People line up to tour the cab of brand-new Seaboard Air Line E4 passenger diesel No. 3001 in 1938. SAL’s 14 A units and 5 B units were the only Electro-Motive units to carry the E4 model designation.
Louis A. Marre coll.
“Check out the new Diesel!”
By Angela Cotey | April 1, 2022
Look carefully on the side of the diesel engine and see “Orange Blossom Special.” This photo was taken when the Seaboard first showed off the new Diesel engines that were to power this fast train. The OB Special was the premier train on the SAL and it only ran from mid November to Mid April on three rail lines: the SAL, the PRR and the RF&P. It was all an all Pullman train with a club and dining car designed to get the wealthy from the north east as quickly as possible to Florida. From Richmond to Jacksonville there were no scheduled stops so that it could get from NYC to Miami in a scheduled 24 hours. It quit running during WW2 and then stopped forever in about 1953 or 4; likely due to air travel replacing a 24 hour train trip with a 3 hour air trip.
The Country-Western song “The Orange Blossom Special” is reported to have been written after the song’s composer (Ervin T. Rouse) had toured these new diesel engines when they were first on display in 1938 in Jacksonville (as shown in this photo). While the train no longer runs, that song is considered the premier country fiddle tune of all time or “The Fiddle Player’s National Anthem.” While Wikipedia claims that Rouse wrote the song in 1938 “before the Orange Blossom Special train ever came to Jacksonville” — I have photos of the Special powered by steam engines going to Jacksonville before these Diesels or the song were there in 1938.
The lyrics say: “she’s the fastest train on the line” — and getting from NYC to Miami in 24 hours made that statement true. The Seaboard’s Silver Meteor makes the same trip, but stops many places in North and South Carolina, making the trip longer than the Special not stopping from Richmond to Jacksonville.