Dear N Scale Customers:

- Update -

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Join Alex, Michael, and special guest Tony Cook from Model Railroad News as they demonstrate and discuss the new N scale "20th Century Limited" Classic Named Train set, shipping to hobby stores in early November!

Click Here to watch the video!

 

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We are happy to announce a special little custom run item that we will have an opportunity to produce as an accompaniment to the upcoming N scale New York Central "20th Century Limited" - a special Platform section with a "Red Carpet" applied to it, as seen in the image below:

 

These will be built to order, not a standard stock item

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Check out the new pictures KATO just sent us!

I have to tell you, this looks fantastic!

NYC Chicago Station

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NYC E7 Observation Car Side shot

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NYC Observation Car on the Platform with the iconic 20th Century Red Carpet!

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Kato announced the New York Central 20th Century Limited Single Car Kits.
(Bodyshell, floorboard, and trucks - Some assembly may be required) 

One of the biggest requests we get from customers whenever we announce one of our new big N scale Named Train releases is “what if I want some extra cars?”

In the past we have offered limited quantities of some of the cars from these sets as “parts kits” through our direct-to-consumer parts store, however these are limited in availability and not everyone is able to get them.

 

To maximize the availability of some of the higher demand cars in this upcoming set (in particular the sleeper cars, which will be new tooling for this set and perfect for modellers looking to either expand their purchase of the NYC 20^th Century or to add to their other NYC N scale passenger cars).

We are taking advanced reservations for these cars from now until June 8^th. I understand this is a very short period of time, but this is when our production order is due to be placed to the factory so we absolutely must have all reservations by the end of the day on this date (we will be making our purchase order to Japan in the morning of June 9^th).

Order Due Date: June 8, 2020

 Anticipated Delivery Date: December 2020

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Kato announced the New York Central 20th Century Limited E7 Diesel Locomotives.

 

We just talked to KATO earlier today. The E7 DC/DCC/Sound locomotives will be offered with a 13 car set you can order.

Due to shipping constraints, the 13 car sets will be packed in a 4 car and 9 car set. If you want to get the complete set you will need to order the two passenger car sets along with your locomotives.

Kato told us there will be two locomotives plus the passenger car sets, those of you who would like to order can do so now. Prices and details will follow. 

 

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Here is some history about this "Locomotive of the Century"!

 

Have you wondered where the much-overused phrase
“the red carpet treatment”
originated?

 

It all started with the 20th Century Limited.

The “Century” was an express passenger train operated by the New York Central nightly from New York to Chicago. From 1938 until the last run in 1968, passengers walked down a crimson carpet to their waiting cars. This was only done for the departure from New York. Stretching from the observation car to the engine — the football field length rug was specially designed for the Century — thus, the “red carpet treatment” was born.

Travel time was less than sixteen hours each way between the two cities during its streamlined years.

If leaving from New York, you departed at 6 p.m. and arrived the next morning in Chicago at 8:45 a.m. Settling in for the evening, after boarding the Century in downtown Manhattan, you enjoyed cocktails in the observation car, dinner with views of the Hudson, a good night sleep and then with breakfast in bed or in the dining car. Dress was business formal with no room for baseball caps. Standing in line for security, enduring a long cab ride or enduring hours on the tarmac because of bad weather were not included in your first class Pullman fare.

The glamorous departure aboard New York Central’s 20th Century Limited was equal to a sailing on the Queen Mary, Liberte or United States. This was still the only way to “cross the pond” from New York to Europe into the 1950s and Pullman was the only way to travel overnight by train in America.

The gateway to the Century’s platform was peopled with passenger agents, Pullman conductors and NYC conductors. Porters helped passengers to board, waiters stood at attention in the dining car with chefs busily preparing dinner. Menus included caviar, filet mignon and lobster. Bartenders in the three club cars took orders for Manhattans, Scotch highballs and very dry Martinis. The train’s crew estimated that 50 per cent of the cocktails sold were consumed in private rooms and suites.

Known as the “train of tycoons,” the Century was similar to a commuter train for elite Chicagoans heading for Manhattan. Household names encompassing meatpacking to department stores — such as Robert R. McCormick, Sewell Avery, Marshall Field, Julius Rosenwald, Philip Armour and Walter Chrysler, Sr. — were mainstays.

The dining room stewards had notebooks filled with their particular meal and drink requests. One of them claimed he knew 75 per cent of the passengers and could call 15,000 people by their name. He knew that Marshall Field would order one martini but expected to find two in the shaker, Bing Crosby liked his wheat cakes piping hot at 6 a.m. and Robert R. McCormick wanted apple pie a la mode.

Passenger lists were maintained for each “sailing” of the Century. Bob Hope, Bette Davis or Doris Day might be aboard. But the Century was really the train for Chicago’s elite. The Wrigleys, Blairs, Bards, and Fields were “the Century regulars” and occupied the bedroom suites, compartments and drawing rooms.

The 20th Century Limited was a repository of the coming and goings — of the rich, tycoons and stars — their habits of dress or drinking, their minds and their manners. The Century was operated like a private club and the lengthy dining car aptly named the Century Club. To businessmen, the Century was a symbol of the immutable fulfillment of a scheduled pattern; to luxury travelers it was the last word in conservative opulence.

Debuting 1902 as the New York Central’s luxury train, the Century operated overnight between New York and Chicago. The streamliner lasted until the late 1960s and traveled west on the “water level route” alongside the Hudson River and the shores of Lake Erie. Century advertisements made much of the good night’s sleep passengers would have in their private Pullman rooms on the overnight. This contrasted with the steep mountain climbing passengers experienced on such rival roads as the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Penn’s Broadway Limited was the Century’s chief Chicago bound competitor. Both trains wanted the carriage trade traffic. They spent thousands of advertising dollars annually going after the rich, celebrities and high-end business travelers. The trains were in a race to be the tops.

For along time, the Century won out. Passengers services included carnations for the men, perfume for women, and complimentary morning newspapers delivered to your rooms (from the Chicago Tribune to the NY Herald-Tribune — the New York Times was not on the list). Train secretaries, manicurists, barbers, gourmet dining and meal service in your private Pullman accommodations was de rigueur.

 

After the World War II, Dreyfuss designed a new train set, which was pulled by Diesel locomotives. General (soon to be President) Dwight D. Eisenhower ceremonially inaugurated the new set in 1948 and actress Beatrice Lilly christening the streamliner with a champagne bottle filled with water from the Hudson, Lake Erie and Michigan symbolizing the “water level route.”

 

The Century was also the setting for a Broadway musical entitled On the Twentieth Century, based on the 1932 Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur stage play Twentieth Century, adapted as a film with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore in the lead roles. The train also figured prominently as a setting for major scenes in both Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and the Band Wagon starring Fred Astaire showing the through sleeping cars connecting with the Santa Fe Chief for Los Angeles. The train has been the subject of many books with Lucius Beebe’s 20th Century being one of the best.

But by the late 1950s the train was in decline. Business travelers were taking the new jets and the Pullman Company was losing money. The Century added coaches, slumber coaches (a cheaper sleeping accommodations) and was no longer extra fare. Soon the Century lost its quality passengers to the Broadway Limited, which remained an all-Pullman train into the 1960s.

The Century made its final run on December 2, 1967. The half-filled train left Grand Central Terminal on track 34 for the last time. As always, carnations were given to men boarding the train, and perfume and flowers to the women. The next day, it straggled into LaSalle Street Station in Chicago 9 hours 50 minutes late due to a freight derailment near Conneaut, Ohio, necessitating a detour over the Nickel Plate (New York, Chicago and St. Louis) Railroad.

After the final run, the New York Times said that the Century ” … was known to railroad buffs for 65 years as the world’s greatest train.”

The 20th Century Limited along with other great Pullman trains such as the Panama Limited, Broadway Limited, Sunset Limited, Chief and Super Chief, Golden State, Empire Builder, Florida Limited, Cities of Los Angeles or San Francisco and the California Zephyr are gone. The last vestiges of this style of transportation died out in the late 1960s when the Pullman Company called it quits and then Amtrak took over. The Century and these Pullman trains were first class travel at its best. In their heyday, they were always on time and lesser trains waited for them to pass. Something we will probably never see again in the USA.

Today, Amtrak operates a New York-Chicago train named the Lake Shore Limited. It takes twenty hours and rarely is on time.

Henry Dreyfuss, Lucius Beebe, Walter Chrysler, and Marshall Field would not approve.

 

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Check out this viedo from the first 20th Century Limited Steam Locomotive to present day Diesel!

 

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Think you'll never see this amazing locomotive back in its original glory?
Think again!

Travelers went back in time on Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 riding two railroad cars restored to re-create the most luxurious accommodations of the famed 20th Century Limited.

History buffs — some dressed in stylish sports jackets — rejoiced as they walked into the Hickory Creek car, which debuted in 1948 and was reserved for A-listers. The iconic car with sleeping compartments, immaculate furniture and large windows embodied a golden age of luxury rail travel.

There was also a restored bar car.

This iconic train car with sleeping compartments, immaculate furniture and large windows embodies a golden age of luxury rail travel as it re-creates the famous 20th Century Limited. (Catherine Nance)

"It was a period of elegance that we lost in this country," said Raymond Clauss, president of Star Trak, which spearheaded the restorations. "[Riders] had more respect for the environment they lived in. They dressed and acted differently. Today, everyone's in a rush."

The train cars, favored by celebrities and the wealthy, ran from Grand Central Terminal to Chicago until 1967.

Food probably tastes just a little better in this restored historic dining car, meant to evoke the 20th Century Limited and now part of an Amtrak train that travels from Penn Station in New York City to Albany. (Catherine Nance)

The 2013 version was smoke-free, departed from Penn Station as part of an Amtrak train bound for Albany and cost $150 per ticket, roughly triple the normal New York-to-Albany fare. The cars are also available for private parties.

Standing in the restored bar car connected to the Hickory Creek, train cook Fran Phillips, 62, felt echoes of the past.

 

Such an elegant bar car, one of those aiming to re-create train travel on the famed 20th Century Limited, likely makes riders thirsty for a Tom Collins, a Gin Rickey or another retro cocktail. (Catherine Nance) 

"Marilyn Monroe would have been in the other car, first class! It's gorgeous," Phillips said.

Decorators spent roughly five years and $1 million to restore each car.

 

 

They relied on old photographs to re-create every detail, making the rail cars look like they belong in the 1959 film "North by Northwest."

"This is the way haves — not the have-nots — traveled," said Michael Toole, webmaster for the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey.

 

Article written By EDGAR SANDOVAL
  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Click Here to see the jourey of the gratest New York Central 20th Century Limited!

Come with us on a journey of discovery that focuses on Kato USA's latest and greatest Classic Named Train release in N scale - the New York Central "20th Century Limited" - as it appeared in the 1950's!

 

Looking for more KATO items? Click here!

Order Due Date: July 31, 2020

 Anticipated Delivery Date: December 2020

 

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