Passenger Trains > game day special football trains

In the 1960s I remember riding on a Santa Fe special train that went from Arkansas City through Oklahoma City to Norman, Oklahoma for folks wanting to watch OU football games. The passenger cars were very old, heavy weight, and I think olive drab green. Did such game day trains like that exist in the 1950s, in Oklahoma or elsewhere? I'm posting this here first rather than the Nostalgia & History board.

Carl Graves, Lawrence, KS

 

They used to run special trains from SF and from Berkeley to Palo Alto to the Big Game, Snotfard  vs Cal. We took it once  or twice I think in the 80's from San Jose.

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/22 16:07 by CarolVoss.

many places

The Milwaukee Road operated football specials between Milwaukee and Madison, WI.  (Does anyone know if the Milwaukee Road or Chicago & North Western operated football specials between Chicago and Madison?)

The Ann Arbor operated football specials to Ann Arbor, MI.

The Pennsylvania Railroad ran trains from New York, Washington and other places for the Army - Navy football games which were played at Municipal Stadium Philadelphia.  Griff Teller's 1955 PRR calendar painting, titled "Mass Transportation," depicts GG1s with their trains lined up by the stadium.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/22 04:26 by RuleG.

In the 50s and early 60s the Monon ran specials between Lafayette and Bloomington for Purdue/Indiana football games.

Can't do that now.  The tracks in the Bloomington area are long gone.

=17.55px Not quite the same thing, but similar.  The Southern Railway ran an excursion from Lexington, Ky. to Louisville for the state fair about 30 or 40 years ago.  I think it was pulled by the T&P 610 and all of the coaches were from the museum.  I think it had about 15 coaches.  You would have trouble doing it now, especially since it was on a weekday.

John

The Chesapeake and Ohio used to run specials between Columbus, Ohio and Ann Arbor, Michigan on the day of THE GAME between Ohio State and the University of Michigan.  In Columbus, there used to be a branch into The Ohio State University campus (that brought coal to the campus steam plant and supplies to the stores warehouse) and they could bring the trains down the street to load and unload in front of Ohio Stadium.  The steam plant converted to gas and the track was torn up about 1970.

MBTA runs a train from Boston and Providence to Foxborough (station is at Gillette Stadium for all Patriot games. Train from Boston is usually a regular commuter makeup double draft with one set reversed to have power on each end instead of a cab car.

Will probably do same thing when soccer World Cup comes in 2026

Posted from Android

in Denver there were trains between univ of denver, mines, boulder, air force, not sure about CSU or greeley

air force would get fan trains into the 60's from OK and TX, overnight

Fans would do lincolN denver for cu/nebraska games,  and lincoln hAd trains from omaha

As a midshipman, my dad used to take the train to the Army vs Navy games in the early 1950s

Posted from Android