Shades of 1950

[wayman]

Figured I'd put this in a new thread, since the other one has become all-baseball, no-trains. There's fantastic press for Amtrak in a NY Times article that went up tonight, Shades of 1950: Phillies Arrive in New York by Train. Features some great quotes:

The reason for the train was neither historical novelty nor an exercise in team building in advance of the World Series, which begins Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. It was pure convenience. The distance between Philadelphia and New York is too short for a flight, and a fleet of buses traveling up the New Jersey Turnpike could spend as much time on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel as the entire train ride.

"I never got a chance to do this before," said Dallas Green, a Phillies pitcher in the 1960s who later was their manager and now is an adviser to the general manager. "It was nice to be able to do it."

... for the players, it was a brief, relaxing ride.
“It was beautiful,” Phillies pitcher Tyler Walker said.

Hannah Kirkner, a native Philadelphian ... was delighted to see her team on a Manhattan sidewalk. "I thought it was so cool they came here by train," she said. "It’s very representative of our city to take the train. It’s so human."

 

[BuzzKillington]

I know it would be difficult to accomplish, and I'm not sure where the Phillies were headed right away, but it would have been cool if they could have done sort of a move either at New Rochelle or Spuyten Duyvel to bring the charter train right to Yankee Stadium station. It would include at least one reverse move.

 

[acelafan]

Great press for Amtrak! Maybe it will encourage other teams to use the train more often. It sure beats The Bus!

 

[AlanB]

I know it would be difficult to accomplish, and I'm not sure where the Phillies were headed right away, but it would have been cool if they could have done sort of a move either at New Rochelle or Spuyten Duyvel to bring the charter train right to Yankee Stadium station. It would include at least one reverse move.

While it certainly would have been possible to get the train to the Yankee Stadium stop on Metro North's Hudson line, there is no logical reason to do so. All the players are staying in a Manhattan hotel, so they'd have needed to bus them right back to Manhattan, or maybe force them to ride Metro North back to Manhattan.

 

[PRR 60]

I believe the players were bussed directly from Penn Station to their hotel. Today (Tuesday) is to be their workout day at Yankee Stadium (largely a media show), but the weather may not cooperate.

 

[MrFSS]

I don't follow these things, but didn't the series use to be in September instead of October/November?

 

[Guest]

I don't follow these things, but didn't the series use to be in September instead of October/November?

Like all sports the seasons have been expanded, they now play 162 games (used to be 154 back in the day), have two levels of playoffs before the Series,

(used to be none, the NL and AL pennant winners played in the Series), and due to TV scheduling have lots of time off between games!

My old Little Leauge coach played for the Red Sox back in the 40s/50s, he told many tales of all nighters on trains from BOS-STL/CHI-BOS etc.

Supposedly the rookies got to sleep in the uppers/starters in the bottom beds.(sections). Also the Manager,reporters and any executives traveling with the team got the bedrooms and drawing rooms. The players got to eat like kings/signed for anything they wanted. The down side was it was mostly day games so the train rides were overnight and theyd go directly to the stadium upon arrival in many cases, even wore wet uniforms in some cases since there were no laundries on the trains and they didnt have as many uniforms!

As the song said: "those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end.." I was a ballpalyer once, didnt make it to the show, we rode busses and ate on $5 a day, that was pretty great too!!

 

[Hamhock]

Meanwhile, the only Amtrak employee quote in the entire piece is this:

“It’s almost 6 o’clock now,” said John Williams, an Amtrak police officer, who was hard at work clearing the sidewalk outside Penn Station of commuters trying to get home after work. “This is killing us.”

 

[transit54]

Any idea what equipment was used for this train? Was it just an Amfleet consist or did they lease an Acela?

 

[jack615]

Anyone know if the Yanks would also use Amtrak to get to Philly??

 

[AAARGH!]

Anyone know if the Yanks would also use Amtrak to get to Philly??

I believe both teams are using the same chartered train.