![]() The Maple Leaf coming into Allentown Station on its final run, February 4, 1961 | |
Overview | |
---|---|
Service type | Inter-city rail |
Status | Discontinued |
Locale | Northeastern United States/Ontario |
Predecessor | Toronto |
First service | 1937 |
Last service | February 3, 1961 |
Former operator(s) | Lehigh Valley Railroad Canadian National Railway Reading Railroad |
Route | |
Start | New York City and Philadelphia |
End | Toronto |
Distance travelled | 548 miles (882 km) (New York City-Toronto) |
Average journey time | 13 hours, 50 minutes, northbound 13 hours, 25 minutes, southbound (1953) |
Service frequency | Daily |
Train number(s) | Northbound: 7 Southbound: 8 |
On-board services | |
Seating arrangements | Coach |
Sleeping arrangements | Open-sections, double bedrooms and drawing room |
Catering facilities | Dining car (New York-Lehighton, PA) |
Observation facilities | Cafe-lounge (New York-Lehighton); cafe-parlor car (Niagara Falls, ON-Toronto) |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
The Maple Leaf was an international night train between New York City and Toronto, operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad in coordination with the Canadian National Railway. [1] It ran from Pennsylvania Station in New York City and it concluded at Toronto's Union Station. It began in 1937; and a predecessor LV train on a similar itinerary was the Toronto. The Maple Leaf and the John Wilkes were the last named passenger trains operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. [2]
The route was double tracked from New York City to Niagara Falls; and in the Finger Lakes Region it bypassed several local stations. In contrast to the LV's Black Diamond and Star, it bypassed Ithaca on the northbound trip. However, in the final years of the Maple Leaf, after the discontinuance of those trains, it did stop in Ithaca. The train had an alternate section operated with the Reading Railroad, which originated at Reading Terminal in Philadelphia and linked with the main part of the Maple Leaf train in Bethlehem. [3]
The train had its final departure on February 3, 1961. [4] [5]
In 1981, Amtrak and Via Rail reintroduced the Maple Leaf name for their New York–Toronto train, the first direct rail service between these cities since 1967. The modern Maple Leaf uses the Empire Corridor through New York State rather than the historic route of the Lehigh Valley train, not entering New Jersey nor Pennsylvania.
The Maple Leaf is an international passenger train service operated by Amtrak and Via Rail between Pennsylvania Station in New York City and Union Station in Toronto via the Empire Corridor. Daily service is offered in both directions; the 544-mile (875 km) trip takes approximately 12 hours, including two hours for U.S. or Canadian customs and immigration inspection at either Niagara Falls, New York, or Niagara Falls, Ontario. Although the train uses Amtrak rolling stock exclusively, the train is operated by Via Rail crews while in Canada and by Amtrak crews in the United States. Service began in 1981.
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest, along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Syracuse. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
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The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal from the Pennsylvania Coal Region. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846, for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, wares, merchandise and minerals in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the railroad was incorporated/established on September 20, 1847, as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. On January 7, 1853, the railroad's name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was sometimes known as the Route of the Black Diamond, named after the anthracite it transported. At the time, anthracite was transported by boat down the Lehigh River; the railroad was meant to be faster transportation. The railroad ended operations in 1976 and merged into Conrail along with several northeastern railroads that same year.
The Reading Company was a railroad in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states whose final iteration ran from 1924 until 1976, when it was absorbed by Conrail. The Reading’s oldest corporate predecessor, however, was the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Navigation Company incorporated, a canal company, making the Reading the oldest railroading corporation in the United States.
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The Lehigh Valley Terminal was a railroad station in downtown Buffalo, New York. The Lehigh Valley Railroad opened it in 1916, replacing an older station one block east at Scott and Washington streets. Lehigh Valley trains served at the station included the Black Diamond,Maple Leaf and Star. The station handled the Lehigh Valley's passenger traffic in Buffalo until 1955, when it was demolished to make room for the Niagara Thruway (Interstate 190). The Lehigh Valley moved its operations to a smaller station outside the downtown area. The terminal also hosted the Erie Railroad's passenger trains from 1935 until 1951, when that railroad ceased serving Buffalo.