South Wind (train)
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Service type | Baggage car | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The South Wind was a named passenger train equipped and operated jointly by the
Route
The South Wind departed
History
The train, beginning service in December 1940, used a seven-car trainset built by the
The South Wind, like most trains that operated in the South, was racially
The South Wind ran every third day between its respective endpoint cities, in coordination with the Dixie Flagler (an FEC-owned train that used the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad (C&EI), L&N, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (NC&STL), Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad (AB&C), ACL and FEC) and the City of Miami—another colorful seven car Illinois Central Railroad train, which ran south of Birmingham by the Central of Georgia Railway and ACL to Jacksonville, then on to Miami via the FEC.
Additionally, when service was initiated, there were actually three every-third-day trains on each route. The Dixie Flagler was accompanied by the Dixiana; the South Wind by the Florida Arrow and Jacksonian; and the City of Miami by the Sunchaser and the Floridan (note absence of the second "i"). These alternate trains were not lightweight, all-coach consists like the three new streamliners. This coordination enabled passengers to have the convenience of daily service all along their respective routes between Chicago and Miami. The additional two trains per route were discontinued during World War II.
Originally the coordinated schedules of the three streamliners left Chicago in the morning, arriving Miami early the next afternoon. The trains were quickly turned and left Miami in the late afternoon arriving back in Chicago just before bedtime the next day. After World War II, the Dixieland (nee Dixie Flagler), Sunchaser and Florida Arrow were reinstated. Upon their discontinuation, the City of Miami and South Wind trains began running two days out of three. However, the tight Miami turnaround hampered operations, and after adding trainsets, the City of Miami and South Wind changed to every-other-day operation. The Dixie Flyer remained every third day. In 1954, the latter train was re-equipped and renamed the "new" Dixieland. At least into the mid-1960s, the Chicago segment was supplemented by a segment north of Louisville that continued to Cincinnati. While initially, it was a coach-only service, by the 1950s its consists included modern sleeping cars.[4]
In December 1957 both the Dixie Flagler and the
The 1963 strike of non-operating unions on the Florida East Coast Railway resulted in the abrupt end of all passenger services on that railroad. While passenger trains would return in two short
While the train grew in size throughout the 1940s, and 1950s, the 1960s saw the decline that caught most passenger trains in the United States. The Pennsylvania Railroad merged in 1968 with the
The South Wind was not immune and the PC stopped handling it between Chicago and Louisville in December 1969, choosing instead to operate a coach only connection. This left the L&N and SCL to carry on the truncated service until May 1, 1971, when Amtrak assumed responsibility for the provision of passenger services over the L&N, SCL, and Penn Central, among others.
Amtrak
Amtrak made the South Wind a daily service. Under Amtrak the South Wind departed Chicago's
References
- ^ a b "The South Wind timetable June 1941". Streamliner Schedules. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
- ^ Report on Streamline, Light-Weight, High-Speed Passenger Trains (PDF). New York: Coverdale & Colpitts. 1941. pp. 11–12. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
- ^ Atlantic Coast Line timetable, June 12, 1955, Tables B and G
- ^ "Louisville and Nashville Railroad". Official Guide of the Railways. 88 (4). National Railway Publication Company. September 1955.
- ^ 1965 L&N timetable http://streamlinermemories.info/South/L&N65TT.pdf
- OCLC 7925036.
External links
- John Kilbride, "The South Wind," Passenger Train Journal, August 31, 2017. - includes photos
- The South Wind with original route and station sequence, June, 1941 timetable and consist at Streamliner Schedules
- The South Wind under its final private railroad itinerary and consist, April, 1971 at Streamliner Schedules
Bibliography
- Prince, Richard E. Louisville and Nashville Steam Locomotives, 1968 rev. ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000 (reprint). ISBN 978-0-253-33764-1 (Includes photographs, route map, and timetable of the South Wind on pp. 161–164; see Google Books preview.)