Night Owl on the Inland Route?

[JoeRids]

I was killing time on Wikipedia and came across the article for the Night Owl. In it, it states that a section of the Night Owl operated on the New Haven-Springfield-Boston Inland Route from April to October of 1992. I have not heard this mentioned in any other Amtrak history source that I have, and I do not have a northeast timetable from that timeframe. The article states Amtrak was toying with a Boston-Montreal day train, and the Night Owl was to connect with this train at Worcester. Does anyone have any experience with this service? I assume another section of the Night Owl still operated directly from New Haven to Boston on the shore line route; did both sections of this train carry sleepers?

 

[Big Iron]

I am only familiar with one Night Owl that operated on the current New Haven to Boston route. As I recall it had both a 10-6 Heritage sleeper and a slumbercoach. Also had a cafe car and maybe 2-3 coaches. This is going back to the early 80's. At one time it did have a set out sleeper that was dropped at NYP, called the Executive sleeper. Arrived at NYP around 3 AM but passengers could stay aboard until 9 AM.

i also recall that sleeping car passengers got a "Continental" type breakfast which was bagles and cream cheese in a basket. There was also a basket with a small bottle of wine with laughing cow cheese and crackers when you boarded.

The current day version is train 66/67/65 with no sleepers but formerly the Twilight Shoreliner that had a viewliner sleeper.

 

[MikefromCrete]

I've never heard of an Inland Route Night Owl, but since it supposedly only operated for a short period of time, I suppose it is possible. I've never heard of Amtrak seriously considering a daytime Boston-Montreal train.

 

[willem]

I was unable to find any indication at http://www.timetables.org/that 67 ran through Springfield in 1992.

 

[jis]

Part of the problem seems to be that the relevant timetable is missing from that collection!

 

[willem]

I had just assumed that the timetables were issued haphazardly.

 

[railiner]

There have been some through trains on the 'Inland Route' thru the years, such as The Bay State, and IIRC The Bankers at one time did also. But I don't believe the Night Owl ever did, or if it did have a connecting train, only the main train via Providence carried the sleeper.

There was The Fast Mail, on the Inland Route for a while (Train number 13), which did not even carry passengers between Boston and New York....that is until Conrail refused to carry it between Boston and Springfield unless Amtrak added at least one 'rider coach' for passengers to the all baggage, or material handling car consist....

The north or eastward version of The Fast Mail,(Train number 12), ran from Washington to New York and on to Boston via the shore route and did carry passengers...

Its been a long time, and I may have some of the details wrong, so anyone that knows....please correct me....

 

[NS VIA Fan]

Heres the timetable effective April 5, 1992......and yes there was an inland route section. It was called the Bay State and was combined with the Night Owl from Washington to New Haven.

Southbound, there was no section via the inland route. The Bay State ran separately 7 hours earlier.

 

[NS VIA Fan]

The article states Amtrak was toying with a Boston-Montreal day train, and the Night Owl was to connect with this train at Worcester.......

Perhaps something was in the works for a Boston Montreal train but they hadn't determined a schedule yet when the April 1992 timetable was published:

.....and if you look at the timetable heading above, you'll note the Montrealer would service 'Boston-New York-Washington'.......something the schedules immediately prior to and after did not:

(links to the Museum of Railway Timetables)

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19911027&item=0043

http://www.timetables.org/full.php?group=19921025&item=0040

Also note at that time, the Montrealer was running via New London......not through Springfield and unless it was routed to Boston, the only place it could have connected with an Inland Route train would have been at Palmer MA where neither train stopped.

 

[railiner]

Great info...thanks for posting that!

There is always the possibility that the Night Owl may have been temporarily rerouted on the Inland Route for major NEC maintenance....so that would be a case where there would be sleeper service over that route, but if on a detour, it might not have made any intermediate stops....over the detour portion...

 

[railiner]

Speaking of "Inland Route"....anyone heard the history of the "Federal Express" , the original overnight Boston-Washington thru train?

It ran during the period before the Hell Gate Bridge was constructed, and didn't even serve New York City...it operated over the Poughkeepsie Bridge and ran down the Lehigh and Hudson River RR to Belvidere, NJ, before running over the PRR's Bel-Del line to Trenton....

Prior to that routing they used a ferry to get the train across the Hudson from Bronx to Jersey City

 

[jis]

Google and Wikipedia is your friend....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Express_%28train%29

 

[Palmetto]

I rode the Federal via the Hellgate route in 1967 or so. Interesting factoid on the Poughkeepsie routing, where the speed limit used to be 5 MPH in New Haven days. Freight only when I studied there.

 

[railiner]

I rode the Federal via the Hellgate route in 1967 or so. Interesting factoid on the Poughkeepsie routing, where the speed limit used to be 5 MPH in New Haven days. Freight only when I studied there.

Where and when was that 5 mph limit? Just over the bridge? And in the twilight of the route, before the bridge went out of service? I suspect that in the era that the Federal ran that way, the route was in much better shape....

 

[battalion51]

That must've been one heck of a train from WAS-NYP with 866 and 466 being combined with the Shore Line section.

 

[Palmetto]

I rode the Federal via the Hellgate route in 1967 or so. Interesting factoid on the Poughkeepsie routing, where the speed limit used to be 5 MPH in New Haven days. Freight only when I studied there.

Where and when was that 5 mph limit? Just over the bridge? And in the twilight of the route, before the bridge went out of service? I suspect that in the era that the Federal ran that way, the route was in much better shape....

Yes, the restriction was on the bridge only. I studied in the area from 1963-66 in the New Haven days.

 

[railiner]

That must've been one heck of a train from WAS-NYP with 866 and 466 being combined with the Shore Line section.

"Train" 866, was nothing more than the 'Executive Sleeper'...one car set out at NYP, and 466 could have had just a couple of cars, so it wasn't necessarily that large of a consist, as the three train numbers might lead one to believe....

 

[jis]

866 was a standard New Haven setoff for Springfield type of train, maybe 3 or at most four cars. 866 was exactly one car. and 66 was probably like it is today, 5 or 6 cars.

At least technically, the Night Owl never ran on the inland route. Bay State did, and it happened run together with the Night Owl Washington to New Haven.

 

[NS VIA Fan]

[SIZE=11pt]The Executive Sleeper was great if you were going to Washington. It was ready for boarding in Penn Station from around 9:30pm on and I used it several times.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]But in my younger years….before I could afford a sleeper and riding around on a USA Railpass, I would take a late evening train to New Haven and intercept the Night Owl there. And if heading to Boston…..a late evening train to North Philadelphia to catch the n/b Night Owl or just wait at Penn Station until 3am![/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]If my parents only knew!!….I would have been 18 or 19......hanging around New York or North Philly in the wee hours of the morning but I never had any problems. [/SIZE]

 

[railiner]

I used to use my pass privileges to save a night in a hotel once in a while....sometimes rode #59 to Cairo (when it stopped there), to return on #58, as well as some other night turnarounds in various places...had to carefully monitor on time performance to avoid getting 'stuck' somewhere, or 'bail out' at an earlier stop....

 

[Thirdrail7]

That must've been one heck of a train from WAS-NYP with 866 and 466 being combined with the Shore Line section.

It was usually an 11 to 16 car train out of WAS depending on the volume of mail being shipped. The set up was 466 on the head end which had at least two coaches plus a cafe, 66 which had 4 to 6 coaches plus a cafe and sleeper, 866's single sleeper, a baggage car, and mail cars.

When it arrived in NY, the YN-6 (which signed up at 1am) would come behind it, grab everything up to 866, swing it to the pocket on 5 track and return everything back to the train. Sometimes, they would add another mail car to the rear.

Next, they'd do 67's rear, drill the diagonal, take lunch, then add 4 to 5 cars to the rear of the 61 (the Montrealer) in the morning for the tie up!