Pennsylvania’s express train between New York and Washington D.C. was featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train.

The 1951 American psychological thriller film noir was based on the 1950 novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith.


Director Producer Alfred Hitchcock shot the hit movie in the autumn of 1950 and ti was released by Warner Bros. on June 30, 1951.
The film stars Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, and Robert Walker, and features Leo G. Carroll, the director’s daughter Pat Hitchcock, and Laura Elliott.

The film is honored as one of the great thrillers. It is number 32 on AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Thrills.
Video: Walker meets Granger in the Club Car.
- The story concerns two strangers who meet in the club car of the Congressional Limited which operated daily by the Pennsylvania Railroad between Washington D.C. and New York. A young tennis player (Farley Granger) and a charming psychopath (Robert Walker). The psychopath suggests that because they each want to “get rid” of someone, they should “exchange” murders, and that way neither will be caught. The psychopath commits the first murder, then tries to force the tennis player to complete the bargain.

Hitchcock and his cast and crew decamped for the East Coast on October 17, 1950.
- For six days, they shot at Penn Station in New York City, at the railroad station at Danbury, Connecticut—which became Guy’s hometown Metcalf—and in spots around Washington, D.C.
All the interiors aboard the train were filmed at Warner Bros. in Burbank, California.
Scenes aboard various trains were in the Club Car Lounge, Pullman Drawing Room, Parlor Car, and Observation Car.

The interiors reflected new designs for the Congressional Limited. Especially the Club Car Lounge where Granger and Walker meet.
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