Black Diamond (passenger train)

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The Black Diamond was the flagship passenger train of the Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV).cite web |url=http://www.american-rails.com/black-diamond.html |title=The "Black Diamond", The Lehigh Valley Railroad's Flaghip Passenger Train |accessdate=2008-08-26 |last= |first= |year=2007-2008 |publisher=American-Rails.com] It ran from New York to Buffalo from 1896 until 1959, when the Lehigh Valley's passenger service was reduced to four mainline trains.cite journal |year=1959 |title=One Buffalo, One N.Y. Run |journal=Geneva Times |url=http://www.enter.net/~lvrr/bd.htm |accessdate=2008-08-27 ]

History

Service between New York and Buffalo began on 18 May, 1896,cite web |url=http://www.members.tripod.com/njrails/20th_Century/LehighValley/Black_Diamond/BlackDiamond.htm |title=The Black Diamond (LV) |accessdate=2008-08-28 |last= |first= |year= |publisher=New Jersey Railroad Infromation] though it originally had to use the Pennsylvania Railroad's Exchange Place station as an eastern terminus because the Lehigh Valley did not have a route into New York. In 1913, the train was forced by the PRR to vacate the station, and so the eastern terminus was changed to the Central Railroad of New Jersey's terminal in Jersey City. That lasted only five years, as the USRA decided in 1918 to re-route all Lehigh Valley trains into Penn Station to centralize traffic.

The "Black Diamond" competed with services offered by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the New York Central Railroad; although slower than either of these, its level of service won it the nicknames "the Handsomest Train in the World" and "the Honeymoon Express." [Schafer (2000), 77.] In 1940 the train was provided with the line's first set of lightweight streamlined coaches, designed by Otto Kuhler, who also designed streamlined shroudings for the existing 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives that hauled the train. Later, the Pacific engine was replaced by Alco's PA-1, which was painted Cornell red with black playing a secondary role. The black was used in a role similar to the "cat whiskers" that appeared on the PRR's GG-1's.

The train's last run was on 12 May, 1959, [cite web |url=http://www.villageofmanchester.org/Timeline-1942.htm |title=Timeline, 1942-1966 |accessdate=2008-08-26 |last= |first= |year= |publisher=Village of Manchester] due to wide-spread cuts to all Lehigh Valley passenger service; all passenger service was ended on February 3, 1961. [cite journal |year=1961 |title=Last of the Railroad - Era Passes Tonight as Lehigh Ends Service |journal=Geneva Times |url=http://www.enter.net/~lvrr/7a8.htm |accessdate=2008-08-27 ]

Origin of Name

The train was named for the railroad's major cargo, anthracite coal, which was known as "the black diamond" because of its exceptional hardness and high value. As a result, the railroad used "The Route of the Black Diamond" as its slogan.

Miscellaneous

The Lehigh Valley Railroad also operated trains #28 and #29 (the "John Wilkes") which also boasted Otto Kuhler designed streamlining shrouds very similar in design to the Black Diamond.

Sources

*cite book |title= "The Lehigh Valley Railroad, The Route of the Black Diamond"|last= Archer|first= Robert|authorlink= |coauthors= |year= 1977|publisher= Howell-North Books|location= Berkeley, California|isbn= 0831071133|pages= 372
*cite book | title=More Classic American Railroads | first=Mike | last=Schafer | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=m78vZ6z-RNgC | publisher=MBI Publishing Company | date=2000

References