South Wind (train)
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The ''South Wind'' was a named passenger train equipped and operated jointly by the
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
, the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...
, the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...
(later
Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...
), and the
Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...
. The ''South Wind'' began operations in December 1940, providing streamliner service between
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
and
Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
. This was one of three new seven-car, all-coach streamliners operating in coordination every third day along different routes between Chicago and Miami. The other two longest enduring Chicago-Florida trains were the ''
City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...
'' and 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, ...
''. The ''South Wind'' remained in service through the creation of
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
in 1971.


Route

The ''South Wind'' departed
Chicago Union Station Chicago Union Station is an intercity and commuter rail terminal located in the Near West Side neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The station is Amtrak's flagship station in the Midwest. While serving long-distance passenger trains, it is also ...
and ran through Logansport and Indianapolis to
Louisville Union Station The Union Station of Louisville, Kentucky is a historic railroad station that serves as offices for the Transit Authority of River City (TARC), as it has since mid-April 1980 after receiving a year-long restoration costing approximately $2 milli ...
. It then proceeded down the
Louisville & Nashville The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...
main line through
Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
,
Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
, and
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
to Montgomery. From Montgomery, it ran down the Atlantic Coast Line through Dothan, Thomasville, Valdosta and Waycross to Jacksonville. The last leg to Miami was over the
Florida East Coast The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pro ...
. After a number of schedule changes throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, the train was running every other day opposite the ''City of Miami'', both trains then carrying sleeping cars. By 1955, Florida West Coast service was added, using cars added to the '' West Coast Champion'' trains in Jacksonville.


History

The train, beginning service in December 1940, used a seven-car trainset built by the
Budd Company The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products ...
. The set, which did not include
sleepers ''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin H ...
, was similar to trains built for the
Seaboard Air Line The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...
's New York-Miami ''
Silver Meteor The ''Silver Meteor'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line ...
'' and the Southern's New York-New Orleans '' Southerner'', except that it was painted in the Pennsylvania's Tuscan Red, which required special preparation of the stainless steel that composed the cars' sides. The ''South Wind'', like most trains that operated in the South, was racially segregated. As required by law in Southern states the train passed through, the combination baggage/coach – colloquially called the "colored coach" – was reserved for black passengers. Blacks were not allowed in the observation lounge and were restricted to two tables behind a curtain in the dining car. The ''South Wind'' ran every third day between its respective endpoint cities, in coordination with 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, ...
'' (an FEC-owned train that used the
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago to southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Evansville. Founded in 1877, it grew aggressively and stayed relatively strong throughout the Great Depression and two Wor ...
(C&EI), L&N,
Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company that operated in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville on December 11, 1845, ...
(NC&STL),
Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad The Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad was organized in 1926 to replace the bankrupt Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway. The AB&C was controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, which owned a majority of the stock. In 1944 it report ...
(AB&C), ACL and FEC) and the ''
City of Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at t ...
''—another colorful seven car
Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...
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 Florida is a U.S. state, state located in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia (U.S. state), Geo ...
'' 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Originally the coordinated schedules of the three
streamliner A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating wikt:streamline, streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "High-speed rail, bullet trai ...
s 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 Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...
that continued to
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. While initially, it was a coach-only service, by the 1950s its consists included modern
sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. ...
s. In December 1957 both the ''Dixie Flagler'' and the ''
Southland Southland may refer to: Places Canada * Dunbar–Southlands, Vancouver, British Columbia New Zealand * Southland Region, a region of New Zealand * Southland County, a former New Zealand county * Southland District, part of the wider Southland Re ...
'' were discontinued. The ''Southland'' had run daily from various Midwestern cities, through Atlanta and Albany, directly to the Florida west coast cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg, thus bypassing Jacksonville. However, since 1955, west coast cars were added to the ''City of Miami'' and ''South Wind,'' and they had already begun to serve the west Florida market. These cars were attached to the '' West Coast Champion'' sections going from Jacksonville to Tampa-Sarasota and to St. Petersburg via Trilby, which is now largely dismantled. After the merger of the ACL and Seaboard, the combined Seaboard Coast Line changed the west coast operations, in April 1968, to the single section to St. Petersburg with a motor connection to Tampa. 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 E9-powered consists that operated due to a requirement in FEC's charter to provide such trains, the ''South Wind'' along with other named trains such as the ''City of Miami'', ''
Florida Special ''Florida Special'' is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by David Boehm, Marguerite Roberts, Laura Perelman and S. J. Perelman. The film stars Jack Oakie, Sally Eilers, Kent Taylor, Frances Drake, Claude Gilling ...
'' and '' East Coast Champion'' shifted from using the FEC Railway coastal route to use internal lines: the Atlantic Coast Line's Jacksonville-Palatka-Tampa main line between Jacksonville and Auburndale Winter_Haven.html" ;"title="Winter_Haven,_Florida.html" ;"title=" town adjacent to Winter Haven, Florida">Winter Haven">Winter_Haven,_Florida.html" ;"title=" town adjacent to Winter Haven, Florida">Winter Havenref>1965 L&N timetable http://streamlinermemories.info/South/L&N65TT.pdf and the Seaboard Air Line route from Auburdale to Miami. This would be a harbinger of the future with the upcoming Seaboard Coast Line (July 1, 1967) merger and the eventual operation of this train by Amtrak. 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 New York Central to form Penn Central. Over time, the PC became increasingly hostile to passenger service, much like the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, Southern Pacific was at the time. Unlike the SP, the PC's passenger services–especially outside the Northeast Corridor–were noted for their poor quality. The increasingly cash-strapped PC made consistent efforts to reduce its passenger services outside the Northeast. 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
Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...
in the morning and arrived in
St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...
or
Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
late afternoon the following day. Total trip time was 33–34 hours, depending on the endpoints. The itinerary varied slightly. Whereas Van Station (Logansport) was the west-central Indiana stop for the earlier PRR version of the train, Amtrak made Lafayette station the west-central Indiana stop. On November 14, 1971, Amtrak renamed the train the '' Floridian,'' and changed it to a two-night schedule: trains would leave Union Station in the late evening and arrive in Florida the morning of the third day. The ''Floridian'' was discontinued in 1979 as part of the Federal budget cuts that year that impacted several major Amtrak routes.


References


External links


John Kilbride, "The South Wind," ''Passenger Train Journal'', August 31, 2017.
- includes photos

* ttp://streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track2/southwind197104.html 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). (Includes photographs, route map, and timetable of the South Wind on pp. 161–164; se
Google Books preview
) {{DEFAULTSORT:South Wind (Passenger Train) Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger trains of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Passenger trains of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Passenger trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger trains of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Night trains of the United States Passenger rail transportation in Illinois Passenger rail transportation in Kentucky Passenger rail transportation in Tennessee Passenger rail transportation in Mississippi Passenger rail transportation in Alabama Passenger rail transportation in Georgia (U.S. state) Passenger rail transportation in Florida Railway services introduced in 1940 Railway services discontinued in 1971 Former Amtrak routes Former long distance Amtrak routes