Wolverine

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Northeastern United States/Ontario, Canada/Midwestern United States
First service	1906
Last service	1967
Successor	Amtrak's Niagara Rainbow
Former operator(s)	New York Central Railroad
Route
Termini	New York, New York/Boston, Massachusetts Chicago, Illinois
Distance travelled	971.1 miles (1,562.8 km) (New York City-Chicago, via Detroit)
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	17 (westbound); 8 (eastbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Reclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangements	Roomettes, double bedrooms, drawing rooms and compartments (1957)
Catering facilities	Dining car
Observation facilities	Lounge car
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map v t e Legend New York City Yonkers Croton–Harmon Beacon Poughkeepsie Rhinecliff Hudson Albany Schenectady Utica Rome Syracuse Rochester Buffalo New York Ontario Welland St. Thomas Windsor Ontario Michigan Detroit Ann Arbor Jackson Albion Marshall Battle Creek Kalamazoo Dowagiac Niles Michigan Indiana Michigan City Gary Indiana Illinois Englewood Chicago

The Wolverine was an international night train that twice crossed the Canada–United States border, going from New York City to Chicago. This New York Central Railroad train went northwest of Buffalo, New York, into Canada, traveled over Michigan Central Railroad tracks, through Windsor, Ontario, reentering the United States, through Detroit's Michigan Central Station, and on to Chicago. At the post-World War II peak of long-distance named trains, there were three other New York Central trains making this unusual itinerary through Southwestern Ontario (with stops in Windsor, Ontario, St. Thomas, Ontario and Welland, Ontario). In the late 1960s, this was the last remaining train taking this route, failing to survive into the Penn Central era.^[1] The name resurfaced on the truncated Detroit–Chicago route with Amtrak's Wolverine.

All through the train's years it included a separate section of coaches and sleepers from Boston's South Station, which would link with the main section in Albany Union Station.^[2][3] Until January 1957 the train used Chicago's Central Station, in contrast to the LaSalle Street Station which most of the NYC's trains used.^[4] An entirely different west-bound-only New England Wolverine (originating in Boston on an earlier departure) linked at Buffalo's Central Terminal with the Wolverine for the Buffalo-Chicago route;^[5] this would be discontinued in 1956. The train would also carry a New York to Bay City, Michigan sleeper (for the New York-Detroit segment), as well as Massena, New York-Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania sleepers (for the Syracuse-Buffalo segment).^[6]

In 1957 the Wolverine lost the observation car that it previously had. By 1962 the train included sleepercoaches from the Budd Company for its roomettes. The train dropped the older drawing rooms and compartments. The schedule also dropped Hudson, New York and Ypsilanti, Marshall and Dowagiac, Michigan.^[7] In January 1961 the train lost its Boston sleepers.^[8]

In December 1967 the train lost its name and was simply the numbered 17 / 8.^[9] In the Penn Central era (following the merger with long time rival Pennsylvania Railroad) the train only had its westbound unnamed #61/#17 with sleeper, coach and dining car service. Yet, eastbound an unnamed #14 only ran on a Chicago–Detroit–Buffalo itinerary. Riders would need to switch at a late night hour to a different train at 2:30 am in Buffalo to complete the trip to New York City.^[10]

Popular culture

Steely Dan's 1973 song "My Old School" makes a reference to the Wolverine, which — contrary to the song's lyrics — never made a stop at Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, the hamlet of Bard College, alma mater of the band's two leaders.

However, it did stop in Rhinecliff, NY, about 8 miles (13 km) away.