The Cape Codder was a pair of day and night passenger trains run by the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...
(NH) from the latter 1920s to the mid 1960s, with some brief interruptions. Its distinction was the longest tenure of direct summertime
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
trains. With the improvement of highways in southeastern Massachusetts, passenger rail traffic diminished, and the ''Cape Codder'' service ended with the New Haven Railroad's discontinuing of passenger rail service to Cape Cod.
History
![Depot Square and Railroad Station, Hyannis, Cape Cod, Mass](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Depot_Square_and_Railroad_Station%2C_Hyannis%2C_Cape_Cod%2C_Mass..jpg)
The earliest iteration of the train was as a named night train, the ''Cape Codder'' beginning in 1927, running as a weekend train. It was all-
Pullman, meaning that it carried only sleeping cars, no coaches. It ran from New York City's
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...
, to
Provincetown
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...
, the furthest extent of Cape Cod. Additional branches departed from the train, going to
Woods Hole
Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at ...
and
Hyannis. Sleeping car equipment originating in Washington, D.C. would connect at
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
. At Woods Hole ferries were available for transport to
Nantucket Island
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...
and
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
.
In 1937 the NH inaugurated the Day Cape Codder which would travel daily from New York City to the Woods Hole and the Hyannis branches. The New Haven's Night Cape Codder provided the night train service to the same branches on Cape Cod (daily except Sunday eastbound, and daily except Friday and Saturday westbound). Similar to the earlier incarnation, the ''Night Cape Codder'' also ran in an express fashion, bypassing Stamford and only stopping at New Haven before stopping again in Wareham. The NH at this time ran additional daytime trains operating only on Fridays, Cape Cod bound, and Sundays, westbound, the ''Islander'' and ''Neptune.'' The ''Islander'' only served the Woods Hole branch. All of the daytime trains offered
dining car
A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant.
It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that ...
and grill car service.
['The Enterprise,' "New York Trains To Stop" February 2, 1965 https://www.capenews.net/the_enterprise_archives/railroad/new-york-trains-to-stop/article_eb6cea62-0da0-11e7-9f0b-eba88dc8db11.html][New Haven Railroad timetable, June 25, 1939, Table A] By 1938, the NH terminated its passenger service to Provincetown.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
the New Haven suspended the ''Night Cape Codder,''
and from 1943 to 1945 it also suspended the ''Islander'' and ''Neptune'' trains. The ''Day Cape Codder'' was suspended during 1945 when railroad equipment was needed for transporting returning soldiers. The ''Day Cape Codder'' and ''Neptune'' returned in 1946 and the nighttime train returned for the summer 1948 season. The ''Neptune'' and the ''Night Cape Codder'' only operated on Fridays eastbound and Sundays westbound.
[Lynch, Peter E. (2005). New Haven Railroad passenger trains. St. Paul, Minnesota: MBI Publishing Company. pp. 120-21. .][New Haven Railroad timetable, April 25, 1948, Tables 29, 30] The ''Night Cape Codder'' for most of its years had the
open sections and private bedrooms.
By summer, 1955 the train included modern
roomette
A roomette is a type of sleeping car compartment in a railroad passenger train. The term was first used in North America, and was later carried over into Australia and New Zealand. Roomette rooms are relatively small, and were originally gener ...
s as well.
In 1958 the New Haven Railroad drew down its southeastern Massachusetts operations. This would include its Cape Cod operations too. However, for the 1960 to 1964 summer seasons, the ''Day Cape Codder'' and the ''Neptune'' would return.
New York - Cape Cod service, provided by
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
would return briefly in the 1980s and 1990s as the
namesake train.
References
External links
New Haven RR Timetable, 1955, Cape Codder service: Tables 29, 30
{{NH named trains
Named passenger trains of the United States
Passenger trains of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
Passenger rail transportation in Rhode Island
Passenger rail transportation in Massachusetts
Passenger rail transportation in Connecticut
Passenger rail transportation in New York (state)
Railway services introduced in 1927
Railway services discontinued in 1964