Serving Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, and intermediate points
Amtrak train numbers: 440 and 441, then 29 and 30
Predecessor railroad train numbers: Baltimore and Ohio 5 and 6
On October 7, 1923, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad inaugurated its Capitol Limited, an all-sleeping car train running from New York (actually Jersey City) to Chicago via Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, so limited that the westbound train made no stops overnight all the way from Pittsburgh to Garrett, Indiana. Its sister train was the Columbian, an all-coach train which ran between Washington and Chicago on a schedule about 20 minutes away from the Capitol Limited's, making more station stops.
On October 1, 1981, Amtrak introduced its version of the Capitol Limited, a section of the Broadway Limited that separated in Pittsburgh, traveling to Washington, D.C. The route between Washington and Pittsburgh was that of the B&O's Capitol Limited, but the Broadway Limited combined portion was not. The train was essentially a replacement for part of the route of the National Limited, which had been discontinued two years earlier.
Five years later, with the October 26, 1986, timetable change, the Capitol Limited began operating as a completely separate train from the Broadway Limited, albeit on the same route through Indiana and Ohio with about 90 minutes between the two trains' schedules.
On October 28, 1990, so that Conrail could downgrade its tracks through Fort Wayne, the Broadway Limited and the Capitol Limited were switched to two different routes, with the Capitol Limited now serving Cleveland and Toledo and the Broadway Limited on the original Capitol Limited route in Indiana and Ohio.
Condensed historical timetables:
READ DOWN READ UP
(1956) (1983) (1990) (2002) (2002) (1990) (1983) (1956)
11:45A ----- ----- ----- Dp Jersey City Ar ----- ----- ----- 1:15P
4:30P 3:35P 4:40P 4:05P Washington 1:23P 11:12A 11:45A 9:00A
11:09P 11:40P 12:32A 11:59P Pittsburgh 5:46A 3:35A 4:15A 1:46A
----- 1:44A 2:06A ----- Canton ----- 1:02A 1:08A -----
----- ----- ----- ----- Akron ----- ----- ----- 11:23P
----- ----- ----- 2:44A Cleveland 2:12A ----- ----- -----
----- 6:19A 5:54A ----- Fort Wayne ----- 7:58P 8:45P -----
4:55A ----- ----- ----- Garrett ----- ----- ----- 8:05P
7:00A 8:51A 9:02A 9:19A Ar Chicago Dp 6:40P 5:00P 4:50P 4:15P
The Amtrak Train Names Project