The Penn Texas

The Penn Texas was a named passenger train of the Pennsylvania Railroad that ran from New York City's Pennsylvania Station to St. Louis' Union Station from 1948 to 1970. The train also interchanged cars at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with Washington, D.C., via York, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland.

 The train was established December 12, 1948, by renaming the PRR portion of the Texas Eagle. Trains #3-4 superseded The American as the second-ranked train on St. Louis run and carried through cars to the southwest via the St. Louis gateway to the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas lines. Accordingly, this service was the longest distance that an American railroad offered for through sleeper service to the east coast, with exception of trains running from California to New York. Coach passengers heading to Texas would need to change at St. Louis Union Station.

Throughout this period, the Pennsylvania's competitor, the New York Central Railroad operated a competing Southwestern Limited which also offered sleeping cars which would hitch with Texas Eagle trains.

As premium ridership fell with relation to passenger travel on jet airlines, through sleeper service to the MKT were dropped January 5, 1959, and to the MP on June 30, 1961. The Penn Texas would survive the merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad with the New York Central Railroad creating Penn Central. However, declining ridership and the Penn Central's June 1970 filing for bankruptcy reorganization were followed by further cuts. Westbound trips from New York City to St. Louis ended on June 30, 1970 and the eastbound trips from St. Louis had their final run on September 30, 1970. (The New York Central's competing Southwestern Limited had ended its service four years earlier in 1966. The Pennsylvania Railroad's Spirit of St. Louis, another New York-St. Louis train (but which lacked linked cars with the Texas Eagle) continued until 1971, early in the Amtrak era.

Excerpt from Blardone and Tilp's "Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Car Painting and Lettering"

In early 1944, the PRR made a study of possible through car service between the East and Texas cities and the East and Oklahoma. Both routes were via the St. Louis Gateway and would be the first time regular service was offered without a change of cars in that city.

When transcontinental lines were established in 1946, they all ran via Chicago because the Missouri Pacific, the Katy and the Frisco did not participate due to expected congestion at their St. Louis terminal. But those railroads did agree to handle cars for the Texas and Oklahoma points, and service began July 7, 1946, as per the following plan:

New York to Houston/Galveston -- via Missouri Pacific. Four prewar PRR lightweight 10-roomette, 5-double bedroom cars in the CASCADE series were the first PRR cars to operate on this route. MoPac lightweights with a 14-roomette, 1-drawing room, 2-double bedroom configuration were delivered in mid-1948 and replaced the 10-5's. In 1950, ACF delivered to the PRR eleven EAGLE series 10-6 cars, painted MoPac/Eagle colors. They ran on this route and New York to San Antonio until it was discontinued on June 30, 1961.

New York to San Antonio -- via Missouri Pacific. Four heavyweight 8-section, 5-double bedroom cars were in service until August, 1948, when eleven PRR prewar 10-roomette, 5-double bedroom CASCADE cars entered service, painted MoPac/Eagle colors. These shared the New York to Houston assignments as did their replacements, the ACF PRR 10-6 EAGLE cars delivered in 1950. The route was discontinued June 30, 1961.

New York to El Paso -- via Missouri Pacific/T&P. Service begain with six heavyweight 10-section, 1-drawing room, 2-compartment cars, but graduated to five new MoPac and Texas & Pacific 14-roomette, 4-double bedroom EAGLE cars in 1948. The final trip was on January 25, 1958.

New York to Dallas/Ft. Worth -- via Missouri Pacific. Service started with four PRR prewar COLONIAL series 3-double bedroom, 1-drawing room, bar-lounge cars, but by April, 1948, MP 14-4 EAGLE cars were regulars. The route was discontinued briefly later that year but resumed with PRR CASCADE 10-5 cars. The route was dropped again in April 1949. When New York-El Paso service terminated on January 25, 1958, this route was restored the next day with PRR EAGLE 10-6 equipment. It ran for three and a half years and finally ended on June 30, 1961.

Washington, D.C. to Dallas/Ft. Worth -- via Missouri Pacific/T&P. Between 1946 and 1948, this route ran with heavyweight 8-section, 5-double bedroom equipment, as did the Washington to Galvaston route, which also used 10-section, 1-drawing room, 2-compartment cars. The Washington to Houston service operated from 1948 through July, 1959, at first with PRR CASCADE 10-5 cars and MP's 14-4 EAGLE cars. Later it ran with PRR's own EAGLE sleepers, and MP's 10-6 RIVER Pullmans. At least one PRR car, the 10-6 EAGLE OAK, was regularly assigned here for several years.

Washington, D.C. to Houston -- via Missouri Pacific. See above.

New York to Dallas/San Antonio -- via Frisco/MKT

New York to Tulsa/Oklahoma City -- via Frisco

In addition, there was a New York to Mexico City line via MoPac's route through San Antonio which started on July 12, 1946 and ended in early 1948. While heavyweight cars were used, none were painted special colors for this service.

"The Sunshine Special" had been Missouri Pacific's premier train between St. Louis and the southwest since its December, 1915 inaugural. It also carried a through sleeping car from St. Louis to Mexico City via Laredo, Texas. The PRR played a substantial part in the through service with MP when it started after World War II because the Pennsy had a better New York to St. Louis route than its competitors, especially its long time rival, the New York Central.

On August 15, 1948, "The Sunshine Special" was renamed "The Texas Eagle" on both the PRR and the MoPac as it was re-equipped with new MP lightweights. The eleven PRR 10-roomette, 6-double bedroom cars which they had ordered for this service were not ready, so PRR had eleven pre-war 10-roomette, 5-double bedroom CASCADE sleepers repainted by Pullman in MP "Eagle" colors. New ACF 10-6 EAGLE sleepers replaced the CASCADES in August and September, 1950. The prewar cars were all returned to Tuscan Red by the spring of 1951.

The Pennsylvania changed the name of its train to "The Penn Texas" on December 12, 1948 and it remained that way until the last through trips on June 30, 1961. The PRR EAGLE cars were repainted and renamed into the RAPIDS series by 1965.

The PRR, St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco), and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT) agreed in 1946 to start operating through cars to Oklahoma and Texas. The route started on July 7, 1946 between New York, Dallas and San Antonio with five heavyweight 8-section, 5-double bedroom cars in the rebuilt CLOVER series.

When "The Texas Special" became a streamliner on May 16, 1948, Frisco/MKT 14-roomette, 4-double bedroom cars were assigned to the through service as were two PRR 10-roomette, 5-double bedroom CASCADE sleepers. The PRR cars were painted in shadowline to match the rest of the consist. For a short time in 1949, a separate New York to Dallas 10-5 Pullman was also operated.

During 1950, PRR 10-6's SWATARA RAPIDS and TIOGA RAPIDS replaced the CASCADE's which were shortly thereafter refinished to Tuscan Red. The two RAPIDS cars alternated with the Frisco/MKT 14-4's and were such regulars on the route that they were painted "Texas Special" colors in 1953. A scheme slightly variant from the first was used during another shopping in 1956; its difference was that the shadowlining had been dropped due to high maintenance costs. Last trips were October 25, 1958 and the two PRR cars were returned to Tuscan Red in 1960.

The Routing of the New York to Columbus Car

The Penn Texas includes a car westbound, but not eastbound, that has very unusual routing...

Eight cars protected this service, as follows:

PRR Cars Dedicated to Service to the West

Prescribed Consists

Due to the length of the train's route, three complete train sets were required to protect service.

1952 Consist and Protection
September 28, 1952 "Makeup of Trains - New York Division - #3"

1953 Consist and Protection
April 26, 1953 "Makeup of Trains - New York Division - #4"

1954 Consist and Protection
September 26, 1954 "Makeup of Trains - New York Division - #7"

Actual Consists from C.T. 220 Reports