The ''West Virginian'', later known as the ''Potomac Turbo'' and ''Potomac Special'', was a daily passenger train operated 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 ...

between

Washington, D.C. ) , 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, ...

and Parkersburg, West Virginia. This route was previously served by the

Baltimore & Ohio The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

's (B&O) train of the same name, and was the first of several services in the state of

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

established at the behest of US Representative

Harley Orrin Staggers Harley Orrin Staggers Sr. (August 3, 1907 – August 20, 1991) was an American politician who served 16 terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1981, representing West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District as a Democrat ...

(D-West Virginia), the powerful chair of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee. This patronage earned the train the derisive sobriquets "Harley's Hornet" and the "Staggers Special".

History

West Virginian

On its startup on May 1, 1971, Amtrak did not retain any of the three B&O intercity trains then operating west of

Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a U.S. city in and the county seat of Allegany County, Maryland. It is the primary city of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,076. Located on the Potomac River, ...

. Commuter services between

and

Martinsburg, West Virginia Martinsburg is a city in and the seat of Berkeley County, West Virginia, in the tip of the state's Eastern Panhandle region in the lower Shenandoah Valley. Its population was 18,835 in the 2021 census estimate, making it the largest city in the E ...

continued unaffected. The situation displeased Staggers, through whose district the B&O route ran. Responding to pressure from Staggers, Amtrak introduced the ''West Virginian'' on September 8, 1971, between Washington and Parkersburg, West Virginia. It was Amtrak's first train on the B&O. The train operated with ex-

Chesapeake & Ohio Railway The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond t ...

equipment: a 52-seat coach and a snack-bar coach.

Potomac Turbo

United Aircraft TurboTrain at Transpo '72

On February 7, 1972, Amtrak transferred one of its two

UAC TurboTrain The UAC TurboTrain was an early high-speed rail, high-speed, gas turbine train manufactured by United Aircraft that operated in Canada between 1968 and 1982 and in the United States between 1968 and 1976. Amtrak disposed of the trains in 1980. It ...

trainsets, then on the '' Turboservice'' 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 Boston, Massachusetts, to the Parkersburg run. Amtrak characterized this as an experiment to see how well the TurboTrain could run on a mountainous route and whether new equipment could reinvigorate ridership on a poor-performing route. Amtrak dubbed the re-equipped train the ''Potomac Turbo''. Critics questioned the wisdom of running the train in a region where mountains and curves limited the train to a top speed of . Staggers was widely suspected of pressuring Amtrak to introduce the service; he denied that he had brought any pressure on Amtrak, although fellow representative Dan Kuykendall acknowledged suggesting to Amtrak officials that they "fix up West Virginia." Amtrak withdrew the equipment on May 13 to replace the other TurboTrain on the New York–Boston run. That train had, in turn, been sent to Washington for the

Transpo '72 U.S. International Transportation Exposition, better known as Transpo '72, was a trade show held on of land at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., for nine days from May 27 to June 4, 1972. The $10 million event, sponsored by ...

exposition.

Potomac Special

With the withdrawal of the TurboTrain conventional equipment returned to the Washington–Parkersburg run. Amtrak named this train the ''Potomac Special''. Amtrak discontinued this train on May 5, 1973. In its place Amtrak introduced the '' Blue Ridge'', which terminated at

. A later train, the '' Shenandoah'', operated through Parkersburg 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 ...

. This train was introduced in 1976 and withdrawn in 1981. The ''Blue Ridge'' was transferred to

MARC Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...

and continues presently as the

Brunswick Line The Brunswick Line is a MARC commuter rail line between Washington, D.C., and Martinsburg, West Virginia, with a branch to Frederick, Maryland. It primarily serves the northern and western suburbs of Washington. The line, MARC's second longest ...

. Amtrak's ''

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 197 ...

'', a

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

-Washington service begun in 1981, operates over the Washington-

portion of the line.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

1972 timetableCover of 1972 Route Guide for the ''Potomac Turbo''
{{Former Amtrak routes Former Amtrak routes Passenger rail transportation in Maryland Passenger rail transportation in Washington, D.C. Passenger rail transportation in West Virginia Martinsburg, West Virginia Parkersburg, West Virginia Railway services introduced in 1971 Railway services discontinued in 1973