Amtrak passenger service on track for rail service across Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Orlando

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. I had to look this one up.

Last edited Mon Apr 11, 2016, 10:13 AM - Edit history (3)

There was such a routing, but, wow, did it involve a lot of railroads. The trip took some 31 hours.

The Dixie Flagler

The Florida East Coast's Dixie Flagler was one of three principle trains (the other two being the Pennsylvania's South Wind and Illinois Central's City of Miami) that connected the Midwest and Chicago with the southeast and Florida. In terms of mileage the train operated the shortest schedule although its timetable was just the same as its two counterparts. Additionally, it required the partnership of four different railroads (six, including subsidiaries) to complete the journey. Despite the three trains being owned and operated by different railroads, all worked together to provide reliable service and were not really competitors in the truest sense. The Flagler saw its name changed in the early 1950s to the Dixieland and would not survive to the see the 1960s (which is somewhat interesting considering that the other two trains saw relatively healthy traffic through the start-up of Amtrak in 1971).
....

This new train was known as the Dixie Flagler and was inaugurated on December 17, 1940 having been christened with a bottle of orange juice at Chicago's Dearborn Station. To complete the journey required the cooperation of five other railroads; from Chicago to Evansville, Indiana the train was handled by the Chicago & Eastern Illinois (which for power utilized a beautifully streamlined 4-6-2 Pacific); the Louisville & Nashville to Nashville; L&N subsidiary Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis carried it southward to Atlanta where it was picked up by Atlantic Coast Line subsidiary Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast which transported the train to Waycross (Georgia); from there the ACL handled the Flagler to Jacksonville where it returned to home rails of the FEC and finished the journey to Miami.

Beautifully streamlined? Ummm:



Chicago–Miami Dixie Flagler on South Side of Chicago, 1940s. Chicago & Eastern Illinois Photo by Paul Eilenberger

Okay, this isn't bad:



From the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Gallery

Amtrak's Floridian took over the route of the South Wind.

The Dixie Flagler

The Dixie Flagler was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) between Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. It began in 1939 as the Henry M. Flagler, a regional service between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida; the FEC renamed it and extended it to Chicago a year later. As an overnight streamliner it was part of the every-third-day pool shared by the City of Miami and South Wind. It was renamed Dixieland in 1954 and discontinued altogether in 1957.