Canadian (NYC train)
The Canadian and later, Canadian-Niagara, was the longest running named international train from Chicago to Upper Canada via Detroit, for its first two decades running to Montreal. This overnight train was operated by the Michigan Central Railroad from Chicago to Detroit, and in a pool arrangement, it operated over Canadian Pacific Railway tracks and used the same train number from Detroit eastward. The train would carry a second section, bound, variously for Buffalo or New York City via Buffalo.
History
The train began with the name, the Canadian, in 1914 and utilized the recently opened Michigan Central Railway Tunnel under the Detroit River between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. In the train's earliest decades its coaches and sleeping cars continued beyond Toronto's Union Station to Montreal's Windsor Station. Leaving Chicago's Central Station, the train's eastward train carried the number 20. At the same time, a section of the same train split off east of Windsor and, using the same train number, continued under the name Niagara to Buffalo. The train's westbound trip from Montreal and Toronto to Detroit and Chicago carried the number 19.By the 1930s, the New York Central Railroad had absorbed the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1934 the Michigan Central changed the eastbound train number to 58; the westbound Canadian would be 39. In 1940 the northeastern terminus was shortened from Montreal to Toronto. Passengers wishing to continue further northeast in the direction of Montreal would need to transfer in Toronto.
During the interwar period the Michigan Central and Canadian Pacific also operated the Dominion-Overseas, which ran during daylight hours between Chicago and Detroit. The Dominion-Overseas consist included through coaches and sleepers for the Chicago to Montreal route.
In 1942 the parent company New York Central absorbed the Michigan Central operations into its timetables. By 1942, the westbound counterpart was no longer the Canadian working alone, but was tacked onto the North Shore Limited in Detroit for completing the trip to Chicago. However, the Canadian Pacific continued to use the name, Canadian, for #19 on the Toronto-originating part of the route. Also in 1942 the New York Central changed the name of the train to the Niagara-Canadian, skipping possible confusion arising from two different named trains carrying the same number. Also, at this time the train incorporated not only separate sleeper sections for itineraries to Toronto and New York City, but also a section leaving the route at Jackson to go to Saginaw and Bay City. For the west bound trip there would be no Canadian in the New York Central timetable. The Toronto to Chicago itinerary coaches and sleeping cars were merged onto the New York to Chicago North Shore Limited, number 39. In 1946 the New York Central would change the name again, this time, for a longer period, to Canadian-Niagara; the train number would switch from 58 to 358.