As an entity with 50-plus years under its belt, Amtrak now has plenty of its own history, in addition to that of the trains it took over as of May 1, 1971. Thus, it probably should not have been a total surprise when Amtrak launched a through train service in November 2024 between Chicago and Florida by combining the Chicago-Washington, D.C., Capitol Limited with the Washington-Florida portion of the Silver Star, it used the Floridian name for this service.
The Chicago-Florida route had been bereft of service since 1979, when Amtrak’s original Floridian was discontinued as a result of the Carter administration eliminating a number of long-distance trains. In reality, the original Amtrak Floridian — part of the “Day One” Amtrak route system when it took over what was left of the South Wind — suffered from host-railroad track problems that dictated multiple re-routings. There was even a brief combination with the privately operated Auto-Train, whose northern terminal at Louisville, Ky., was on the Floridian’s route.
With this as background, it would be useful to examine what service on this route was like in the era from the late 1930s until the 1971 formation of Amtrak. As we will see, a major part of the story involved an overall daily service between the Windy City and the Sunshine State, albeit with a trio of all-coach trains that ran every third day. Up until the late 1940s, these did not include sleeping cars, which continued to be handled on existing schedules.
The first of these began in 1939, making the daily Miami-Jacksonville portion on Florida East Coast Railway as the Henry M. Flagler, named for the founder of the FEC. When this routing proved to less than successful, its Budd stainless-steel cars — coaches, diner, and tavern lounge observation car — were re-assigned to the Chicago-Miami market via what was known as the “Dixie Route” utilizing Chicago & Eastern Illinois south to Evansville, Ill., followed by the Louisville & Nashville to Atlanta, and the Atlantic Coast Line via Atlanta-Waycross, Ga., before returning to FEC “home rails” at Jacksonville.
This train originally was to be named the Dixie Streamliner but instead entered service as the Dixie Flagler in December 1940. In the same month, it was joined by two other all-coach streamliners, the Pennsylvania Railroad-sponsored South Wind, along with the Illinois Central’s entry, the City of Miami.
The South Wind also utilized Budd stainless steel cars, but the Pennsy opted to paint them in the Tuscan Red “Fleet of Modernism” scheme the railroad had adopted in the 1930s for new streamlined equipment. This train utilized Pennsy rails between Chicago and Louisville, where it was handed off to the L&N, which then handled the train to Montgomery, Ala., via Nashville. In Montgomery, the Atlantic Coast Line took over for the run to Jacksonville and all three trains ran from there to Miami on FEC.
The final participant in this trio, the Illinois Central’s City of Miami opted for smooth-side passenger cars from Pullman Standard, and was, by a wide margin, the most colorful of the lot, with a livery featuring green, orange. and crimson trim; its EMD E6 diesel featured a green “bow wave” motif on the sides and front of the locomotive. Its route took it from Chicago to Birmingham on the IC, where the Central of Georgia took over as far as Albany, Ga.; at that point, the ACL was responsible for the lap to Jacksonville, followed by the trek to Miami on FEC.
The all-coach configuration continued on all three trains through the World War II years and into the early postwar era. In 1949, sleeping cars were added, at first standard heavyweight prewar cars, followed by lightweight streamlined cars in the early 1950s. The City of Miami was completely lightweight by 1950, while the Flagler added some lightweight sleepers in 1951, and the Wind was all lightweight by the summer of 1953.
A more significant development occurred in December 1954 when the Dixie Flagler made its final run south, replaced by the “new” Dixieland, now operating with all lightweight equipment. It would last only until October 1957, after which it was no longer possible to depart Chicago on the C&EI for Florida on a train that had sleeping and dining car service.
Following this, the two remaining participants began running the City and the Wind on an every-other-day basis. By this time, rail passenger traffic was declining significantly, and the advent of the jet airliners in the late 1950s would only exacerbate this. Still, both trains continued to offer full service and, beginning in the late 1950s, dome cars were added to the winter season runs through the late 1960s. Initially this involved dome sleepers leased from Northern Pacific; the IC eventually would acquire dome coaches from Missouri Pacific, to be used on both the City of Miami and the City of New Orleans.
While the City of Miami made it all the way to the advent of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, although the observation cars had been removed in 1969, the South Wind did not fare as well. As of November 1969, it was no longer a through train to and from Chicago; passengers had to connect in Louisville with a separate Penn Central train with coaches and a buffet lounge car. In addition, on the L&N, the South Wind was merged with the Pan American between Louisville and Montgomery.
Finally, it should also be noted that there was another routing for Chicago-Florida passengers during the period covered here, using another Midwestern gateway to the south: Cincinnati. This involved both the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads on the north end, while the partners south of Cincinnati went via Southern Railway and L&N, respectively.
The PRR/L&N combination operated the Southland and focused on the west coast of Florida in the postwar years. While this was shown as a through train from Chicago, in reality this was essentially through sleeping cars on the Pennsy’s Chicago-Cincinnati overnight trains in each direction. In addition, there were through cars from Detroit, operated on PRR/Wabash joint Chicago-Detroit trains, and connecting with the Southland in Fort Wayne, Ind. When these services were discontinued in 1949, these through cars shifted to a Baltimore & Ohio routing between Detroit and Cincinnati. In any case, as of December 1957, the Southland was discontinued south of Atlanta, ending any participation in the Midwest-Florida market.
The NYC/SOU partnership concentrated on the east coast of Florida, and over the postwar years operated through sleeping cars on both the year-round Royal Palm as well as the seasonal New Royal Palm. The latter train was the last winter-seasonal Midwest-Florida train on any route; it lasted until April 30, 1955.
Through sleeping cars were operated between a number of Midwestern points and Florida, including Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. When the New Royal Palm commenced service, it ran as a separate through train with coaches, sleepers, and the observation lounge car on the NYC between Cincinnati and Detroit. As late as the winter of 1958, the “regular” Royal Palm boasted through sleeping cars and a coach between Detroit and Miami, as well as a sleeper between Cleveland and Miami.
Some additional information about The Southland. The Southland was inaugurated in 1915 as a through Chicago-Jacksonville train. In 1918, PRR’s Chicago-Cincinnati portion was discontinued due to USRA-mandated cutbacks. PRR’s portion was restored in late 1920, but only as a connecting train handling local Cincinnati cars as well as through Chicago and Detroit to Florida sleepers. This situation remained until late 1957, when the through north-of-Cincinnati sleeping car lines were discontinued. As a consequence, PRR’s train was renamed The Buckeye.
Given the technology of the day, it’s amazing how the PRR, IC, C&EI, L&N, NC&StL, CofG, ACL, and FEC choreographed this service that cycled through its different routes north of Jacksonville every three days.
There were also two additional trios of every-third-day trains that operated Chicago-Florida, technically as Chicago-Jacksonville runs, with Miami cars operating in FEC composite trains. For the 1941-1942 winter season, PRR’s Jacksonian, C&EI’s Dixieland and IC’s Sunchaser operated all-Pullman, somewhat mimicking the all-coach trains schedule structure. The second trio operated one night to Jacksonville, with Miami cars taking an additional night: PRR’s Florida Arrow, C&EI’s Dixiana and IC’s Floridan. Because of America’s entry into WW2, this second set of trains had their season curtailed early. For the 1942-1943 season, the Jacksonian-Dixieland-Sunchaser triumvirate returned, but as coach-Pullman trains.
There was another Chicago – Miami passenger train not mentioned: “The Dixie Flyer”. Wikipedia: “The Dixie Flyer was a premier named American passenger train that operated from 1892 to 1965 via the “Dixie Route” from Chicago and St. Louis via Evansville, Nashville, and Atlanta to Florida.” There was never a Chicago – Miami passenger train that included stops at both Indianapolis & Atlanta. Amtrak’s Floridian bypassed both cities, which seems like a less than ideal routing decision. Atlanta’s Terminal Station was razed in 1972, while Indianapolis Union Station is still in existence. Randy Newman recorded a song titled “Dixie Flyer”, concerning a passenger train of that name traveling in 1943 between Los Angeles & New Orleans. However, that train route was actually the Southern Pacific’s “Sunset Limited”.
Some corrections from that Wikipedia article about the Dixie Flyer: In 1892, the Dixie Flyer was a Nashville-Atlanta train that handled a Jacksonville sleeper. In those years, NC&StL & Western and Atlantic, the operators of the Flyer, also applied the Dixie Flyer moniker on several Florida sleeping car lines that utilized connecting trains, such as through sleepers from Chicago and St. Louis that were operated via IC and C&EI-L&N at various times. The Dixie Flyer did not become a through Chicago-Jacksonville train until 1908, running via C&EI and L&N to Nashville. There was also a St. Louis-Nashville section that operated via IC and NC&StL from 1899 until WW1. The Dixie Flyer operated as a through all-Pullman Chicago-Miami train for a few years in the mid-1920’s, but otherwise it operated Chicago-Jacksonville only until 1965, when it was cut back to Atlanta-Jacksonville, running in that fashion until 1969.
The last photo appears to be of Hamlet, NC. This is a worth while stop. There is a great museum in the Depo, which was moved across the tracks (East to West). There is a 1950 H.O. layout of Hamlet in the basement of the Depo, and a replica of the first steam engine of North Carolina across the street, behind the Seaboard GP-9 and Caboose.
This is NOT the Amtrak Floridian as originally routed from 1971-79 when we used it. It went the most DIRECT route; diagonally from Chi, down thru Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, etc. It provided a far shorter, quicker route AND served large cities (Lousiville, Nashville, etc) that have not had Amtrak service since. If Amtrak is to prosper (& have even greater Congressional support) it needs to serve states that are now ignored. Frankly to call this the “Floridian” is false advertising. Indeed, current Amtrak service goes from D.C. to Florida – hardly the same as a train from CUS to Florida that uses them rather than a shorter, quicker historic route Where is Amtrak’s national marketing dept?
My only trip on the South Wind was on spring break 1965 by myself (as a 12 year old). It was well patronized with many passengers boarding in Indianapolis. I rode the last car,an ACL coach, with an NP dome car, from the North Coast limited, in the middle of the consist. I also took my 6 year old brother with me, No adults accompanied us. I cannot imagine doing that today!
In 1965, I too was twelve years old and traveling UP’s City of Los Angeles from Ontario, CA to North Platte, NE. My greatest memories from that solo journey were listening to the tales woven by the kitchen staff after the diner had closed.