Re the Cap Ltd...
Go back 70 years or so... Dad rode the Cap westward from D.C. for most of his business travels. Departure time...around 5 PM...was really convenient because his office was at 51 Louisiana Avenue, a mere three blocks straight shot from Union Station. (In fact, if you went out the front door of his building, crossed LA Avenue, you'd be standing on grounds of Capitol Hill!) I remember, too that if he was ultimately going to the west coast, he'd board a Santa Fe pullman...a silver 'star' in the midst of the blue/gray streamliner...and spend the next three nights in the same room!
But I digress... The Beano train that followed the Cap by about 30 minutes was the Columbian...all coach. THAT was the train Mom and we three kids rode to Chicago most summers on our way to Wisconsin (Mom's folks). One of my favorite haunts for the early part of the journey was the dome car. We'd head for the diner for dinner at first call, and then to the dome car as we continued beyond Harper's Ferry and into the mountains in the dwindling twilight.
Well, the Beano's dome cars had a feature that they celebrated in advertising, but IMHO fell way short of practical: A bank of rooftop floodlights to light up the scenery for the night ride! What a joke! As the train would wend its way through the valleys with ever steepening walls of rock, brush, trees,...and track-hugging structures...it was nearly hypnotic to catch a glimpse of anything flashing by!. Some of the smaller towns in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, etc. we passed through had homes that literally faced the track about 25 yards off the right-of-way. Dad would laugh at the thought of somebody nodding off (or some other activity!
) in an upstairs bedroom as the passing dome car suddenly flashed a few floodlights into their private world!
As the twilight faded to darkness, though, mostly I remember just a lot of jibber-jabber from a few insomniacs using the dome seats for conversation, not viewing.
It was almost as if the ol' Beano was trying to make the best of its night time run from D.C. to Chicago for those not ready to crawl between the crisp white sheets of a bed(Cap Ltd) or find some comfortable sleeping position in a reclining coach seat (Columbian).
There was, however, one spectacular advantage of that night time run when approaching Pittsburgh. Mom, if she was awake herself, would rouse us kids to see...and feel!...the passing steel works in full operation. Yes, I remember that sometimes there would be small cars with glowing ingots parked a few tracks away from the mainline, and you could feel the warmth on the car window as you passed. The flames and orange glows from burning gas fumes, showers of sparks, building interiors, etc. were literally awesome to experience in the night! Much better than those floodlights on the dome car roof!!
And, yes, our early morning arrival in Chicago was perfectly scheduled for our Parmalee taxicab dash from Grand Central Station to Union Station to catch the Burlington's Morning Twin Cities Zephyr for our final run up to LaCrosse. That daylight run along the Mississippi River in Burlington's iconic dome cars was as grand a finale for this kid as imaginable! No rooftop floodlights needed, either!!
As for Dad and his business trip rides on the Capitol Limited, upon arrival in the Santa Fe pullman in Chicago he and his fellow through passengers were given two options. They could either stay in the car as it was shunted about the Chicago yards (no air conditioning, no other cars to wander to) on its way to Dearborn Station for attachment to the Super Chief...about a couple hours of isolation..., or they could make their own way from Grand Central to Dearborn stations to enjoy Chicago until departure time of the Super later that evening. Dad always used the Chicago intermission for business and/or a special lunch at one of Chicago's finest restaurants.
Finally, I would be remiss to not mention another advantage of that overnight run between D.C. and Chicago...both ways!: Breakfast and dinner in a B&O dining car. Man, oh man!...I can still smell that dining car, see all the gorgeous china and tableware, crisp table linens, carafe of spring water, a fresh flower by the window, taste the French toast and sausage, the turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and remember dipping my fingers in the paper-lined finger bowl provided each patron at meal's end. Talk about feeling like royalty!!
Train-riding memories of our mid-century youth....hammock or not, a great way to spend an afternoon with daydreams.
KD
