The ''Metropolitan Special'' was the workhorse passenger train of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) during the 1920s–1960s between

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, and New York's Rockfeller Center station. In earlier years only the east-bound #12 carried the name, while the ''

Diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

'' (as #11) carried the west-bound direction of the route. The train's eastern terminus was Washington, D.C. Sleeping car passengers were able to ride trains continuously from St. Louis to

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.Communipaw Terminal The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing ...

passengers transferred to buses and

ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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 ...

. By 1940, the eastern terminus became Baltimore, and the west-bound trip joined in carrying the ''Metropolitan Special'' name. Major intermediate station stops included

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, and

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. The ''Metropolitan Special'' carried vast amounts of mail and express packages in many (often 10+) baggage cars and express cars Added revenue for the train came from

Railway Post Office In Canada and the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly tr ...

cars, which sorted and canceled mail en route, between terminals. Even with declining passenger revenue through the 1950s and 1960s, the B&O passenger department relied heavily on trains such as the ''Metropolitan Special'' because of the revenue generated by moving mail and express packages. In 1964 it was listed as primarily a mail train, and the train served various smaller towns and villages that were bypassed by the more prestigious trains along the route, the ''

National Limited The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passen ...

'' and the ''Diplomat.'' ''Special'' was dropped from its name. The next year the B&O dropped the sleeping car from the train. However, by the end of 1967, the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

dealt a heavy blow to the B&O, canceling most of its lucrative post office contracts. With such a drop in revenue, the fate of the ''Metropolitan Special'' was sealed. By 1969, its route was shortened to Washington to Cincinnati. The train was gone before the first day of

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 ...

, May 1, 1971.Trains magazine, 'Passenger trains operating on the eve of Amtrak' https://ctr.trains.com/~/media/import/files/pdf/f/7/7/passenger_trains_operating_on_the_eve_of_amtrak.pdf

Stations

References

* Passenger trains of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger rail transportation in Maryland Passenger rail transportation in Ohio Passenger rail transportation in Indiana Passenger rail transportation in Missouri Passenger rail transportation in West Virginia {{WestVirginia-transport-stub