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The ''George Washington'' was a named passenger train of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway running on a route between Cincinnati, Ohio and Washington, D.C.〔 〕 ==History== When the ''George Washington'' was inaugurated as C&O's top-notch train on April 30, 1932, it was one of only two all-air-conditioned, long-distance trains operating in America. (the other was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'', which was instituted as an all-air-conditioned train only a week or so before the ''George Washington'').〔(GEORGE WASHINGTON'S Heavyweight Cars, THE ) Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, BNET〕〔(THE PULLMAN PROJECT ), Air Conditioning Topics, Copyright 2001–2007 Thomas C. Madden 〕 New equipment was not built for this train; instead, older cars that were completely refurbished by Pullman and by C&O shops. It was still a few years before the streamliner craze, so C&O persisted with the standards of the time using its solid, heavy cars.〔(GEORGE WASHINGTON'S Heavyweight Cars, THE ) - page 2, Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine〕〔 The Pullman Company normally lettered its sleepers in a standardized fashion so that they could be interchanged and routed in any train in the United States with some uniformity, but there were some "name trains" to which specific cars were assigned on a regular basis, and C&O's ''George Washington'' was one of these. They differed from the standard Pullman sleepers in that they had the name of the train at the center of the letterboard where "PULLMAN" was usually placed, while the word "PULLMAN" was relocated to the end of the letterboard in small letters.〔 In keeping with the theme, all the sleeping, dining, and lounge cars on the train were named for people, places, or events connected with Washington's life. In the sleepers the rooms were likewise given names of people associated with him. Booklets about Washington's life, followed by descriptions of the new train, were issued in great quantity, the train appeared in advertising in major magazines and on C&O timetables, and the whole introduction was given huge attention and publicity. A country starved for good news latched onto the railway's confidence in the future and willingness to spend money to introduce a fine new train. The April 1952 issue of ''Tracks Magazine'' reported: ::"The George is a sizeable train as it pulls into Covington,(Ky): engine, three baggage cars, a diner, three coaches, four Pullman cars. The crew to handle it reflects its size: engineer, fireman, conductor, assistant conductor, flagman, Pullman conductor, four Pullman porters, two train porters, dining car steward, ten waiters, two baggagemen." The ''George Washington'' was also known for its diner and its beautiful china. The diners on the ''George'' traveled all the way from Washington to Cincinnati. A separate section of the ''George Washington'' divided from the main train at Charlottesville, Virginia and operated through Richmond to and from Newport News. After World War II, C&O chairman Robert Ralph Young attempted to upgrade the ''George Washington'' route service with newer equipment and steam turbine motive power. However, despite the C&O's substantial investment and planning, the project (which was to be called the '"Chessie") was aborted before service was to begin. In that era, automobiles and airline travel were quickly developing in the United States as the travel mode of preference over long distance passenger rail services. C&O's passenger services ended in 1971 with the formation of Amtrak. Today, Amtrak's ''Cardinal'' follows the historic and scenic route of the C&O through the New River Gorge in one of the more rugged sections of the Mountain State. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George Washington (train)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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