Pennsylvania Railroad Train No. 31, the Spirit of St. Louis, backs into St. Louis Union Station, pulled by and E8, E7B, and an E7. Photo by R.R. Wallin.
(Audio-Visual Designs, Earlton, NY, Public domain, via W. Lenheim Collection)
SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS
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 schedule was 24 hr 50 min each way.
The name honored the airplane Spirit of St. Louis, flown the month before by Charles Lindbergh from New York to Paris. The Spirit of St. Louis remained in service through the inception of Amtrak, who extended it to Kansas City, Missouri along the Missouri Pacific Railroad main line. The train had a competitor in the New York Central Railroad's Southwestern Limited, also running from New York to St. Louis.
Amtrak also added a branch from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C., via York, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland. In July 1971, to better reflect its new scope, the train was rebranded as the National Limited — the name of a longstanding train that had been operated by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and had been the principal rival of the Spirit of St. Louis.
Penn Central No. 4312, an EMD E8A with train No. 31, The Spirit of St. Louis, at the former Big Four station at Terre Haute, IN on December 14, 1970.
(Photo by Roger Puta, courtesy Marty Bernard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Spirit of St. Louis Route.
(Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0.via Wikimedia Commons)
Overview
Service type: Inter-city rail
Status: Discontinued
Locale: Eastern United States
Predecessor: New Yorker (eastbound), St. Louisian (westbound)
First service: June 15, 1927
Last service: July 1971
Successor: National Limited
Former operators: Pennsylvania Railroad (1927–1968), Penn Central (1968-1971), Amtrak (1971)
Route Termini: New York City / St. Louis, Missouri
Distance traveled: 1,050.6 miles (1,690.8 km)
Service frequency: Daily
Train numbers: 30 (St. Louis to New York), 31 (New York to St. Louis)
Line used: Main Line (Pennsylvania Railroad)
On-board services
Seating arrangements: Reclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangements: Roomettes, double bedrooms (1964)
Catering facilities: Dining car
Observation facilities: Lounge car
Technical
Timetable numbers: 30 (eastbound); 31 (westbound)
Penn Central EMD E-8 No. 4296 departs Penn Central Station, Pittsburgh, July, 1970 with the Spirit of St Louis, consisting of a mere 4 cars - a shadow of it's former prestigious self. (Hugh Llewelyn, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)
Penn Central E8A 4306 with Train 31, The Spirit of St. Louis, at Indianapolis, IN on December 14, 1970. (Photo by Roger Puta, courtesy Marty Bernard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Pennsylvania Railroad Broadway Limited and Spirit of St. Louis boarding sign at Pittsburgh, August 1971. (Photo by Roger Puta, courtesy Marty Bernard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
Penn Central E8A No. 4312 with train No. 31, the Spirit of St. Louis, at Effingham, Illinois on December 14, 1970. (Photo by Roger Puta, courtesy Marty Bernard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)