The ''General'' (train numbers 48 and 49) was the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

's (PRR) number two train between

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 ...

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Only marginally slower than the ''

Broadway Limited The ''Broadway Limited'' was a passenger train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) between New York City and Chicago. It operated from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central R ...

'', it had no extra fare. For a time before World War II, the train carried more passengers than the ''Broadway Limited'' and had been stealing passengers from the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

's ''

20th Century Limited 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 th ...

''. The ''General'' was inaugurated in 1937, and carried coaches and Pullmans. It received some new lightweight equipment in 1938 as part of the fleet of modernism, but it was mostly heavyweight until 1940. It was the only "Fleet of Modernism" train to be streamlined without an

observation car An observation car/carriage/coach (in US English, often abbreviated to simply observation or obs) is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the rearmost carriage, with windows or a platform on the rear of th ...

. It lost its coaches but still had a passenger-baggage car attached to its consist when the '' Advance General'' was inaugurated in 1940. The General became an All-Pullman train in April 1942. It was re-equipped with lightweight

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. ...

s from both the pre-war ''Broadway'', and new cars from post-war orders in 1948. At this time, it also carried the ''Broadway's'' pre-war

View series The View series was a fleet of six sleeping car, sleeper-observation car, observation lounges built by Pullman-Standard for use on the Pennsylvania Railroad's passenger trains. Pullman built four in 1938 and another two in 1949, after World War II ...

observation cars. In 1951 the ''General'' lost its all-Pullman status when it was combined with the all-coach '' Trail Blazer'' for non-peak travel periods only. In 1952 this consolidation became permanent, and by 1960, the ''Trail Blazer'' name was dropped. In the late 1950s, the '' General'' also carried coaches and sleepers from Washington, DC, to Chicago via Harrisburg, when the PRR discontinued its Washington-Chicago ''

Liberty Limited The ''Liberty Limited'' was a named train on the Pennsylvania Railroad. It ran from Washington D.C. to Chicago, Illinois, through Baltimore, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. It began running on September 27, 1925, as a replacement for the '' Washingt ...

'' train. In 1967 the ''General'' merged with the ''

'' when that train lost its numbers and all-Pullman status.

Motive Power

Here is a list of motive power used on the ''General'': *

PRR GG1 The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 is a class of streamliner, streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking Art Deco, art deco shell, its ability to p ...

4-6-0+0-6-4 electric locomotive (1937-1967, East of Harrisburg, electrified region) *

PRR K4s The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) K4 4-6-2 "Pacific" (425 built 1914–1928, PRR Altoona, Baldwin) was its premier passenger-hauling steam locomotive from 1914 through the end of steam on the PRR in 1957. Attempts were made to replace the ...

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...

type steam locomotive (1937-1948) *

PRR S1 The PRR S1 class steam locomotive (nicknamed "The Big Engine") was a single experimental duplex locomotive of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was designed to demonstrate the advantages of duplex drives espoused by Baldwin Chief Engineer Ralph P. Jo ...

6-4-4-6 A 6-4-4-6 steam locomotive, in the Whyte notation for describing locomotive wheel arrangements, is one with six leading wheels, two sets of four driving wheels, and six trailing wheels. Other equivalent classifications are: * UIC classification: ...

type steam locomotive (1941-1946) *

PRR T1 The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) class T1 duplex-drive 4-4-4-4 steam locomotives, introduced in 1942 with two prototypes and later in 1945-1946 with 50 production examples, were the last steam locomotives built for the PRR and arguably its most ...

4-4-4-4 type steam locomotive (1942-1948) *

ALCO PA The ALCO PA was a family of A1A-A1A diesel locomotives built to haul passenger trains. The locomotives were built in Schenectady, New York, in the United States, by a partnership of the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and General Electric ...

passenger diesel electric locomotive (1948-1952) * BLW DR-6 passenger diesel electric locomotive (1948-1953) *

EMD E8 The E8 is a , A1A-A1A passenger-train locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of La Grange, Illinois. A total of 450 cab versions, or E8As, were built from August 1949 to January 1954, 447 for the U.S. and 3 for Cana ...

passenger diesel electric locomotive (1948-1967)

References

{{PRR named trains Passenger trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad Railway services introduced in 1937 Night trains of the United States Named passenger trains of the United States Railway services discontinued in 1967 Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania Passenger rail transportation in New York (state) Passenger rail transportation in New Jersey Passenger rail transportation in Ohio Passenger rail transportation in Indiana Passenger rail transportation in Illinois