Seaboard had its own line to Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, but Florida East Coast was Atlantic Coast Line’s only access to those cities. FEC also was the only railroad serving St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Cocoa, and Melbourne, … Continue reading
This booklet is 12 pages longer than yesterday’s, and most of it is spent lauding the virtues of tropical beaches, warm ocean waters, and fabulous resorts. The booklet includes several photos of streamlined trains but doesn’t list any names of … Continue reading
The stunning cover of this booklet (which was actually on the back cover, as was yesterday’s and in fact the three booklets before that) belies the fact that this is merely an update of yesterday’s booklet. However, it has been … Continue reading
Until the Seaboard reached West Palm Beach and Miami, the Florida East Coast was the only railroad to serve that side of the state. After the Seaboard’s invasion, the FEC advertised that it was “the only double-track route through Florida” … Continue reading
Henry Flagler, a billionaire partner of John D. Rockefeller, visited St. Augustine, Florida in 1883 and was at once captivated by its beauty and discouraged by the poor quality of its hotels and transportation facilities. So he decided to build … Continue reading
As indicated on the letterhead, the Havana Special was a joint Pennsylvania/RF&P/Atlantic Coast Line/Florida East Coast train that went from New York to Key West, where it met a steamship that took a six-hour journey to Havana. The Labor Day … Continue reading
Here are a few more blotters advertising Florida trains from the Dale Hastin collection. The PDFs range from 290- to 665-KB. As noted yesterday, Central of Georgia was a link in the chain of railroads providing routes from the Midwest … Continue reading
The success of the Silver Meteor and Champion inspired several railroads to join with the Altantic Coast Line and Florida East Coast in providing coach streamliner service between Chicago and Miami in December, 1940. Such service was complicated by the … Continue reading
Although Seaboard Airline was the first to offer a New York-Florida streamliner, Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) was the larger and healthier of the two competitors–Seaboard had gone bankrupt in 1907 and again in 1930. ACL was initially skeptical about streamliners, … Continue reading
