The Alpha Xi Delta Special train. It left Chicago for the 1937 Convention at Yellowstone Park.
The collegians and alumni/ae who are headed to conventions this summer will likely drive or fly to their destinations. Imagine what it must have been like when rail travel was the way people got to where they were going! “Specials,” those trains reserved solely for one group of travelers, added days onto the fun of being among members of one’s own organization. On these special trains filled with fraternity and sorority members traveling to a far off locale for a meeting, the fun began days before the meeting started.
On June 30, 1915, a group of Massachusetts Pi Beta Phis, including the delegate from the Western Massachusetts Alumnae Club, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, left Boston headed for Berkeley, California. Louise Richardson wrote a first-hand account of the train ride that appeared in the December 1915 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi. The group traveled to Chicago where the Convention attendees boarded the “Pi Phi Special”, ten cars filled with Pi Phis traveling to Berkeley.
In Albany, New York, two Pi Phis from St. Lawrence University joined the Massachusetts contingent. The Pi Phis traveling to Chicago now included nine Pi Phis initiated at Boston University, one from the University of Vermont, another from Washington University, one from Dickinson College and one from Middlebury College. “It’s so much fun now, what will it be when we get on the Special?,” she asked. “The girls who went to bed early missed it, for we did have a hilarious time in the ‘limousine’ doing stunts and I laughed till I was tired.”
Only July 1, she wrote, “I’m so excited that I can never follow the law of coherence! I’m on the Special and it has been a wonderful day – so wonderful that I can’t believe it will last. But I must go back a bit first. This morning we wrote reams – when we were not talking. Our only excitement was when we had found we had lost the Vermont delegate. Through a mistake she had found a seat in the car back of us, which to our surprise – and to her dismay, was switched off during the night to a different line. At nearly every station some of us would hop out, for we untraveled New Englanders wanted to see all we could. On one account we decided we had “nevermissitus” (accent on the fourth syllable).”
Then she added, “I cannot realize I was in Chicago this noon. I always thought Boston immense, but it’s nothing but a little town after all. On our arrival Miss Kate Miller met us and guided us to the C. & N. W. Station…. I never felt so big in all my life as when I saw a huge placard announcing Pi Beta Phi headquarters in the station. I wished I had on an arrow a foot long so that every one could see that I belonged to that sign. Into Mr. Allen’s office, where the greatest kindness was shown us, arrow-bedecked girls kept pouring, all smiling, all talking and all introducing themselves at once. There we were given reservations, marked these on our Pi Phi Special tags, left our bags and were piloted to the Chicago College Club rooms. Here we registered, met more college Pi Phi’s, had luncheon, heard Miss Keller (Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President) speak, also the president of the College Club – a Pi Phi, and the president of the alumnae club, and had a chance to identify the active delegates. About 5:30 the clans began to gather for the Special and what a crowd it was! Everybody was looking at us and wondering what the sign announcing our train could mean. When the train backed in bearing on the rear that big circular light with Pi Beta Phi Special in white on it we Ohed! and Ahed! and everybody gazed still more. We soon found our sections and at 6:05 mid picture taking, the staring of the crowd, and the singing and cheering of the Evanston girls, we started westward. Sailing for Europe can be no more thrilling!”
The group arrived in Denver on July 2, “Had breakfast in the Omaha station and by doing so we missed meeting those Omaha Pi Phis whom everybody said were so splendid. But we didn’t miss their gift – a big basket of mouth-melting home made candy for each car – tied with wine and blue.”
And there was much singing; “It did seem like a big house party this evening when nearly everybody in the seven cars squeezed into the observation car till there was not an available inch of room left. We sang and sang, and when we ran out of songs we all knew, some sang chapter songs.”
While in Colorado, the group did some touring, “What a rush there was about 4:30 for breakfast! Pat’s Lunch near the station at Colorado Springs did a flourishing business on dry sandwiches, weak coffee and poor fruit.” Busses and cars, likely coordinated by the Colorado alumnae, took the group on a tour, “My first view of Pike’s Peak I shall never forget! And the strange grandeur of the Garden of the Gods! It was there that our bus was unruly and we had to get out and walk away…. I did so want to stay longer at Manitou and Colorado Springs! From there on I sat glued to my chair as the wonders of the mountains appeared. At Canyon City we took open observation cars where we had unobstructed views of the Royal Gorge with its stupendous rock walls. Then late this afternoon came the canyon of the Grand with its windings and verdure.”
On the fourth of July, the group crossed Utah, “We are in a truly Pi Phi train for every porter, brakeman, steward and waiter is decorated with a Pi Phi seal. They seem to enjoy the Special and are all so courteous – especially our Pullman conductor who is a great favorite…. At Helper, where two more engines were added to our train, we got out for ice cream cones and fruit again. Then at Top of the World we all sent cards home.”
Her last entry is on July 5 from the Sigma Kappa house at Berkeley. How Panhellenic that the convention group was housed in the sorority houses on the Berkeley campus! She summed up her experience on the Pi Phi Special, “I do not believe any crowd has ever had such a trip as we have had – wonderful country, luxurious train, splendid attendants, grand girls and a gorgeously good time every minute. There has been nothing but absolute harmony…. The friends we’ve made and the broader vision of Pi Phi I shall never forget. The ARROW will mean vastly more to me on account of these days on the Special!…. If I live a century I’ll be a better Pi Phi on account of this past week and never, never forget the Pi Beta Phi Special.”
Many other groups used special trains to get their members to convention. The DKE convention in Cuba highlighted a few days ago involved a special train from New York City to Key West. Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Xi Delta (pictured above) are two NPC groups that had special trains to conventions. I’d love to publish more first hand accounts of the train rides, so if they are out there, please let me know.
Added 8:30 6/26/13 from Noraleen Young, Kappa Alpha Theta’s Archivist:
Kappa Alpha Theta’s first special train was in 1911 for our first West Coast Convention, held that year in Pasadena, California. One of our last was in 1960 to our convention in San Diego. I came across this quote: “The most popular spot on the train, the Dome car, was the place for snapping pictures or socializing. Every trip has a camera bug, so we played the role of typical tourists. Sue Laffan, Gamma Mu, took motion pictures and kept the aisle hot running for every ‘sharp shot.’ As the train sped through the desert a few in the group remarked that there was just nothing to see but barren land. Sue grabbed her movie camera and took a picture of – nothing! As Sue said, ‘I want a picture of everything on this fabulous trip and seeing “nothing” is part of it.'” I contacted Sue last year and she found the following footage: http://grandconvention.kappaalphatheta.org/page/19601968 It gives us a small glimpse into this part of the convention experience.
And this from Pi Beta Phi’s Pinterest page http://pinterest.com/pin/113012271872218007/ a brochure from the 1929 convention train.
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All rights reserved.
How fun would it have been to travel by train to Conventions! This gave me goose bumps and made me wish for a this opportunity. I once was in a small plane of only Alpha Gams and it was fun, but train travel would have been marvelolus. Thanks so much for sharing this.