The train left Chicago at 6 p.m. on June 14, 1925, consisting of a locomotive, five Pullman cars, and two passenger coaches. In the afternoon, the train stopped so that the passengers could visit Niagara Falls. Towards dinnertime, the passengers reboarded the train at Buffalo for the 400-mile (645 km) trip to Hoboken. The train passed through Binghamton, New York, about 10:30 p.m. and then made a stop at Scranton, Pennsylvania, just before midnight for a crew and engine change. At 12:01 a.m. on June 16, Engineer Fred Loomis took over the controls of Lackawanna Engine No. 1104 and the train set off on the last leg of the trip through the Pocono Mountains, crossing the Delaware River near the Delaware Water Gap, and then east into New Jersey.