The Broadway Limited, Flagship of the Pennsylvania Railroad

The New York-Chicago market was the premier intercity passenger service for Eastern railroading and the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited competed with rival New York Central and its 20th Century Limited for top honors. While it will likely always be argued which train was the most successful what cannot be argued is their distinctive different styles with the 20th Century Limited catering to business travelers and “new money” with its modernistic cool, sleek designs and colors while the Broadway Limited featured light, airy, and cheery accents and accommodated more to the older crowd.

The Broadway Limited has its beginnings dating back to 1912 when the train known as the Pennsylvania Special was renamed, which had been operating between New York and Chicago since 1902. For the first thirty years the train, including its rival the 20th Century Limited was quite conservative and changed little aesthetically, using standard heavyweight passenger equipment and traditional steam locomotives. However, when the streamliner craze began to take root in the 1930s that all changed.

The PRR and NYC were constantly watching each other to make sure that neither upstaged the other. In the case of streamlining it was the Central which got things started. In 1936 the NYC experimented and custom streamlined its Mercury which operated between Detroit and Cleveland. That same year, rather pleased with the results of the Mercury, the Central began to seriously consider also streamlining its flagship. With no streamlined train yet of it’s on, after hearing of this the PRR approached the Central wondering if the latter would be interested in a joint effort of streamlining their flagships, which the NYC agreed to.

The builder of their trains was the industry standard of the day, the Pullman Company (of which the Pullman-Standard division built the actual equipment). What’s interesting is that both trains, from a blueprint standpoint were virtually identical as Pullman was well known for standardization as a cost savings tool (today, the practice is widespread). However, from an aesthetic standpoint the two trains could not have been more different inside and out after designers were finished adding their touches.

After ordering its 52 cars (known as its “Fleet of Modernism”) from Pullman the Pennsy quickly set to designing the new streamlined version of its Broadway Limited (of which the train included things like a bar-lounge sleeper, baggage-mail car, dining car, buffet-lounge sleeper-observation, and four sleeping cars. To do this is the railroad hired the man who made its GG1 electric locomotive legendary, Raymond Loewy.

For the Broadway’s exterior (and interior, to some degree) Loewy stuck with the color that the Pennsy was by then quite famous for, Tuscan red. In addition he added gold pinstriping, similar to his design on the GG1 (except without the cat whiskers). For the train’s interior Loewy used airy and cheery colors with blends of red, yellow, orange, black, blue, and white throughout the train, at times also including wood veneering.

As with the 20th Century Limited the hallmark car in the train was the sleeper-observation. Here Loewy used blue for the seating and copper, rose, and tan for the walls and ceiling adding indirect lighting to give the car a soft glow. In addition, near the back of the car he partitioned the car using protruding, rounded sectioning whereby the extreme end of the car featured seating facing towards the windows so passengers could watch the landscape retreating away from them.

It is often believed the Broadway Limited gained its name from the famous part of New York City. However, the train actually derived its name from the Pennsy’s “broad” four-track main line that ran for much of the distance between New York and Chicago. Because the PRR had such extensive electrified operations the Broadway was operated by GG1s west to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania from New York with the former location being where electrification ended. From this point to Chicago one of the Pennsy’s famed Class K4 Pacifics carried the train. And, to match the rest of the train, in 1936 Loewy also streamlined the K4, #3768, giving it somewhat of a torpedo shape design (four other K4s received streamlining; #1120, #2665, #3678, and #5338, but none received the same level of shrouding as #3768).

Interestingly, the Pennsy never bothered to have its locomotives match the rest of the train. Streamliners were typically linear in nature with the locomotive and cars matching one another uniformly with some type of ended design for the observation car. However, while streamlined, the GG1 included a curved nose on each end (and “cat whisker” pinstriping that sloped downward at each end) and the #3768 was painted in Brunswick green (unlike its rival, where the Central designed and painted its 20th Century Limited to match perfectly).

As rail travel began to wane in the 1950s unfortunately the Pennsy wasted precious resources (as money was becoming an issue for the railroad during this time) in upgrading its passenger fleet. The results and effort did little to stop the loss of passengers and by the 1960s the train, and railroad’s entire commuter/passenger operations, were becoming a serious drain on the Pennsy. Finally, in 1967 the PRR discontinued the Broadway Limited’s “All Pullman” status. While a version of the train continued to operate under the Penn Central and later Amtrak what was left of it was eventually terminated by Amtrak in 1995 when on September 10th it made its final run.

While arguments will persist over which train was most regal both reigned supreme in the east. Each train’s renowned status can be measured purely on how well it is remembered where after decades since each were operated by their original creator they continue to talked and written about.

For more information about the Broadway Limited consider the book Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited from author Joe Welsh. The hardcover book details the famous train from its inception to final run under Amtrak in 1995. Any avid Pennsy fan would very much enjoy the book.

You might also be interested in Pennsylvania Railroad from Mike Schafer and Mike McBride. While the book is just a brief history on the railroad it is very well done and will at least give you a general overview and history of the Pennsy (and it is filled with many, excellent, historical and colorful photographs) at which point you can decide if you are interested in further books of study on the railroad (there are hundreds out there!). Even if you are a historian and/or fan of the PRR and have not seen this book I'm sure you will enjoy it!