THOMASTON, Conn. — Former 20th Century Limited observation car Hickory Creek and New York Central tavern-lounge car No. 43 will return to Connecticut’s Naugatuck Railroad for a series of upcoming holiday excursions including this year’s Northern Lights Limited and Santa Express trips.
Tickets for those trips are now on sale; information is available at the Railroad Museum of New England website.
This is the second year the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey has loaned the two cars to the Naugatuck Railroad for its excursions.
“Our most important goal is to educate the public about rail travel, and we do that by immersing folks in the history aboard our train cars,” URHS executive director Kevin Phalon said in a press release. “Last year our partners at Naugatuck Railroad allowed us to give that experience to thousands more people in a whole new region. We can’t wait to do it all again this year.”
Hickory Creek, built by Pullman in 1948, and No. 43, built by Budd in 1947, will come to the Naugatuck after the completion of the URHS season of 48 scheduled Hudson River Rail Excursions, as well as a Valentine’s special and the upcoming trip to Chicago in September to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Hickory Creek’s first trip on the 20th Century Limited [see
“United Railroad Historical Society announces …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 11., 2023].
Today, the “Hickory Creek” rail car is restored operational, and is Amtrak-certified. It can be chartered to travel anywhere in the United States that is served by Amtrak.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
So is the Tavern Lounge No. 43!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Dr. thanks, but we don’t need a lecture on the history of the 20th Century Limited.
Gannett newspapers comment pages have a blocking function.
This is really rich, coming from YOU, Charles. Thanks for the laugh!
The 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along the railroad’s “Water Level Route”.
NYC inaugurated the 20th Century Limited as competition to the Pennsylvania Railroad, aimed at upper-class and business travellers. It made few station stops along the way and used track pans to take water at speed. On June 15, 1938, streamlined train sets designed by Henry Dreyfuss were added to the route.
The 20th Century Limited was the flagship train of the New York Central and was advertised as “The Most Famous Train in the World”. The phrase “red-carpet treatment” is derived from passengers’ walking to the train on a specially-designed crimson carpet.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
The Naugatuck Railroad is a common carrier railroad owned by the Railroad Museum of New England and operated on tracks leased from the Connecticut Department of Transportation. The original Naugatuck Railroad was a railroad chartered to operate through south central Connecticut in 1845, with the first section opening for service in 1849. In 1887 the line was leased by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and became wholly owned by 1906. At its greatest extent the Naugatuck ran from Bridgeport north to Winsted. Today’s Naugatuck Railroad, formed in 1996, runs from Waterbury to the end of track in Torrington, Connecticut. From Waterbury south to the New Haven Line, Metro-North Railroad operates commuter service on the Waterbury Branch.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Located in Boonton – NJ, the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey, Inc. (or URHS of NJ) is a non profit educational organization directed at supporting the preservation of New Jersey’s historical railroad equipment and artifacts for the proposed New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center or in its absence, another railroad museum in New Jersey.
In order to coordinate resources, representatives from most of New Jersey’s major railroad-interest organizations formed the URHS of NJ in 1987. URHS of NJ has been working toward rescuing potential items from scrapping and has been assisting in searching for the location of The New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center. The URHS of NJ expects to play a major role in its design, content and operation.
A large part of the URHS collection was moved from the Lebanon and Ridgefield Park NJ storage locations to Boonton railyard in 2010. With that accomplished the ability to do cosmetic restoration was greatly enhanced.
The organization leased a large vacant building in 2021 to allow for further preservation work to be conducted indoors.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün