The ''Federal Express'' (after April 1939, officially known as just the ''Federal'') was an overnight named passenger train run by 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 ...

and 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 ...

between

Washington, DC ) , 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 ...

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 ...

and Boston, Massachusetts's

South Station South Station, officially The Governor Michael S. Dukakis Transportation Center at South Station, is the largest railroad station and intercity bus terminal in Greater Boston and New England's second-largest transportation center after Logan In ...

from 1912 to 1971. At different times, its route has taken it across the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

via a

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a tugb ...

between Port Morris and

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.ferry 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 taxi ...

''Maryland''), the

Poughkeepsie Bridge The Walkway over the Hudson (also known as the Poughkeepsie Bridge, Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, Poughkeepsie–Highland Railroad Bridge, and High Bridge) is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie, New York ...

, and finally the

Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad The New York Tunnel Extension (also New York Improvement and Tunnel Extension) is a combination of railroad tunnels and approaches from New Jersey and Long Island to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan. It was built by Pennsylvania Rai ...

. The final routing was identical to today's high-speed

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, a ...

. The train carried sleeping cars and coaches, as well as

mail The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letter (message), letters, and parcel (package), parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid ...

and baggage. As the train operated well outside of dinner hours after 1917 (10:00 - 11:00 PM departure), food service was limited to beverages and light snacks on departure, and

continental breakfast Breakfast, the first meal of the day eaten after waking from the night's sleep, varies in composition and tradition across the world. Africa Breakfast in Africa varies greatly from region to region. Algeria Breakfast in Algeria is heavily influen ...

in the morning, generally dispensed from a lounge car which also contained sleeping accommodations.

History

Through trains between Boston and Washington began operation on May 8, 1876, using the steamship ''Maryland'' to transport up to six passenger cars between NYNH&H's Harlem River station and Harsimus Cove (close to the Exchange Place terminal) on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The first services were an overnight train that ran on the combined

New York and New England Railroad The New York and New England Railroad (NY&NE) was a railroad connecting southern New York State with Hartford, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Boston, Massachusetts. It operated under that name from 1873 to 1893. Prior to 1873 it was ...

(Boston-Hartford) and NYNH&H route, and a day train on the shore route. A sample timetable shows that in 1893 there was a Boston-Washington day train called the '' Colonial Express'' but the overnight train (now using the NYNH&H shore route) still had only generic names like Boston and Washington Express (its southbound name on the NYNH&H). By 1903 the overnight train was called the ''Federal Express''. The boat passage allowed passengers to avoid the complicated transfer in New York via city streets and a Hudson River ferry. It was especially convenient for the overnight train where passengers could choose to remain in their Pullman sleepers. The two trains made their last trip by steamer on October 17, 1912. The Pennsylvania Railroad was by that date running all other through trains into its new

Pennsylvania Station Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...

in New York rather than via Jersey City. The ''Colonial Express'' was changed to involve an omnibus connection between Penn Station and

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 ...

. Because of the overnight run, the ''Federal Express'' was run this way for only one transitional day. On October 19, the ''Federal Express'' began operating over an all-rail route via the

. The routing involved a long detour between

New Haven 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 ...

and Trenton, using the NYNH&H

Maybrook Line The Maybrook Line was a line of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad which connected with its Waterbury Branch in Derby, Connecticut, and its Maybrook Yard in Maybrook, New York, where it interchanged with other carriers. It was the ma ...

(via

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

Danbury Danbury is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2022 was 87,642. It is the seventh largest city in Connecticut. Danbury is nicknamed the "Hat City ...

, and

Brewster, New York Brewster is a village and the principal settlement within the town of Southeast in Putnam County, New York. Its population was 2,390 at the time of the 2010 census. The village, which is the most densely populated portion of the county, was nam ...

), the NYNH&H's

Central New England Railway The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughkee ...

across the bridge to

Maybrook, New York Maybrook is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 3,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York– ...

, the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway to

Belvidere, New Jersey Belvidere is a town in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the town's population was 2,681,Belvidere-Delaware Railroad branch. Due to freight congestion on the Maybrook Line, the train was discontinued on January 9, 1916. With the opening of the

New York Connecting Railroad The New York Connecting Railroad or NYCR is a rail line in the borough of Queens in New York City. It links New York City and Long Island by rail directly to the North American mainland. Amtrak, CSX, Canadian Pacific Railway, Providence a ...

on April 1, 1917, the ''Federal Express'' and ''Colonial Express'' were restored as through trains via Penn Station and the

Hell Gate Bridge The Hell Gate Bridge, originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge or the East River Arch Bridge, is a steel through arch railroad bridge in New York City. Originally built for four tracks, the bridge currently carries two tracks of Amtr ...

. On this final routing the ''Federal Express'' initially made the run in 12 hours 10 minutes, later reduced to 9 hours 45 minutes averaged both ways. The ''Federal'' operated without interruption through

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 ...

, also avoiding (barely) the yearlong 1945 Office of Defense Transportation ban on sleeping car routes less than 450 miles, though the train's intermediate sleepers such as Philadelphia-Boston and Washington-Providence were so affected. This ban was in anticipation of

Operation Magic Carpet Operation Magic Carpet was the post-World War II operation by the War Shipping Administration to repatriate over eight million American military personnel from the European, Pacific, and Asian theaters. Hundreds of Liberty ships, Victory ships ...

. After the war, the ''Federal'' was gradually re-equipped with railroad-owned lightweight sleepers and coaches from

Pullman-Standard The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...

, including New Haven coaches of the 8600-8702 series, sleepers of the 14-roomette, 4-double bedroom ''Point''-series of 1948 and the 6-section, 4-double bedroom, 6-roomette ''Beach''-series of 1955. Food service was provided by a buffet-lounge car which also contained 6 double bedrooms, from the prewar and postwar PRR ''Falls''-series until 1960, and a 1955 New Haven ''State''-series car of similar configuration thereafter. Other PRR coaches and sleepers could sometimes be found as well on the postwar ''Federal'', though its consist was mostly New Haven by joint agreement.

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

, formed in 1968 from merger of the PRR and the New York Central, became the operator of the entire train in 1969 when PC's court-ordered purchase of the New Haven took effect. The cars with the open sections were soon withdrawn, when PC declined to continue offering the section as a travel option (neither PRR nor NYC ever ordered lightweight sleepers with sections). Buffet-lounge service ended in 1970, replaced by a snack bar coach; only a single roomette-and-bedroom sleeper remained each way between Washington and Boston, as by that time the pick-up/setout intermediate sleepers from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Penn Station Pennsylvania Station is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad to several of its grand passenger terminals. Pennsylvania Station or Penn Station may also refer to Current train stations * Baltimore Penn Station * Pennsylvania Station (Cinc ...

and Providence had also been discontinued. Also with the PC takeover,

GG1 The Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 is a class of streamlined electric locomotives built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States. The class was known for its striking art deco shell, its ability to pull trains at up to 10 ...

electrics operated the train all the way between Washington and New Haven, changing to or from newly assigned ex-PRR E units between New Haven and Boston. The ''Federal'' made its last runs on May 1, 1971, as

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 ...

, which began operations on that day, had declined to include an overnight train on the Northeast Corridor in its initial system. However, after only a year, popular demand caused Amtrak to re-introduce just such a service, the Boston-Washington '' Night Owl'' (now carrying numbers 66-67 since previous numbers 176-177 were reassigned to a day train). The ''Night Owl'' was later extended to

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

in 1997 and renamed the '' Twilight Shoreliner'', with the addition of a specially branded sleeper and lounge car. When the sleeper was dropped with the discontinuance of the ''Twilight Shoreliner'' in 2003, the ''Federal'' name was revived briefly when trains 66 and 67 became coach and business class-only. In 2004 however, the name was dropped for good in favor of Amtrak's ''

Regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

'' (eventually ''Northeast Regional'') branding. Typical of overnight trains, the ''Federal'' also carried

U.S. mail 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. ...

as well as checked baggage. Trains 172 and 173 carried the Washington & Boston

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 ...

until May 1, 1971, being the next-to-last RPO service in the United States (Amtrak operated the very last, the New York & Washington RPO, until 1977). The ''Federal'' had no need to carry a separate sleeping car between Penn Station and Boston, as the New Haven had its own overnight train between

and South Station, the ''Owl'' (trains #2 and #3).

Wrecks

1911 Bridgeport wreck

There was a wreck on July 11, 1911, in which the Federal Express plunged down an 18-foot embankment, with at least 14 fatalities. The train was also carrying the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.

Union Station crash

On the morning of January 15, 1953, at Washington's Union Station, the ''Federal'' overran the end of the track and into the concourse. According to official ICC reports, a design flaw on New Haven coach #8665 allowed the handle of an angle cock valve in the air brake system to come into contact with the coupler, causing the valve to close. This disabled the brakes on all of the following cars, rendering them inoperable by the locomotive operator. Approaching

automatic block signal Automatic block signaling (ABS), spelled automatic block signalling or called track circuit block (TCB ) in the UK, is a railroad communications system that consists of a series of signals that divide a railway line into a series of sections, ...

#1339, the engineer attempted to apply the brakes to slow the train, with no effect. The unbraked cars pushed the

locomotive and two passenger cars off the end of Track 16 at the station. They crashed through the Stationmaster's office and fell through the floor of Union Station into the baggage room below. The operator at control Tower "K" had contacted station personnel by phone to warn them of the runaway train and the station was evacuated before the crash. The GG1 engine, engine #4876 was later cut into pieces, removed from the baggage room, and reassembled at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad. With a new frame and superstructure, it then re-entered commercial service for another 30 years. This crash inspired the finale for the 1976 film, '' Silver Streak.''

1955 Bridgeport wreck

Two and a half years later, the ''Federal'' was involved in another serious wreck, this time with fatal consequences. On July 14, 1955, New Haven train 172, bound for Boston, derailed in

Bridgeport Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequonnoc ...

at 3:42 am while going around one of the New Haven electric main line's sharpest curves, the 30 mph Jenkins Curve (named for the factory of

valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fittings ...

manufacturer Jenkins Bros., then located on the inside of the curve). The electric locomotive, EP-4 No. 363, and 15 of the train's 17 cars derailed from track 2 (the eastbound inner track); traveling down the curve's outside embankment, the locomotive struck

Alco S-1 The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locom ...

switcher 0949 working freight cars in the railroad's Bridgeport Lower Yard, causing it to derail as well. Two

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superfici ...

poles were knocked down, along with all of the wires, blocking all four main tracks. Fifty-eight crew and passengers were injured, including the switcher's crew; the sole fatality was the ''Federals engineer. The streamlined EP-4, from a class of six units which had much in common with the PRR GG1s, was not repaired and was scrapped. The cause of the wreck was determined in the official ICC accident report to be excessive speed on the curve, which the train took at a speed estimated between 60 and 75 mph, as determined from flange marks on the rails as the train started to leave the rails. The death of the engineer, together with confusing speed estimates and braking testimony from the fireman and other crewmembers (the speedometer was not visible from the fireman's seat), prevented a clear picture as to ''why'' the engineer failed to slow his train down. However, other testimony from the fireman, in describing the engineer's last moments, suggest a possible lack of

situational awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the perception of environmental elements and events with respect to time or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. An alternative definition is tha ...

while attempting to make up time (the train, already late leaving

, had gotten up to 26 minutes behind schedule).

References

PRR Chronology

The Crash of Runaway Train #173

External links