In 1961, passenger service was declining on many railroads, but Seaboard still offered four trains a day between New York and Florida. The Silver Meteor went to Miami and St. Petersburg, the Silver Star and Palmland went primarily to Miami and the Sunland went primarily to Tampa. In addition, the Gulf Wind went from New Orleans to Jacksonville (partly over Louisville & Nashville lines) and the Tidewater connected Norfolk with Jacksonville.

Click image to download a 7.0-MB PDF of this timetable from the Touchton Map Library.

Unnamed trains included the New York-Birmingham Silver Comet, a daily train between St. Petersburg and Miami, and several others. Coach fares between New York and Miami were up to $44, which is still about $300 in today’s money.

Seaboard’s Silver Meteors pass one another somewhere in Florida. Click image to download a 1.5-MB PDF of this 1949 postcard.

By 1961, of course, all of the named trains were streamlined. As previously noted here, Seaboard was the first to streamline its Florida trains in 1939. The above postcard is dated 1949. If the 1949 timetable was similar to the one for 1961, the trains are passing one another somewhere around Winter Haven, Florida.