OK - I flipped in and out of, The Godfather, Part II this weekend in between college football and NHL games.
Michael Corleone is travelling to visit Hyman Roth in Miami, FL in 1958. They show him aboard a Union Pacific passenger train speeding eastbound behind a set of E9’s. I can see him taking the UP as far east as Kansas City or St. Louis, but from there what lines would he and his thug bodyguard take to reach Miami?
Let’s assume a mob kingpin is willing to spend whatever the cost may have been for 1st class accomodations (from the view of him on the train he certainly appeared to be travelling in style). I know the IC had through-service between Chicago and Miami, with the the Florida leg being over either SAL or ACL (can’t remember which - that service continued into SCL) and I think over the SOU or LN to reach Florida. Did the UP have a similar through-service arrangement to reach Florida?
Taking UP eastbound out of Nevada, how would his train reach Miami?
Of course, but the hypothetical question is interesting regardless of the movie content - what would be the best service to reach Florida using the UP as your originating service from Nevada?
I’m using the mid-1950’s as an approximate date. Mr. Corleone could take either the “City of St. Louis” to St. Louis (WAB between Kansas City to St. Louis) and the “City of Miami” (it had a St. Louis-Carbondale connector) to Miami (CG Birmingham-Columbus and ACL Columbus-Miami) or he could take the “City of Los Angeles” to Chicago and take any of the three Chicago-Miami streamliners (City of Miami/South Wind/Dixie Flagler).
I think there are two likely options. Under either option, he was taking the UP to Chicago via Omaha (you could tell, because he was an uneasy rider). But from Chicago, he could have either taken the IC. Or the Dixie Land–Chicago Eastern Illinois and L&N. Although, I forget what time of the year the trip was in the movie, as I think the Dixe land was only a winter train.
Do you think his car would’ve been set-out and picked-up by the IC at St. Louis, or would he and his bodyguard have had to change trains? I know the KC-St.L leg wouldn’t have involved a change of cars. Would his sleeping car have run-through all the way to Miami?
I would certainly hope he wouldn’t tell the station agent that, “Either his brains or his signature would be on that [ticket refund]” if he missed his connection!
Did Mr. Corleone have cousins in Chicago? Was Mr. Corleone taking the train so he could handle some family business between trains? The movie says nothing about a business layover.
Given that Micheal felt safer inside public places, would he risk a station transfer? Doing so would involve a vehicle on public a public street. Remember how he got into the family business.
The UP/Milwaukee connection would put Micheal into Chicago’s Union Station in 1958. After Valentine’s Day 29 years earlier and the resulting fallout, an “Untouchables” style machine gun dwell was unlikely there. Could Micheal catch the Pennyslvania’s leg of the Southwind in relative safety?
Would St. Louis offer a similar safer transfer of trains without changing stations?
I’m no Godfather buff, but as I recall the saga starts (w/ DiNero as Don Correleon), in whar’s clearly meant to be the Little Italy section of NYC. Unless the family’s focus of operations shifted to Calif at some point and the point of origin is specifically Lake Tahoe, the travel arrangemnts from NYC to Miami become simple and we have only to snort derisevly at H’wood’s typical use of whatever “train” footage was convenient.
If, on the other hand, I’ve just displayed my cinimatic ignorance and the movie’s point of departure is Lake Tahoe, how about boarding the SP/UP/Milw Cirty of SF at Reno, making a cross-concourse transfer at Chicago to whichever of PRR’s Miami trains would be conenient.
Here’s the best routing I can come up with for Mr Corleone. I hope it’s satisfactory. I really, really, hope it’s satisfactory.
LV Truckee, CA 10:03 PM Monday on SP #102, the City of San Francisco, through sleeper to Chicago
AR Chicago, IL 11:15 AM Wednesday on MILW #102, the City of San Francisco
LV Chicago, IL 5:10 PM Wednesday on IC #9, the Seminole, through sleeper to Jacksonville, FL
AR Jacksonville, FL 9:20 PM Thursday on ACL #17.
LV Jacksonville, FL 10:30 PM Thursday on FEC #75, the Havana Special, through sleeper to Miami
AR Miami, FL 7:00 AM Friday on FEC #75.
All trains run daily. Days of the week are shown for example only. Trains to Jacksonville have dinning and lounge services. Mr. Corleone will have to make two train changes. One at Chicago and one at Jacksonville.
Mr. Corleone may choose to avoid the change at Jacksonville by laying over one night in a Chicago hotel and taking a through train from Chicago to Miami. However, this will delay his arrival in Miami until 5:15 PM on the example day shown. If he were to choose this option, he would have dinning and lounge service on the trains from Truckee to Miami. He could also take a shower in Chicago.