Going to Chicago, Anyone?

The locomotive on

the front of this post card is a Pacific-type (4-6-2) built by Baldwin in 1919. It is at the head of the “Capitol Limited” and ready to depart Washington, D.C. The information below was taken from this website: https://www.american-rails.com/capitol.html The Baltimore & Ohio’s (B&O) premier New York-Chicago passenger train, the Capitol Limited, was born as much out of necessity as anything else. Ever the underdog in the New York-Chicago market, the B&O knew it needed to keep pace against its two stronger competitors and introduce a train that would strongly rival both the 20th Century Limited and Broadway Limited. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central (NYC) had inaugurated their trains in 1902; the B&O did not enter the market until 1923 when that year on May 12 it introduced the Capitol Limited. For the first three years of its existence the Capitol Limited was somewhat successful in the New York market as the B&O was under contract with the PRR to terminate its trains directly into the city at Pennsylvania Station. However, this changed in the late summer of 1926 when the PRR ended the contract and the B&O was once again forced back into Jersey City (despite this the railroad made the ferry service as pleasant as possible, promoting friendly and prompt bus service into Manhattan, a move that for a time was actually quite successful). In 1938 the Capitol Limited got a big boost when the B&O equipped the train with the Electo-Motive Corporation’s brand new, self contained and streamlined diesel-electric locomotive, the EA. While the B&O won over the hearts of many with its splendid services and on-board offerings (later amenities included air-conditioning and strata-dome car service, giving passengers a 360-degree view of the surrounding landscape) it simply could not compete with the PRR and NYC to New York. As a result, on April 26, 1958 the B&O gave up all service to New York and began terminating its trains only as far east as Baltimore. For the next thirteen years the B&O continued running its premier flagship train between Washington, D.C./Baltimore. As ridership declined the railroad began merging other trains into the Cap such as the Ambassador, which operated to Detroit, and the all-coach Columbian to Chicago. However, unlike many other railroads the B&O did not let its passenger service slide away and die a slow death. Right until the end the railroad offered premier service on the Cap and the train’s last journey under the B&O banner was fit for kings. On April 29, 1971, two days before Amtrak took over most intercity passenger operations around the country, the Capitol pulled out of Baltimore’s Camden Station replete with coaches, diners, lounges, strata-dome, and all for its final trip to Chicago.

The post card was published by Audio Visual Design before 1963; there is not zip code in the address. The description on the back says that this picture was taken from an original early lantern slide that the B&O used for publicity purposes. I have 333 post cards in my collection from this publisher.