East Wind (train)

The East Wind was a summer passenger train between Washington, D.C., and resorts along the southern Maine coast. Travel time was about 14 hours over the 700-mile (1,100 km) route to Portland, Maine. The route was over the Pennsylvania Railroad from Washington through Philadelphia to New York City, then the New Haven Railroad to Groton, Connecticut, where it left the Northeast Corridor to reach the Boston and Maine Railroad at Worcester, Massachusetts, whereby it continued northeastward, bypassing Boston. The train continued over the Boston & Maine to Portland, where a coach and diner continued to Bangor, Maine, on the connecting Pine Tree Limited. In contrast to the other Mid-Atlantic to Maine trains, it was the only day and evening train.[1]

For other uses, see East wind (disambiguation).
East Wind
Promotional postcard for the train
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
First service1940
Last service1955
Former operator(s)Pennsylvania Railroad
New Haven Railroad
Boston and Maine Railroad
Route
StartWashington, D.C.
EndPortland, Maine
Distance travelled700 miles (1,100 km)
Average journey time14 hours
Service frequencyDaily summer only
Train number(s)120 (northbound), 121 (southbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangementsair conditioned coaches
Catering facilitiesDining car and parlor car

Equipment

Service started in June 1940 with two sets of pooled passenger cars painted yellow with a silver window band and pinstripes. Each train had an arch-roof baggage car, a dining car, and as many as eight lightweight coaches. The New Haven and Boston & Maine provided American Flyer coaches built in the 1930s by the Pullman Company's former Osgood Bradley Car Company plant in Worcester. The New Haven provided a similar grill car, while the Pennsylvania Railroad provided P-70 coaches and a lounge car. Similar service ran in the summers of 1941 and 1942.[2]

Later years

The East Wind did not run during the summers of 1943, 1944 and 1945. Service resumed in the summer of 1946 without the distinctive paint scheme of the earlier years. Instead of turning north at Groton, the train now passed through Providence, Rhode Island, where it made a stop.[3] By its final years the route went north at New Haven, going to Hartford Union Station, then turning east through Willimantic, Putnam, Worcester and northward.[4] Dining cars were sometimes leased from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, or Boston and Maine or New Haven heavyweight diners were used. The New Haven diners were sometimes painted silver. The train ran for the last time in the summer of 1955.[2]

Legacy

Guilford Rail System used the name East Wind in 1995 for a through piggyback service of semi-trailers on flatcars between Springfield, Massachusetts, and Bangor, Maine.[5]

References
  1. Jones, Robert Willoughby, Boston and Maine (1991). Trans-Anglo Books ISBN 0-87046-101-X p.96
  2. "Summer-Only Luxury Trains to Maine". James VanBokkelen.
  3. New Haven Timetable, June 2, 1946, Table 44
  4. New Haven Timetable, April 24, 1955, Table 18
  5. Plant, Jeremy F.; Melvin, George F. (1999). Maine Central in Color Volume 2. Morning Sun Books. p. 111. ISBN 1-58248-030-3.
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