Atlantic Coast Line 1966 Timetable

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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Like the Seaboard, Atlantic Coast Line still had a lot of Florida trains in the 1960s. At the top of the list was the New York-Naples/Miami Champion, ACL’s answer to Seaboard’s Silver Meteor. In addition, there was the New York-St. Petersburg Gulf Coast Special and the Washington-Jacksonville Everglades.

Click image to download a 12.3-MB PDF of this timetable from the Touchton Map Library.

Trains from the Midwest were timed to meet the Champion or Gulf Coast Special in Jacksonville, sending through cars down the West or East coasts. The Chicago-Miami/Naples City of Miami went over Illinois Central and Central of Georgia tracks to Albany, Georgia and met the Champion in Jacksonville. Similarly, the Chicago-Miami/Naples South Wind went over Pennsylvania and Louisville & Nashville tracks to Montgomery, Alabama and also met the Champion in Jacksonville. The Southern Railway’s Dixie Flyer went from Cincinnati to Atlanta and then went on ACL tracks to Jacksonville, where it met the Champion. Finally, the Seminole followed the same routing as the City of Miami but met the Gulf Coast Special in Jacksonville. Continue reading →

Seaboard 1961 Condensed Timetable

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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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.

The Florida East Coast in 1947

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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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 trains. One photo is of the Dixie Flagler, which went from Chicago to Miami via the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Louisville & Nashville, and Atlantic Coast Line, but we only know that because of the tailsign in the photo. (In fact, all of the exterior train photos are probably of this train.)

Click image to download a 23.3-MB PDF of this 44-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

The recreation car with its hostess and orchestra has been replaced by a tavern-lounge car. Other interior photos show the diner and people playing bridge at a table in one of the coaches. Continue reading →

The Florida East Coast in 1937

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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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 largely rewritten, the maps have been redrawn (though in the same style), and many of the photos are new.

Click image to download a 17.5-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

An interior photo of the recreation car shows people sitting on some flimsy-looking folding chairs around a card table playing bridge while in the background the “orchestra” plays music. The orchestra seems to consist of a guitar, a steel guitar, and a ukulele. Continue reading →

The Florida East Coast in 1936

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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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” (emphasis added). Unlike the Seaboard’s trains, the FEC required out-of-state travelers to change trains in Jacksonville, but this booklet dismisses this as “a simple matter.”

Click image to download an 18.1-MB PDF of this 32-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

The booklet mentions three trains: the year-round Havana Special, the December-to-May Miamian, and the January-April Florida Special. The latter train had an on-board hostess, a special recreation car, and an orchestra! (From the photos, the “orchestra” consisted of some guitar players and an accordionist and was possibly enjoyed by dancers in the recreation car.) Continue reading →

The Southland and Flamingo

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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No matter which route you took from New York City to Florida, you would ride on the Pennsylvania as far as Washington, DC. The Pennsylvania also competed with the Southern in Midwest-Florida service.

Click image to download a 6.4-MB PDF of this 12-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

The Flamingo connected Chicago with Florida via the PRR from Chicago to Cincinnati, the Louisville & Nashville to Albany, Georgia, the Atlantic Coast Line from there to Jacksonville. The train then continued to Fort Meyers four days a week and Miami (via the Florida East Coast) the other three. There were also through cars from Jacksonville to Orlando, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota. Continue reading →

The Orange Blossom Special in 1927

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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In January 1927, Seaboard completed its “all Florida” line to Miami and passengers no longer had to ride a “parlor car bus” between West Palm Beach and Miami. Among the passengers on the first train to Miami was Dorothy Walker Bush, mother and grandmother of the U.S. presidents. George H.W. Bush had been born in 1924 but apparently he didn’t get to go on this trip.

Click image to download a 6.1-MB PDF of this 12-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

Unlike yesterday’s booklet, this one has several interior illustrations of the train, making it clear that this was truly a first-class limited. Among the services illustrated were the barber shop, valet service, maid-manicure, men’s and women’s showers, dining car, club car, and observation car. The centerfold has a bright yellow-and-blue map of the Florida peninsula (colors now identified with Ukraine’s flag). Continue reading →

The Orange Blossom Special in 1926

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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In 1924, Seaboard extended its Florida line to West Palm Beach, then reached Miami in 1926. Both the ACL and Southern Railway had to share revenues from Miami-bound passengers with the Florida East Coast, but Seaboard now had its own route.

Click image to download a 4.7-MB PDF of this 8-page booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

To celebrate the opening of the route to West Palm Beach, on November 21, 1925, Seaboard introduced a new year-round all-Pullman train, the Orange Blossom Special. This booklet, which was issued on February 1, 1926, “seventy days after this train was put in operation,” includes schedules to St. Petersburg on the West Coast and to West Palm Beach on the East Coast. It also includes schedules of the winter-only, all-Pullman Seaboard Florida Limited. Continue reading →

Southern Withdraws from the Competition

Posted on by December 23, 2022
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Southern responded to the intense competition with the ACL and Seaboard by introducing the Palm Limited, between New York and Jacksonville/St. Augustine, on January 11, 1904. This was the first truly evocative name in the Florida corridor. Though competitively equipped, it took about an hour longer — 26-2/3 hours instead of 25-2/3 — to get from New York to Jacksonville than the ACL or Seaboard trains.

Click image to download a 16.9-MB PDF of this booklet from the Touchton Map Library.

An evocative name wasn’t enough as Southern dropped out of the New York-Florida market after 1915. This may have been due to wartime considerations, but it did not come back after the war. The Southern focused instead on service between Florida and Midwestern cities such as Chicago and Cincinnati. Continue reading →

The Robert Burns Supper

Posted on by January 31, 2023
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I’m interrupting this week’s series of posts on Florida trains to remind you that today is the 264th birthday of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet. On this day, Scots traditionally have a Burns supper, a meal that is centered on haggis, which is made from sheep’s heart, liver, and lungs wrapped with oats and spices in a sheep’s stomach. Though it sounds unappetizing, it is supposed to have a “nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour” (as cited by Wikipedia).

Click image to view and download a PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

Although Canadian Pacific was headquartered in French-speaking Montreal, its heritage was more Scottish than anything else. Nearly all of its founders, including George Stephen, Donald Smith, Duncan McIntyre, John Kennedy, Richard Angus, and James J. Hill were either born in Scotland or (in Hill’s case) born in Canada to Scottish parents. Continue reading →