The Millionaires Express Train – Luxury Between Hoboken & the Somerset Hills

UPDATE:
For 1 day only on Sunday, May 17, visitors can experience the “Millionaires Express” at the Whippany Railway Museum by riding in restored 1900s era luxury club cars once used by wealthy railroad travelers on New Jersey’s famed Lackawanna line.

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As part of our historic train research series, we thought it would be interesting to look more closely at a special train between Hoboken and Gladstone that became known as the Millionaires Express. Known as a “subscription car”, the commuters themselves would organize and lease a custom-designed railcar full of comfort and luxury of the period.

There is a common belief that the Somerset Hills came to exist because of the Millionaires Express, but that is only partly true. Wealthy financiers and industrialists purchased land and built grand country estates on what was then known as Mine Mount on the rolling hills around Bernardsville, helping transform the region into a fashionable destination. The trains that earned the nickname “Millionaires Express” didn’t immediately appear until after 1900, nearly 30 years after rail service first reached the area in 1872.

History has a funny way of unfolding. The railroad that came through the Somerset Hills was originally conceived and constructed to move coal from Pennsylvania to the Hudson River, a plan that ultimately failed. It’s that failure that would create something entirely different. Instead of coal trains, the line became a passenger gateway that helped shape one of the most desirable country retreats for wealthy New Yorkers seeking to find healthy mountain air and beauty in the shortest distance possible from Manhattan. In a way, we should all be thankful that the coal scheme never fully worked out and that the line stopped in Bernardsville because the beautiful region we enjoy today grew from that unexpected turn in railroad history.

Background

In the decades after the Civil War, the railroad that would eventually become the Peapack Gladstone Line was never meant to carry wealthy commuters to country estates. Its promoters envisioned something far more industrial. Chartered in 1865 as the Passaic Valley and Peapack Railroad and later renamed the New Jersey West Line Railroad, the route was planned as a freight corridor linking northern New Jersey to the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania and the markets of New York. Trains were expected to haul thousands of tons of coal and industrial goods across the Somerset Hills.

But history took a very different turn. When the freight ambitions collapsed, and the line instead evolved into a passenger railroad, the trains began carrying people rather than coal. Visitors, investors, and families arrived from New York seeking clean air and quiet countryside. As grand estates spread across Bernardsville, Far Hills, and Peapack, the daily trains serving the line took on a new identity. With the introduction of exclusive subscription club cars for wealthy commuters, the route became famous for what locals and newspapers called the “Millionaires Express,” a rolling social club that carried Somerset Hills estate owners between their country homes and the financial houses of Manhattan. While we don’t have an exact date the service began, we do know the Hoboken to Gladstone line itself began in 1890. The trains gained the nickname Millionaires Express during the 1890s and became widely known by that name in the early 1900s. 1900 to 1915 was the peak era of the nickname. By this time, the line from Hoboken to Gladstone carried some of the wealthiest commuters in the United States, with special parlor cars and club cars attached to certain trains, and memberships were sold to regular riders.

The train service that would become known locally as the Bernardsville express began on January 29, 1872, when the New Jersey West Line opened passenger service between Summit and Bernardsville. A reference used by commuters to describe the train that carried the exclusive subscription club car used by wealthy riders. The first train departed Hoboken, traveled west on the tracks of the Morris and Essex Railroad to Summit, and then continued over the newly built West Line into Bernardsville. The journey placed the quiet Somerset Hills within about 90 minutes of New York City, offering city residents a convenient escape from urban congestion. Early promoters highlighted the region’s clean air, rolling countryside, and investment potential, attracting visitors and land buyers seeking both recreation and opportunity.

What made the DL&W version distinctive was the geography of the Somerset Hills. Towns like Bernardsville, Far Hills, and Peapack developed unusually high concentrations of large estates owned by Wall Street financiers. Because so many of those men traveled together on the same trains to Hoboken, newspapers began referring to the service as the “Millionaires Express” or even the “Billion Dollar Express.”

What many referred to as the Millionaires Express emerged around 1890 after the railroad was extended west from Bernardsville to Far Hills, Peapack, and Gladstone. By this time, the Somerset Hills had begun attracting wealthy New York financiers and industrialists who were building large country estates throughout the region. The railroad provided a direct and reliable connection between these country homes and business offices in Manhattan via Hoboken, allowing estate owners and their guests to travel easily for weekends, social events, and eventually daily commuting. As the Mountain Colony matured with institutions such as the Somerset Inn, the Essex Fox Hounds, and later the Somerset Hills Country Club, the commuter trains carrying this affluent passenger base developed a reputation for their unusually wealthy riders.

Club Cars in the News

Newspapers and residents began referring to these train club cars as the Millionaires Express, a nickname that captured the character of the service rather than an official railroad designation. One contemporary description noted that the trains carried businessmen “from the quiet hills of Somerset to the counting houses of New York,” reflecting the daily rhythm of estate owners who rode the morning train east to work and returned in the evening to their country homes. Over time, the nickname became firmly attached to the line and its commuter culture in the Somerset Hills.

The Exclusive Bernardsville – Gladstone Club Car Subscription & Experience

The branch serving Bernardsville, Far Hills, Peapack, and Gladstone also gained colorful local names. While officially known as the Gladstone Branch, newspapers and residents often called its commuter trains the”Millionaires Express” or the “Millionaires’ Branch” because so many wealthy Somerset Hills estate owners rode the line daily between their country homes and New York.

Club Formations

Railroad club cars developed in the late 1800s as groups of wealthy commuters traveling between suburban estates and New York City began organizing themselves into private subscription groups. Rather than riding in ordinary passenger coaches, these commuters paid an additional fee to reserve seats in a dedicated railcar furnished more like a private lounge, with comfortable seating, tables, newspapers, and attendants. Because the same passengers rode together each day, the cars developed a club-like atmosphere and became an important social space for bankers, industrialists, lawyers, and financiers.

The Delaware Lackawanna and Western quickly embraced the “Club Car concept” because it guaranteed steady revenue from a loyal group of passengers. The railroad supplied and maintained the car while the subscribers paid the additional membership fee and often managed the waiting list. On the DL&W Gladstone Branch serving the Somerset Hills estates, these subscription cars were typically placed at the rear of the train. They carried a regular group of prominent commuters traveling between Bernardsville, Far Hills, Peapack, and Gladstone, and their offices in New York. Over time, the concentration of wealthy riders led the service to be widely known as the Millionaires Express.

For the wealthy residents of the Somerset Hills, the daily trip to New York was not simply a commute. It was a social ritual. On the trains of the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad that ran between Hoboken and the Somerset Hills, the exclusive Gladstone Club Car Subscription became the centerpiece of an experience that was later coined “The Millionaires Express.” Early 1900s subscription estimates were found to cost about $20 per month ($100 to $150 per year) for a club car membership (about $3,500 to $5,000 today).

Assigned to the commuter runs on the Gladstone Branch, the car served the same trains locals and newspapers had long nicknamed the Millionaires Express. Riders paid an extra monthly fee on top of their regular ticket, and membership required sponsorship and approval by existing members. Unlike ordinary passenger coaches, which were open bench seating designed to carry as many riders as possible, the club car functioned more like a private gentlemen’s lounge moving down the rails. Membership was limited and required nomination by existing riders, creating an exclusive traveling club of financiers, industrialists, and estate owners who commuted between the Somerset Hills and their offices in Manhattan.

Imagine leaving your estate in the Somerset Hills early in the morning, around 6:00 am. A carriage brings you down a tree-lined drive to the station at Bernardsville or Far Hills. The train arrives from Gladstone, pulled by a steam locomotive of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, and the last car is not a normal coach but a private subscription car used by regular commuters. Members greet one another by name as they step aboard, remove their hats, and settle into large wicker armchairs instead of the narrow wooden benches found in the regular cars.

Inside the club car, the atmosphere feels more like a private gentlemen’s club than public transportation. Newspapers from New York are waiting on a side table. A uniformed porter moves quietly through the aisle serving coffee, drinks, or light refreshments. Small tables between the chairs become card tables where riders play bridge or discuss the markets while the train rolls east toward Hoboken.

The roughly 90-minute trip passed quickly as business deals were discussed and local news from the estates circulated among the group. Behind the club car, the regular coaches are crowded with ordinary commuters sitting shoulder to shoulder, but in the subscription car, the ride is quiet, comfortable, and social. By the time the train reaches Hoboken, the passengers step off the car, board the ferry across the Hudson, and continue to their offices in Manhattan, repeating the same ritual in reverse that evening as they return to the fresh air and mountain beauty of the Somerset Hills.

Key interior features of a Subscription Train Car

Here’s what you’d get with your club car subscription:

• Large cushioned wicker or rattan armchairs instead of wooden benches
• Mahogany card tables used for bridge and gin games
• Smoking and non-smoking sections
• A porter’s galley for drinks and food service
• Separate smoking and non-smoking sections
• Air-cooled ventilation using ceiling ducts fed by large ice bunkers

But it wasn’t always a smooth ride…….

Changing Times & The Automobile

The service that started in the 1890s reached its peak in the 1920s, when the Somerset Hills estate era was at its height, and the trains regularly carried prominent bankers, industrialists, and social figures between New York and their countryside retreats. Over time, however, the rise of the chauffeured automobile began to change elite travel patterns. Wealthy residents increasingly preferred the privacy and flexibility of motorcars over scheduled rail service, and improved roads made direct travel between the city and the hills easier. By the 1930s, the exclusive social culture surrounding the Millionaires Express had largely faded, marking the end of an era when the railroad served as the primary link between Wall Street and the estates of the Somerset Hills.

End of an Era…..

Wealthy business people playing cards in the club car during the ride on the New Haven Railroad, 1949. The Railroad Club Car is an exclusive, air-conditioned arrangement for wealthy commuters who prefer not to ride in coaches. This one costs a member $140 a year in addition to the regular commutation fare.

See the Real Millionaires Express – Whippany Rail Museum

Today, visitors can still experience a piece of that history firsthand. The restored 1912 Millionaires Express subscription club car used on the Hoboken-to-Gladstone trains is preserved at the Whippany Rail Museum. Since 1965, the museum has been dedicated to preserving the heritage and history of New Jersey railroads through the restoration, preservation, interpretation, and operation of historic railroad equipment and artifacts from across the state and the surrounding region. Visitors can view the famous club car and other Lackawanna equipment at the museum’s site in Whippany, offering a rare opportunity to step close to the rolling social club that once carried the Somerset Hills elite between their country estates and New York City. A special thanks to the Whippany Rail Museum for all their work preserving this great history….. we’re proud to share their work!

Tidbits: Millionaires & Even a Billionaire Express

So you now know about the Millionaire’s Express…. how about the “Billion Dollar Express”….

THE “BILLION DOLLAR EXPRESS”

THE “billion-dollar express,” as it is called, on the Morristown branch of the Lackawanna Railroad, is one of the finest suburban trains in the world. It derives its name from the number of very rich men who regularly ride on it. The train leaves Morristown every business morning at 8:22, and returns in the afternoon at 4 o’clock. It is a vestibule that carries two cars, known as club cars, which are rented from the company by their occupants.

Each member has a chair reserved for him. The club car is divided into a smoking compartment, main parlor, and toilet room. The lighting is by electricity. The train, which takes fifty-three minutes for the thirty-five-mile run from Morris Plains to Hoboken, is in charge of Conductor David Sanderson and Engineer Benjamin Day, both of whom are veterans in the Lackawanna service.

Some of the millionaires who regularly rode on this train are Luther Kountze, the banker; Richard A. McCurdy, President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company; Charles F. Cutler, President of the New York and New Jersey Telephone Company; Frederic Cromwell, H. B. Claflin, the dry goods merchant; Wheeler H. Peckham, the lawyer; Otto H. Kahn of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., bankers; H. McK.: Twombly Charles Scribner, and many others.

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