At the age of 3, I was singing along to Johnny Cash’s version of the classic train song; “The Orange Blossom Special” and that is perhaps what got me into the whole train scene. I’ve seen paintings of the engine and its coaches and they were all of a diesel engine and I was wondering if anyone knew if there was ever a steam engine version of the Orange Blossom Special.
The biggest question I have is; Was there ever an HO scale OBS engine (and coaches). I’ve searched the Internet for hours trying to find one and nothing ever comes up. I have only found a Seaboard Air Line Boxcar with “IN THE ROUTE OF THE ORANGE BLOSSOM SPECIAL” which I’m planning to buy, because it is the boxcar Johnny Cash sits upon on the cover of the “Orange Blossom Special” album.
Well, not that I put that much faith in Wikipedia, but it does appear the train started in the 1920’s, and was operated until 1938 as a steam powered / heavyweight train…
Wasn’t the song first from the late teens or early twenties? Then the passenger train. Then after the passenger train’s demise it was a freight moniker. Lots of toys, cartoons, etc. took the name throught the years…
The Orange Blossom Speical was never a streamlined train with specifically assigned cars. I remember it as a standard all-Pullman heavyweight, with sleepers lettered Pullman, not railroad names, and occasionally a red PRR-assigned Pullman would show up. The diners and observation lounges may have had Seabord or Orange Blossom Speical on the letterboard. I remember it as hauled (during WWII) by a three unit lashup of three E-units, E-6’s I think, two A units facing outward bracketing one B-unit. The diesels had the very colorful yellow organge with green and black trim that I remember was used on the first SAL passenger diesels. Engines were changed at Acca yard in Richmond, not at the Main Street Station, and one of the RF&P 4-8-4’s, the Virginina Governor series if I remember, or were they named after War-between-theStates heroes? Beutiful steam locomotives. North of Washington of course GG-1’s. So you have quite a choice in modeling. A lot of the heavyweight sleepers were all-room cars.
When lightweight sleepers arrived on the SAL, they were added to the previously all-coach Silver Meteor and Silver Star, and the Orange Blossom Speical was discontinued.
In Arthur D Dubin’s excellent book “More Classic Trains”, on pages 214 and 215 there is an excellent photograph of Seaboard Air Line’s class M-2 Mountain number 249 on the “Orange Blossom Special” carrying nameboards with the script name “Orange Blossom Special” in orange on black (according to the caption, it is a B&W photo) above the driving wheels.
The M-2 is generally similar in appearance to the USRA light Mountain type, but has the sand dome mounted significantly further back on the boiler. The M-2 class were built with Vanderbilt tenders with four wheel trucks but were refitted in the 1930s with larger Semi-Vanderbilt tenders with six wheel trucks and 249 has one in this photo.
On pages 222 and 223 there is a photo of M-2 250 as built and eight standard heavyweight cars as used on the “Orange Blossom Special”. four of the cars are lettered “Orange Blossom Special” in script on the letterboard at each end of the car near the doors on the Pullmans and similarly located on the diner.
On pages 133 and 134 are illustrated streamlined Pullman built so-called “American Flyer” cars said to be used by Seaboard on the “Orange Blossom Special”. This would suggest that the train was not all-Pullman but logos on Seaboard pages state “fully air conditioned” which is consistent with these coach cars.
On page 221 the train is illustrated hauled by an A-B-A set of EMD E-4 units (similar to an E-3 but fitted with connecting doors in the nose) “on the RF&P” in snow (possibly near Alexandria VA station) suggesting that the diesels ran through to Washington DC on at least one occasion.
The book was originally published by Kalmbach but later republished by Interurban Press.
That book and the earlier part “Some Classic Trains” (published by Kalmbach) are really useful for anyone interested in modelling USA passenger trains up to the Amtrak era.
Well, don’t think of “the engine”…I mean, over the years there may have been dozens of different steam engines that pulled the heavyweight train. It wasn’t like say the Hiawatha where a particular class of engine was used to just pull that one train.
It is certainly possible that the train had the letterboard designation before WWII, and also possible that some lightweight equipment was used before sufficient quantity was on hand to convert the two streamliners to coach and sleeper. My memories are from WWII, and I suspect that the special letterboard lettering was dropped at that time. The diesels I remember as E-6’s were probably the E-4’s you mentioned.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying. My dad and I refer to engines with I guess the names of the train or line. His favorite is the Daylight Special and he refers to the engine as such. I’ve seen paintings of an E-6 with “Orange Blossom Special” printed on the side, so I just call it that. I guess what I mean is I’d like to have an E-6 that with the “OBS” decoration.
I often refer back to the book “Through the Heart of the South” by Robert Wayne Johnson for answers about the SAL. I found that the OBS was started in the 1920’s and ran until 1953. It was an all Pullman (heavyweight cars) train with service from New York to Florida. In its final years it appears to have stretched to 15 cars. Early on it was pulled by the M-2s and later by E-4s in the Green and Yellow Citrus scheme. It was never equipped with streamlined cars as the railroad did not see that as a good investment for a train that ran four months out of the year. The train was discontinued in 1953.
If you are interested in the streamlined cars, the Silver Meteor ran using similar motive power as a seven car all coach train.
I have seen “Silver Meteor” painted on the sides of locomotives, but I have not seen “Orange Blossom Special.”
There is an excellent book published by the ACL & SCL Railroads Historical Society called “Orange Blossom Special - Florida’s Distinguished Winter Train” by Theodore Shrady and Arthur Waldrop, which details the history of the Orange Blossom Special. There are a number of photos of the Special behind steam and diesel, as well as some shots of the cars too.
I was looking at Walthers.com just now and I do see that Branchline Trains has (from time to time) at least three Pullman cars in HO scale. They are, of course, not currently available, but at least this can point you in a direction.
