Sportsman

Sportsman one-time logo in 1948 C&O timetable
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Mid-West,Mid-Atlantic States
First service	1930
Last service	1968
Former operator(s)	Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Route
Termini	Washington, D.C., andPhoebus, Virginia, latter shortened in final decade toNewport News Detroit, Michigan,Louisville, Kentucky andCincinnati
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	Detroit-Phoebus: 46 (eastbound), 47 (westbound) Cincinnati-Washington, D.C.: 4 (eastbound), 5 (westbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangements	"Imperial Salon Cars" for coach passengers: withreclining seats [1950]
Sleeping arrangements	Sections, double bedrooms,compartments,drawing rooms
Catering facilities	Dining cars
Route map v t e Legend Washington, D.C. Long Bridge over thePotomac River DC VA Alexandria Orange Phoebus closed 1953 Newport News Lee Hall Williamsburg Richmond Gordonsville Charlottesville Waynesboro Staunton Clifton Forge Covington VA WV White Sulphur Springs Ronceverte Alderson Hinton Meadow Creek Prince Thurmond Cotton Hill Montgomery Cabin Creek Charleston St. Albans closed 1963 Huntington WV KY Ashland closed 1956 Lexington Louisville KY OH Columbus Delaware Marion Upper Sandusky Carey Fostoria Toledo OH MI Monroe Plymouth Detroit Russell South Portsmouth Vanceburg Maysville Augusta Newport C&O Railroad Bridge over theOhio River KY OH Cincinnati

TheSportsman was a named passenger night train of theChesapeake and Ohio Railway. It was the Chesapeake and Ohio's long-standing train bound forDetroit fromWashington, D.C., andPhoebus, Virginia, on theChesapeake Bay, opposite Norfolk, Virginia. It was unique among C&O trains for its route north from the C&O mainline in southern Ohio. For most of its years it had a secondary western terminus inLouisville at itsCentral Station.

The train was begun in 1930. In its early years it appeared onPere Marquette Railway timetables as meeting with Pere Marquette trains at Detroit, for reaching Saginaw and Bay City.^[1] In its conception it was designed to connect resort areas of theGreat Lakes and towards travelers to the Michigan lakes region, its direct region service accessed mountain resort destinations in Virginia and West Virginia.^[2] However, by the 1940s the C&O's emphasis was on attractions in West Virginia. This emphasis was evident in the relatively low population towns in West Virginia such as Hinton and White Sulphur Springs (which is nearThe Greenbrier) as receiving emphasis in abbreviated timetables shown in the condensed timetables sections of the Chesapeake and Ohio timetables,^[3] and in the text accompanying the train's schedule in a 1948 C&O timetable.^[4]

In number assignment, the Phoebus-Detroit section was No. 47, the Detroit-Phoebus section was No. 46. The Washington-Cincinnati section was No. 5 and the Cincinnati-Washington section was No. 4.^[5]

Northwest ofAshland, Kentucky, as No. 5, the train accommodated sleepers carried by theNew York Central to Chicago and St. Louis. Eastbound, these trains were labeled No. 4.^[6]

By late 1951 the open-section sleepers on theSportsman were replaced by modernroomettes.^[7] The C&O moved the eastern terminus in its Hampton Roads area trains west from Phoebus toNewport News in the mid-1950s, thus, the eastern destination of theSportsman became Newport News.^[8][9]

Demand in central Kentucky on theAshland-Lexington-Louisville branch declined, and the C&O eliminated that section from the train by 1956.^[10][11]

The more scenic views was the eastbound direction's daylight hours. And the opposite was the case with the C&O'sFFV orFast Flying Virginian, which had a similar route, excepting the Detroit assignment of the route. The C&O consolidated routes in 1962 and eliminated the westbound route of theSportsman and the eastbound route of theFFV.^[12] The northwestern end of the route duplicated the B&O's Detroit-WashingtonAmbassador train. The C&O reduced service to the point where theSportsman only ran one direction. The C&O finally dropped theSportsman from the schedule in 1968.^[13]

While the C&O had dropped theSportsman from its schedule, it continued to run coaches from Newport News to Detroit as No. 47, and coaches in the reverse direction as No. 46, both as part of the itinerary of theGeorge Washington. And with the folding of Nos. 46 and 47 into theGeorge Washington, the sleeping car option to or from Detroit was eliminated.^[14] However, in 1969 schedule the eastbound coaches only ran from Detroit to Huntington. Passengers wishing to continue their trip east would need to transfer at Huntington to another coach.^[15] In the final months before C&O passenger operations were folded into Amtrak, the Nos. 46 and 47 was only operating Ashland to Detroit and weekends only. These numbers and service north from Huntington to Columbus, then Detroit, was terminated on April 30, 1971.^[16]

• Railway services introduced in 1930
• Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
• Named passenger trains of the United States
• Night trains of the United States
• Passenger rail transportation in Kentucky
• Passenger rail transportation in Michigan
• Passenger rail transportation in Ohio
• Passenger rail transportation in Virginia
• Passenger rail transportation in Washington, D.C.
• Passenger rail transportation in West Virginia
• Railway services discontinued in 1968

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• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata