scheme, and were repainted with the three yellow stripes between 1949 and 1954. The coaches are probably the same. Thus only a few cars would have stripes toward the end of the 1943-52 time frame of this model train.

This consist was published by Robert Wayner in Passenger train consists of the 1940s, page 18. It is a wartime train from September 6, 1943, was on a labor-day weekend, and thus probably maximizes the number of coaches to accommodate soldier and other wartime and holiday traffic to Washington. It is in fact the northbound Congressional train of the Frankford Junction train wreck, which occurred near the Kensington area of Philadelphia, killing 79 people and injured 117 more. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankford_Junction_train_wreck. (Robert Wayner is rumored to base many of his consists on train wreck reports). Travelling at a speed of 56 mph, the journal box on the front of car #7 seized up and an axle snapped, catching the underside of the truck and sending the car catapulting upwards. Car #8 wrapped itself around a signal gantry upright in a figure U.

Pennsylvania’s Congressional, 1952-1967 Fred Klein, 2013 The Pennsylvania railroad PRR was the largest in the US by revenue and traffic, and called itself the standard railroad of the world. The Congressional was the premier day train connecting New York City with Washington DC. It catered to businessmen, politicians and government people as well as travelers in the northeast corridor. Various trains covered this route almost hourly through the day, but the Congressional featured first class parlor cars for an upscale clientele. The trains made the run in less than 4 hours with 7 stops.

The PRR began passenger service from New York City to Washington in 1885 that eventually spawned the "Congressional Limited Express." In the 1920s, all-steel heavyweight cars were the norm. In January 1935 the line was electrified and the Congressionals were the first train to get the new GG1 electric locomotives. Meanwhile, the competition including the Reading Railroad’s Crusader (1937) was upgrading to streamliners while the Pennsylvania ran stodgy heavyweight trains. In 1952, PRR served the New York to Washington route with new 18-car streamliners called the “Morning Congressional” and “Afternoon Congressional”. Two trainsets were bought for the Congressionals. They departed New York and Washington in the early morning, were turned on arrival, and arrived back in the evening. Another streamliner introduced the same year, also with new Budd cars, was the Senator. It ran from Washington to Boston with the segment north of New York City carried by the New York and New Haven railroad. NY&NH coaches were used in the Senator in addition to PRR coaches. There was no need for a sleeper on a day train, although parlor cars offered first class service and business meeting rooms.

The new Budd cars were stainless steel with a tuscan stripe in the letterboard. Six of the GG1 electric locomotives (that dated from 1936) were painted Tuscan in 1952 for the Congressional and Senator to match the stripe on the passenger cars. Three more GG1s were painted silver with a wide red stripe and large keystone herald in 1955 for these trains.