Commodore's Crown

Itinerary

1. Chicago, IL
   Day 1 | Board in Chicago

   Settle into your private railcar and raise a 20th Century, the gin cocktail named for the train that made this route famous, as your car eases out of Chicago. You leave the way the 20th Century's passengers once did: unhurried, and expected.

2. Indiana Dunes, IN
   Day 1 | Lake Michigan Farewell

   The dunes rise pale against the water as the train follows the shoreline before turning inland, the steel country of the southern shore glowing behind you in the afternoon haze.

3. Elkhart, IN
   Day 1 | Crossroads of the Midwest

   Elkhart, long known as the band instrument capital of the world, sits where the great main line meets the heart of the Midwest. The fields roll by, and the afternoon belongs to nothing but the view.

4. Toledo, OH
   Day 1 | The Glass City

   Toledo sits on the Maumee River, farmland stretching flat and green behind you as the country begins to close in toward the lake.

5. Cleveland, OH
   Day 1 | Dusk on Lake Erie

   The train follows the Ohio shoreline into Cleveland, where the Terminal Tower catches the day's last light over the lake. Dinner is served as your steward turns down the beds for the long run east.

   Sleep Onboard

   Dinner

6. Utica, NY
   Day 2 | Lamplight at Union Station

   Wake near Utica, where breakfast is served as the train presses on toward the Mohawk.

   Breakfast

7. Little Falls, NY
   Day 2 | Gorge and Lock

   The train threads the narrow gorge at Little Falls, where the river, the canal, and the railroad once competed for the same ribbon of rock. Lock 17, among the highest lift locks on the Erie Canal, catches the morning sun.

8. Schenectady, NY
   Day 2 | Out of the Mohawk Valley

   The rails follow the Mohawk through the gap that made the Erie Canal, and later the railroad, possible: farms, floodplain, and the slow glint of the canal beside the tracks.

9. Hyde Park, NY
   Day 2 | A Vanderbilt Neighbor

   Up on the bluff above the river sits the Hyde Park estate of Frederick Vanderbilt, the Commodore's grandson and the builder of one of the Gilded Age's great houses. The family made its fortune on this river, and the river is where they chose to rest.

10. Garrison, NY
    Day 2 | The Gates of the Highlands

    The mountains close in and the river narrows. West Point holds its bluff across the water with Storm King rising beyond, while the rails hug the east shore so tightly that the view is almost entirely river.

11. Croton-on-Hudson, NY
    Day 2 | The Widest Water

    Here the Hudson swells to its widest reach, more than three miles from bank to bank, and the water fills every window. Croton Point curls out into the current and sailboats trace the bay like handwriting. This was the Commodore's country, and the view has hardly changed.

12. Spuyten Duyvil, NY
    Day 2 | The City Reappears

    The Palisades rise along the far shore as the train rounds Spuyten Duyvil and the Hudson narrows toward Manhattan. Lunch is served as the skyline gathers ahead.

    Lunch

13. New York, NY
    Day 2 | Arrive in New York

    Your journey ends in the heart of Manhattan. Your steward sees you off at the platform as your railcar comes to rest beneath the city.