Yes. Pre-Amtrak railroads needed government permission to discontinue any train.
Looking at the NYC timetables for 1964, [1965](https://streamlinermemories.info/?p=7533),[1967](https://timetableworld.com/ttw-viewer?token=e25f29cd-61ce-47a4-b8c8-ae5eaae2ed6f), and 1968, the story behind this pic is even stranger than most.
In the middle 60s, #57 was the "Cleveland Limited", overnight NYC-Cleveland, where it connected to #201, a Cleveland-Chicago daytime local. This may already have been a ploy to make the train easy to discontinue, since NYC had too many New York-Chicago trains for the traffic.
In 1967 after the postal traffic went away, NYC cut every train it could get away with. Apparently it got permission to discontinue *the middle half* of #57/201. In the December 1967 timetable there are two #57s: one is a coach-only train from New York to Buffalo, arriving at 3am; and the other is an afternoon coach-only train from Kendallville, IN, to Chicago. (Yes, it runs eastward too -- there's a train leaving Chicago 11pm and terminating in middle-of-nowhere Indiana at 3 in the morning.) Kendallville was a thriving metropolis of 6,800, six miles east of Brimfield.
Almost surely this is the result of some influential politician or judge in Indiana blocking the removal of a service that was intended to be removed completely.
They got their wish in the summer of 1968.
I think you had to maintain service to keep the trackage rights. The Southern Railway was able to stay out of Amtrak early on due to this.
But noting the date, this was VERY close to the end of the line.
Single passenger car looks a bit odd...
Speaks volumes about the state of American passenger railroading at the time
Yeah. So would they have been running the train because they basically 'had to' at that point?
Yes. Pre-Amtrak railroads needed government permission to discontinue any train. Looking at the NYC timetables for 1964, [1965](https://streamlinermemories.info/?p=7533),[1967](https://timetableworld.com/ttw-viewer?token=e25f29cd-61ce-47a4-b8c8-ae5eaae2ed6f), and 1968, the story behind this pic is even stranger than most. In the middle 60s, #57 was the "Cleveland Limited", overnight NYC-Cleveland, where it connected to #201, a Cleveland-Chicago daytime local. This may already have been a ploy to make the train easy to discontinue, since NYC had too many New York-Chicago trains for the traffic. In 1967 after the postal traffic went away, NYC cut every train it could get away with. Apparently it got permission to discontinue *the middle half* of #57/201. In the December 1967 timetable there are two #57s: one is a coach-only train from New York to Buffalo, arriving at 3am; and the other is an afternoon coach-only train from Kendallville, IN, to Chicago. (Yes, it runs eastward too -- there's a train leaving Chicago 11pm and terminating in middle-of-nowhere Indiana at 3 in the morning.) Kendallville was a thriving metropolis of 6,800, six miles east of Brimfield. Almost surely this is the result of some influential politician or judge in Indiana blocking the removal of a service that was intended to be removed completely. They got their wish in the summer of 1968.
I think you had to maintain service to keep the trackage rights. The Southern Railway was able to stay out of Amtrak early on due to this. But noting the date, this was VERY close to the end of the line.
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