Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
Search the Archives
Browse the Archives

Route Name

Follow Amtrak Online
 
Home > Archives > Adirondack at Rensselaer, N.Y., 1974.

Adirondack at Rensselaer, N.Y., 1974.

Color slide showing the inaugural Adirondack (New York-Albany-Montreal) on August 5, 1974.

<i>Adirondack</i> at Rensselaer, N.Y., 1974.

In 1974, the state of New York worked with Amtrak to institute a new service between New York City and Montreal. Known as the "Adirondack" in honor of the state's famous mountains, the train traveled over Penn Central tracks as far north as Albany-Rensselaer and then over the Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) to Montreal. The D&H also provided the initial equipment for the train, as Amtrak did not have enough cars for the service. The state would devote $3.2 million for infrastructure upgrades including track rehabilitation, station renovation and equipment rebuilding.

The inaugural run of the Adirondack took place on Monday, August 5, 1974. The first train included PA1 locomotives No. 17 (shown above) and No. 18 decorated with flags, six coaches, Skyline dome car Willsboro Point, buffet-lounge car Champlain and D&H office car No. 200. Following congratulatory remarks, New York Governor Malcolm Wilson cut a blue ribbon, and guests boarded at Albany-Rensselaer for the journey to Montreal. The train stopped at each station along the route, where crowds gathered to herald the return of passenger rail service in the Champlain Valley.

Photographer: Noel S. Weaver, Jr.; donated by Brian Gallagher.