Question -

[Sally]

About a year ago, I found an 1864 Boston almanac on Googlebooks. In it, there was an ad from the Boston and Worcester Railroad company hawking their Boston/NYC/ Washington route. I printed out the image, but did not make a screen shot. So, unfortunately, I can’t upload it from ImageShack. I will attempt to type out the basics of what it said:

WITHOUT CHANGE OF CARS
The only line between Boston and New York with double track and continuous rail.

Leave station at Albany Street (Boston)
For New York at 8:30 am, 2:30 pm, and 8:30 pm; reaching New York at 4:45 pm, 10:40 pm and 5:00 am; due in Washington at 6:30 am, 11:20 am, and 6:55 pm.”

If anyone can manage to interpret this timetable, I’d be much obliged. I find it pretty confusing.

In general, though, didn’t steam trains go about 15-30 miles per hour, depending on the condition and geography of the track? If Boston is approx. 250 miles from NYC, and NYC is approximately 250 miles from Washington, then dividing those distances by 10 MPH (to factor in stops and rough tracks) would be about a 25 hour trip between each of the cities.

Evidently, this particular line was faster because part of the route was on a double track. This would reduce the amount of time they’d have to wait for another train to pass. They also had no change of cars, which must have been an added plus. Sadly, they did not list any fares. That would have been interesting.