The ''Lake Shore Limited'' was a passenger train service operated by 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 Mid ...

between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, from 1897 to 1956. Separate sections linked to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

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

. The ''Lake Shore Limited'' was the New York Central's first luxury passenger train, and paved the way for its more famous cousin the ''

20th Century Limited The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along ...

''. The 1897 name is now used by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

's ''

Lake Shore Limited The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is an overnight Amtrak intercity passenger train that runs between Chicago and either New York City or Boston via two sections east of Albany. The train began service in 1975; its predecessor was Amtrak's Chicago– ...

'', which follows much the same route.

History

The ''Lake Shore Limiteds immediate predecessor was the ''Exposition Flyer'' (not to be confused with a train of the same name operated between Chicago & Oakland, California, between 1939 and 1949), which the New York Central operated between New York and Chicago during the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

, held in Chicago. The ''Lake Shore Limited'' began on May 30, 1897, with an advertised 24-hour schedule from New York to Chicago. A

section which connected at

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...

had a 26-hour schedule. The ''Lake Shore Limiteds chief competitor was the Pennsylvania Railroad's '' Pennsylvania Limited'', which began in 1887. The ''Lake Shore Limited'' carried the train numbers 19 (westbound) and 22 (eastbound). The New York Central truncated the westbound ''Lake Shore Limited'' to Buffalo on July 15, 1956, and substituted the '' Great Lakes Aerotrain'' over the Chicago-Cleveland portion of the route. The eastbound ''Lake Shore Limited'' ended on October 28, 1956, as part of a system-wide reorganization.

Route and equipment used

The original ''Lake Shore Limited'' was the last New York Central train featuring

Wagner Palace Car Company Webster Wagner (October 2, 1817 – January 13, 1882) was an American inventor, manufacturer and politician from New York. Life Wagner was born near Palatine Bridge, New York. He developed a wagon-making business with his brother James. The bu ...

equipment before the latter's merger with the

Pullman Car Company 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 ...

in 1899. The original consist was as follows: buffet/library/smoking car, parlor car, dining car, three sleepers and an observation lounge. Electric power came from a

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos were the first electrical generators capable of delivering power for industry, and the foundati ...

in the baggage car. The westbound ''Lake Shore Limited'' originated at

Grand Central Station 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 ...

in New York and traveled along 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 ...

to Albany, where it joined with a section from Boston. From there it traveled west to

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

, then southwest to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. From Buffalo it ran over the tracks of the

Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the ...

(LS&MS) through Cleveland, Ohio, to Chicago's

LaSalle Street Station LaSalle Street Station is a commuter rail terminal at 414 South LaSalle Street in downtown Chicago. First used as a rail terminal in 1852, it was a major intercity rail terminal for the New York Central Railroad until 1968, and for the Chicago, ...

. Another section separated at Cleveland and ran over the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway to

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 wi ...

, and

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

1940 Crash

1940 Lakeshore Limited Train Crash Memorial

On April 19, 1940 the westbound Lake Shore Limited derailed due to excessive speed on a curve killing 31 and injuring nearly 140. The train had left Albany 21 minutes behind schedule and the engineer was trying to make up time.

Legacy

Before the coming of the ''20th Century Limited'', the ''Lake Shore Limited'' was the New York Central's premier long-distance train.

now operates the ''

'' between Chicago and New York, with a Boston section, over the same route. Amtrak's ''Lake Shore Limited'' operates a 20½-hour schedule to New York and a 23-hour schedule to Boston.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lake Shore Limited (Nyc Train) Railway services introduced in 1897 Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger trains of the New York Central Railroad Night trains of the United States Railway services discontinued in 1956 Passenger rail transportation in Massachusetts Rail transportation in New York (state) Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania Passenger rail transportation in Ohio Passenger rail transportation in Indiana Passenger rail transportation in Illinois