HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The North Star was a named night train, train #21, 1947–1962, of 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 Mi ...
(NYC) that went from
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 ...
of
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 Union Terminal of
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...
. It was distinctive in the history of the New York Central's history of service to the North Country of New York State, because it was the longest lasting train in the NYC's later decades that hosted
sleeping cars The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway 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. The first such cars ...
that went continuous from New York City to Lake Placid in the
Adirondacks The Adirondack Mountains (; a-də-RÄN-dak) form a massif in northeastern New York with boundaries that correspond roughly to those of Adirondack Park. They cover about 5,000 square miles (13,000 km2). The mountains form a roughly circular d ...
. Predecessor trains in the pre-World War II period carrying direct sleeping cars to the Adirondacks included the ''Niagara'' (#29) and the ''Ontarian'' (#21 in 1941).


History

In its debut season in April, 1947 it featured coaches that went daily from New York City separately to Cleveland,
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
and Lake Placid, in addition to sleeper cars that went to each of these destinations. The train's cars to Cleveland and Toronto would split off in Buffalo's
Buffalo Central Terminal Buffalo Central Terminal is an historic former railroad station in Buffalo, New York. An active station from 1929 to 1979, the 17-story Art Deco style station was designed by architects Fellheimer & Wagner for the New York Central Railroad. Th ...
, and the cars to Lake Placid would split off at Utica's
Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
. In subsequent years, the main default portion of the train would alternatively terminate at Cleveland or Buffalo, yet, the sleeper service continued to the three cities. Coach passengers would need to change to a connecting
Adirondack Division The Mohawk and Malone Railway was a railroad that ran from the New York Central Railroad's main line at Herkimer north to Malone, crossing the northern Adirondacks at Tupper Lake Junction, just north of Tupper Lake. The road's founder, Dr. Willi ...
train in Utica. At
Albany Union Station Union Station, also known as Albany Union Station, is a building in Albany, New York on the corner of Broadway and Steuben Street. Built during 1899–1900, it served originally as the city's railroad station but now houses credit union offices. I ...
: sleeper units would join the
Delaware and Hudson Railway The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operates D&H ...
's unnamed #7 (a local train that left earlier in the evening than the D&H's '' Montreal Limited'') on the D&H's line along the eastern edge of the Adirondacks to Plattsburg and
Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
. In the train's summer seasons in its early years a high proportion of the sleeping cars were Lake Placid-bound. In addition to Lake Placid-bound sleepers, in some seasons, such as summer 1951, the sleeper destinations included Malone, a destination further north in the North Country, along the NYC's traditional route towards Montreal. By April, 1953, the NYC dropped the direct New York - Lake Placid coach from the different coach destinations of the ''North Star.''


New York City-bound counterpart

For most years of the ''North Star'' service, the returning Lake Placid to New York City sleeping car service would join the east- and south-bound train, the ''New York Special'' (#44) at Utica.


Demise

By 1956, the train was cut to a single Saturday night departure. The ''Cleveland Limited'' (#57) handled the west and north-bound sleeper trains on the Adirondack route on other nights. Beginning in 1959, the NYC would continue the tradition of sleeper service to Lake Placid on its ''Iroquois'' train (#35). The ''North Star'' would have its last appearance as a named train in summer, 1962; however, it continued briefly as unnamed #21. The ''Iroquois'' continued direct sleeper service to Lake Placid to at least the fall 1964 timetable. The NYC ran its final passenger train on the Adirondack Division route on April 24, 1965.Gove, William. 'Logging Railroads in the Adirondacks,' Syracuse, NY: 2006, p. 71.


References

{{NYC named trains International named passenger trains New York Central Railroad Named passenger trains of Canada Named passenger trains of Ontario Named passenger trains of the United States Night trains of Canada Night trains of the United States Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania Passenger rail transportation in New York (state) Passenger rail transportation in Ohio Railway services introduced in 1947 Railway services discontinued in 1962