B+O Royal Blue Line Trains 1910 Postcard

From www.railphotoexpress.biz Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Central Railroad of New Jersey Reading Railroad The Royal Blue was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O)'s flagship passenger train between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.,beginning in 1890. The Baltimore-based B&O also used the name between 1890 and 1917 for its improved passenger service between New York and Washington launched in the 1890s, collectively dubbed the Royal Blue Line. Using variants such as the Royal Limited and Royal Special for individual Royal Blue passenger trains, the B&O operated the service in partnership with the Reading Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Principal intermediate cities served were Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. Later, as Europe reeled from the carnage of World War I and connotations of European royalty fell into disfavor, the B&O discreetly omitted the sobriquet Royal Blue Line from its New York passenger service and the Royal Blue disappeared from B&O passenger timetables. Beginning in 1917, former Royal Blue Line trains were renamed: the Royal Limited (inaugurated on May 15, 1898), for example, became the National Limited Passenger Train, continuing west from Washington to St. Louis via Cincinnati.The cars for all the Royal Blue trains were built by the Pullman Palace Car Company There were 22 vestibuled Passenger Train Sets that ran between New York and Washington in 5 hours. During the Depression, the B&O hearkened back to the pre-World War I era when it launched a re-christened Royal Blue Passenger Train between New York and Washington in 1935. The B&O finally discontinued passenger service north of Baltimore on April 26, 1958, and the Royal Blue Passenger Trains faded into history.