Spirit of St. Louis (train)

Spirit of St. Louis
The Spirit of St. Louis at Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1970
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleEastern United States
PredecessorNew Yorker (eastbound)
St. Louisian (westbound)
First serviceJune 15, 1927
Last serviceJuly 1971
SuccessorNational Limited
Former operator(s)Pennsylvania Railroad (1927–1968)
Penn Central (1968–1971)
Amtrak (1971)
Route
TerminiNew York City
St. Louis, Missouri
Distance travelled1,050.6 miles (1,690.8 km)
Service frequencyDaily
Train number(s)30 (St. Louis to New York)
31 (New York to St. Louis)
Line(s) usedMain Line (Pennsylvania Railroad)
On-board services
Seating arrangementsReclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangementsRoomettes, double bedrooms (1964)
Catering facilitiesDining car
Observation facilitiesLounge car
Technical
Timetable number(s)30 (eastbound); 31 (westbound)
Route map
St. Louis
Missouri
Illinois
East St. Louis
Effingham
Illinois
Indiana
Terre Haute
Indianapolis
Richmond
Indiana
Ohio
Dayton
Columbus
Newark
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Altoona
Harrisburg
Lancaster
Paoli
North Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Newark
New Jersey
New York
New York

The Spirit of St. Louis was a named passenger train on the Pennsylvania Railroad and its successors Penn Central and Amtrak between New York and St. Louis, Missouri. The Pennsylvania introduced the Spirit of St. Louis on June 15, 1927, replacing the New Yorker (eastbound) and St. Louisian (westbound); that September, its running time was 24 hours and 50 minutes each way.

The name honored the airplane Spirit of St. Louis, flown the month before by Charles Lindbergh from New York to Paris.[1] The train competed with the New York Central's Southwestern Limited and the Baltimore & Ohio's National Limited, both of which connected St. Louis to the New York area.

Amtrak took over the Spirit of St. Louis in 1971, renaming it National Limited after the B&O train that the new company decided to cancel.[2]. Amtrak extended the train's service to Kansas City, Missouri, along the Missouri Pacific Railroad main line, and added a branch from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., via York, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland.