The Original Montrealer/Washingtonian Route

The Montrealer/Washingtonian was named for the two cities the train served; Washington, D.C. and Montreal, Quebec.  This once popular corridor required five different railroads to complete the journey which included (from north to south) the Canadian National, Central Vermont, Boston & Maine, New Haven, Pennsylvania Railroad.  This, of course, was during an era of far more civilized travel, predating the airliner, and the trains provided first-class services during a trip that usually required around half a day to complete.  Inaugurated a few years before the Great Depression the Montrealer/Washingtonian would close out long-distance international rail travel in New England when both were discontinued during the mid-1960s.

The Montrealer pulling into the Holyoke rail station in the early 1960s. The depot station was designed by famed Boston architect Henry Hobson Richardson. Passenger trains stopped there until 1967, although the Montrealer would run through Holyoke until 1972. (Seminole Bailey Archive)