(rshsdepot) Lehigh Valley Black Diamond & other news

["Paul Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

NEW YORK TIMES  Apr. 7, 1940
RAIL NOTES: LEHIGH TRAIN

Black Diamond Comes Out in Red and White---Record of the Yankee Clippers

By WARD ALLAN HOWE

  One of the best known trains in the East, the Black Diamond of the Lehigh Valley, which has been running between New York and
Buffalo for forty-four years, blossomed out last week in a new dress and modernized equipment.
  From the bullet-nosed stream-style" locomotive designed by Otto Kuhler to the observation parlor-lounge car, the exterior of the
train shines with the new colors of the road. Cornell red and white. The de luxe coaches have fluorescent lighting and cushioned
floors and at one end of the smoking car is a lounge with movable  seats. The dining car and the parlor cars have also been entirely
redecorated and for ordering refreshments there is a telephone between diner and observation car.
  The Black Diamond leaves Pennsylvania Station at 8:10 A.M. on its 447-mile run and reaches Buffalo at 7:05 P.M. over a highly
scenic route including mountain views, a stirring panorama of the Wyoming Valley and vistas of the Susquehanna River and the Finger
Lakes. Among important stops are Bethlehem, Allentown, Wilkes-Barre and Ithaca.

   The Yankee Clipper
  One of the four remaining extra-fare trains in the East, the Yankee Clipper, observed its tenth birthday in March. Since 1930 it
has carried 500,000 passengers about 1,500,000 miles, having made 6,200 trips between New York and Boston on the Shore Line route of
the New Haven. Each car of this all-Pullman train is named in honor of a famous New England clipper ship.

  A new freight car every thirty-seven minutes during  the working  day was the record of the Louisville & Nashville in converting
1,000 wooden-sided cars into all-steel box cars. This road now offers overnight freight delivery between Louisville and Memphis by
The Three Aces.

...Those who pride themselves on always catching their train will be interested to know that at Yuma, Ariz., they can catch one that
leaves the day before it arrives. This seeming contradiction is provided by the westbound Californian of the Southern Pacific-Rock
Island. The explanation, of course, is that it is due in Yuma at 12:35 A.M. mountain time and departs at 11:50 P.M. Pacific time.

  Despite the war in Europe, electrification of the Swiss Federal Railroads will continue this year and will include the scenic
Brunig line...Pennsylvania Station here handled 69,662,810 passengers in 1939, while Grand Central Terminal had 38,260,143...

  Four veteran Broadway Limited engineers recently rode the train instead of the engine from Fort Wayne to Chicago, having been
awarded the trip in recognition of their long service...Norfolk & Western has distributed 50,000 copies of its eighty page booklet,
"Along the Right of Way."
   An average of nearly 32,000 persons sleep nightly in Pullman berths.
   An attractive welcoming folder is placed at plates in the dining cars of all main Frisco trains.

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------