It was probably a cost-cutting move because IIRC freight traffic was not as busy and there was a belief that it was not returning. I had many enjoyable rides across there on the Broadway Limited.
I had 3 memorable trips on 40/41. The first was in 1978. My mom and I rode it from NYP to Chicago in a slumber coach. We departed NYP 3 hours late. The NEC was a rough ride. I was a 10-year kid and not that travel savvy. So an effort to use the bathroom in the slumbercoach while standing up near North Philadelphia was not one of my finer moments. The ride across Indiana was also rough. I was fascinated by the twin unit diner.
The second was a round trip to Harrisburg in 1979. My father had a meeting in Harrisburg and I was to ride with him to Harrisburg, and then ride back to Chicago by myself. My first solo trip overnight on the train. We departed Chicago on time. Somewhere east of Gary we came to a stop and sat. And sat. We ate dinner at 5 p.m. in the dinerr. By this time we found out there was a freight derailment ahead. Then the train backed up several miles to a junction where we could switch to a track that would take us to Porter, and then east on the NYC to Cleveland, Ohio, and then to Alliance to Pittsburg. I figured this out years later. At the time I did not know where we were or what was going to happen next. This was a grand adventure. The next morning we were eating breakfast in Pittsburg, and we now knew the train was 6 hours late. Dad was going to miss a meeting and he was not happy. I got my first daylight ride over the horseshoe curve. The solo train ride back to Chicago was uneventful, but a personal milestone.
The third trip was my first solo trip overnight in a slumber coach in 1980. This trip was a rather expensive bribe from my father to get me to agree to go to ballroom dancing classes that my mom insisted on. I remember waking up about 5 in the morning as we rounded the horseshoe curve in fog.
