I know that the above three trains were tri-weekly because they had one set of equipment and were pre-war. All trains seemed to be identical in their consists. did one train leave Chicago, say, on the first, while the Dixie Flagler departed on the second, and the South Wind on the third? All had different routes leaving Chicago.
Any information would be appreciated. I always enjoy this forum as we share information about other parts of the country.
Until the C&EI and L&N dropped out in 1957 (after renaming the train Dixieland in 1954) each train operated every third day, with the days of operation printed in the Official Guide listings for two months at a time. After 1957 the remaining two trains operated on an every other day schedule, again with days of operation listed in the Official Guide. The every other day pattern remained until May 1, 1971 when the South Wind became daily under Amtrak, with through service restored via Lafayette. Penn Central had dropped through service via Logansport in 1970, running a coach-only train on the South Wind’s schedule to connect with the South Wind in Louisville.
There were daily secondary trains on each route well into the 1960s, into 1970 in the case of IC’s Seminole.
I always found it quite interesting that the Florida East Coast allowed 1:40 for unloading, turning, servicing, and loading the train in Miami–so that each train made the round trip in three days.
I am trying to remember (I do not havbe my collection of passenger timetables here), but, as I recall, there was a time when the City of Miami departed two days out of three before the Dixie Flagler/Dixieland was dropped.
I am curious why the powers to be in the various passenger departments did not have one train with three sets of equipment. One hour and forty minutes for a Miami to Chicago turnaround is very tight. This is not like the turning of the Twin Cities Zephyr’s in Minneapolis or Chicago.
I just looked at the 1943 schedule for the train–FEC#3 and #4–It was just 1:25 from arrival to departure. The scheduled time Jacksonville to Miami was 8:45 for the 366 miles–less the 20.4 miles saved by using the cutoff that bypassed East Palatka. The southbound Tamiami Champions were given 8:25, with the same number of stops (18; 3 of which were conditional). I would say that there was enough slack in the FEC schedule to allow for recovering some lost time–and until 1947 or 1948, the ICC did not have a dictum that limited the maximum speed according to the signaling in use (and companies were not as strict on the observing of speed limits as they have been recently).
Still, I think that the turn around time was extremely tight, if not in practice impossible. Perhaps the FEC did not turn the engines in that time.
By the way I have the impression that the FEC charged for the miles that went through East Palatka, just as the Pennsy charged for the miles into the Broad Street Station and back even after most through trains stopped only at 30th Street.
The short Miami turnaround must have been accomplished through an army of cleaners and maintainers at Miami. I believe that the diner was partially restocked in Jacksonville (presumablly with non-perishibles and other supplies) in order to save time in Miami. I also think that FEC used its own dining car crews between Jacksonville and Miami, giving the Chicago-Jacksonville crews around 16 hours off between runs.
In late 1949, The South Wind and Dixie Flagler had their schedule structure modified, leaving Chicago a few hours later and leaving Miami around noon. This increased the layover time in Miami, but the operators of these trains had to put together an additional consist for each train in order for this to work. The City of Miami was still operating on the original schedule structure, and still operated with one consist. Eventually the City joined the other trains with the revised schedule and added an additional consis
I always found it quite interesting that the Florida East Coast allowed 1:40 for unloading, turning, servicing, and loading the train in Miami–so that each train made the round trip in three days.
I am trying to remember (I do not havbe my collection of passenger timetables here), but, as I recall, there was a time when the City of Miami departed two days out of three before the Dixie Flagler/Dixieland was dropped.
The short Miami turnaround must have been accomplished through an army of cleaners and maintainers at Miami. I believe that the diner was partially restocked in Jacksonville (presumablly with non-perishibles and other supplies) in order to save time in Miami. I also think that FEC used its own dining car crews between Jacksonville and Miami, giving the Chicago-Jacksonville crews around 16 hours off between runs.
In late 1949, The South Wind and Dixie Flagler had their schedule structure modified, leaving Chicago a few hours later and leaving Miami around noon. This increased the layover time in Miami, but the operators of these trains had to put together an additional consist for each train in order for this to work. The City
Actually, during the 1940’s when the City of Miami, South Wind and Dixie Flagler operated with the same endpoint times, Miami arrival time varied between 2:50 p.m. to 4:10 p.m…
The South Wind route (which came into being in 1934 with the Florida Arrow) never had a secondary train such as IC’s Seminole to handle local and express services. In fact, except for some short seasonal time periods, this route never had any daily year-round service.
It came down to economics, competition, and passenger traffic patterns. Think about it - for New York-Florida trains, you had only one carrier for about 40% of the route miles (PRR NY-WASH and RF&P WASH-Richmond). South of there you just had ACL, SAL and SR (until 1915). For ACL and SAL, the Florida trade was their biggest source of passenger revenue, and there was a heavy demand for such services. For Florida service from the midwest, you had a larger number of railroads in various combinations, for through train and through Pullman routes, handling a traffic pattern that was more fanned out than the comparetively straight-line that was New York-Florida. Also, with the possible exception of C&EI, none of those railroads that were involved with midwest-Florida traffic derived a majority of their passenger income from such traffic. As a result, there was less incentive for any of the lines to build a strong Florida passenger offering.
The concept of a single daily train operating via three different routes on a third day basis was a way to “spread the risk” between the various carriers, as they were cautiously developing this new service in 1940. As part of their planning, the railroads summized that having one consist per train on a tight schedule would help make the service economically viable, looking at SAL and ACL operations. Trainsets standing idle do not make money.
Despite the success of the Champion of ACL and Silver Meteor of SAL, the various midwest-Flo