Postcard photo of the Reading Railroad's streamlined train The Crusader.
The Crusader was a 5 car stainless steel streamlined express train that ran on a 90.3-mile (145.3 km) route from Philadelphia's Reading Terminal to Jersey City's Communipaw Terminal, with a ferry connection to Lower Manhattan at Liberty Street. The Reading Railroad provided this service in partnership with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), in which it was the majority owner of capital stock. Trains including the Crusader ran on Reading Railroad tracks from Reading Terminal in Philadelphia to Bound Brook, NJ, where they continued on CNJ tracks to Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City. Passengers then left the train and walked aboard the ferry or boarded busses that loaded onto the ferry. Introduced in 1937, the Crusader service declined during the 1960s. The southern part of the route was cut in 1981, followed by the northern part in 1982. None survived into preservation today.sold scrap 1954 steam no.117 no.118 streamlined Disposition none preserved The Reading is not well remembered for its passenger services. The railroad, like many other Northeastern system, is best known for the vast tons of anthracite coal it moved from eastern/central Pennsylvania to the ports around Philadelphia and New York City. However, the Reading did have one notable passenger train that stood above its daily commuter rail services near Philadelphia, the Crusader. For nearly three decades this train proved quite successful serving the 90-mile corridor between Philly (at the company's Reading Terminal) and Jersey City (via the Central Railroad of New Jersey’s, Jersey City Terminal), even though it had stiff competition from other railroads (notably the Pennsylvania).
This issue was compounded as the traveling public began utilizing other transportation modes and the federal government launched construction of the Interstate highway system. Finally the Reading gave up on the Crusader in the 1960's bringing an end to its only notable streamliner.
A History Of the Streamliner[]
Despite its regional size the Reading entered the streamliner craze shortly after the Baltimore & Ohio reintroduced a sleek, shiny, and eye-catching Royal Blue between New York and Washington, D.C./Baltimore. It debuted the Crusader between Philadelphia-Jersey City (connecting service into Manhattan was available via ferry) in December 1937, featuring a five car consist in all-stainless steel built by the Budd Company. The train included a tavern-diner, reclining-seat coaches, a diner (with a cocktail lounge) and two lounge-observations (with smoking privileges) pulled by a 4-6-2 Pacific steam locomotive which was also streamlined in stainless steel featuring dark blue trim to match the rest of the consist. Of note, the Reading placed an observation on each end of the train thereby negated the need to turn the equipment prior to another run, which saved time. As a result the head-end power could simply run-around the cars, reequip and be on its way.
While modest the train was very classy and touted as "Clad In Shining Armor" in advertisements to promote the new consist. It was well received by commuters as a secondary option to the somewhat mum services provided by the Pennsylvania. For instance, the Reading offered long-distance passenger train amenities aboard the Crusader, such as a full breakfast and tavern service (both of which were not normally available on commuter runs). Very fast, the Crusader could complete the 90-mile run in less than two-hours averaging nearly 50 mph the entire trip. The Pacifics did not last long as beginning in 1950 they were replaced by Electro-Motive FP7 diesels (eight in all were acquired by 1952 numbered 900-907), which were adorned in the Reading’s updated livery of black and green with yellow trim.
While this new paint did not match the stainless-steel cars it was nevertheless a nice look. The Crusader's quality services allowed the train to do fairly well for the Reading through the 1950s. However, within a decade and in an already stiff Northeastern commuter market along with increased competition from automobiles and air lines the railroad cut back services on the train in a substantial way. scrapped streamlined the steam engine 4-6-2 Reading simply did not have the resources to compete against the larger railroads and it was already on a tight budget due to falling freight volume. In 1964 the entire streamlined train was sold off to the Canadian National and reequipped with heavyweight cars and later simply used the ubiquitous Rail Diesel Car.