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Dixie Flyer (train)

{{Short description|Former American passenger rail service}}

{{italic title}}

{{Use American English|date=September 2022}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}

{{Infobox rail service

| box_width = 30em

| name = Dixie Flyer

| image =Dixie Flyer, 1924.png

| caption =The Dixie Flyer in 1924, just outside of Atlanta

| type = Inter-city rail

| status = Discontinued

| locale = Midwestern United States/Southeastern United States

| first = 1892

| last = 1969

| formeroperator=

| start = Chicago

| end = Miami

| distance = {{convert|1454|mi|km}} (1949)

| frequency = Daily (1949)

| trainnumber = Southbound: 95
Northbound: 94

| seating = Reclining seat coaches

| sleeping = Sections, compartments and drawing rooms

| catering = Dining car

| baggage = Baggage car

| stock = Streamlined passenger cars by Pullman Standard

| gauge = {{RailGauge|ussg}}

| map = {{Dixie Flyer}}

| map_state = collapsed

}}

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.{{cite book|last1=Prince|first1=Richard E.|title=Louisville & Nashville Steam Locomotives|date=1968|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, Ind.|isbn=025333764X|pages=141, 158|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vzJkVIXu77YC&q=%22dixie+flyer%22&pg=PA141|accessdate=15 August 2014}}By the time of the December 18, 1965 timetable, the L&N had eliminated all of its Chicago to Florida trains but the South Wind. http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=7716Louisville & Nashville December 18, 1965 timetable http://streamlinermemories.info/South/L&N65TT.pdf However, the train continued until 1969 as an Atlanta to Florida operation, run solely by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and its successor, the Seaboard Coast Line. The Flyer's route varied in early years, but by about 1920 was set as follows:

History

After the NC&StL acquired the lease of the Western and Atlantic Railroad in 1890, it began promoting its passenger business from northern connections through Tennessee, and in early 1892 christened its existing trains 1 and 2 from Nashville to Atlanta as the Dixie Flyer, with through Pullman Palace sleeping cars from Nashville to Jacksonville; these at first were routed south of Atlanta via the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (controlled by the Southern Railway), and later rerouted via the CofG and ACL.

In 1899, the NC&StL made an agreement with the Illinois Central (IC) to handle passengers via the IC from Chicago and from St. Louis, via Fulton, Kentucky and Martin, Tennessee on the Dixie Flyer with limited stops and a fast schedule. In 1908, the Chicago traffic was rerouted via the CE&I from Chicago to Evansville, and the L&N from Evansville to Nashville; during World War I, the L&N also took over the traffic from St. Louis to Evansville. Soon after the war ended, the route south of Atlanta to Jacksonville was settled on the CofG to Macon and Albany, and from there via the ACL via Tifton and Waycross. In Jacksonville, through Pullmans were handed over to the FEC for Miami or to other ACL trains for Tampa and other west coast (Gulf of Mexico) points.

At the height of the Florida land boom in 1925, the popular Dixie Flyer was split into three sections: the all-Pullman Dixie Flyer from Chicago/St. Louis to Florida; the coaches and Atlanta and Augusta sleepers were carried on the second section, named the Dixie Express; mail and express went by the third section, the Dixie Mail. Following the collapse of the Florida boom and the effects of the Great Depression, services were cut back in the 1930s, with the Flyer handling both coaches and Pullmans.

A short-lived Jacksonville-Yellowstone National Park Pullman route was created in the summer of 1925, carrying a sleeper via the Dixie Flyer to St. Louis, via the Wabash to Kansas City, and via the Union Pacific to West Yellowstone.{{cite book|last1=Prince|first1=Richard E.|title=The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway: History and Steam Locomotives|date=1967|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington, Ind.|isbn=0253339278|pages=151–153|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kmjsw8fByKUC&q=%22dixie+flyer%22+l&pg=PP7|accessdate=15 August 2014}}

File:Dixie Flyer and Dixie Limited timetables 1930.jpg

By the postwar 1940s, the Florida East Coast Railway route along the coast was carried by the Atlantic Coast Line's Miamian. The other sections to St. Petersburg, Tampa and Sarasota were covered by ACL local trains. By the mid-1950s, the Atlantic Coast Line terminated the route at Jacksonville, including the sleeping cars. Passengers wishing to continue on the traditional Florida East Coast route to Miami would need to transfer to the ACL's East Coast Champion.Atlantic Coast Line timetable, June 12, 1955, Tables J and A.

The Dixie Flyer was discontinued north of Atlanta by December 1965,December 18, 1965 Louisville & Nashville timetable http://streamlinermemories.info/South/L&N65TT.pdf{{cite book|last1=Cox|first1=Jim|title=Rails Across Dixie: A History of Passenger Trains in the American South|date=2011|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson, N.C.|isbn=978-0786461752|page=139|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gY4FgCKdb7UC&q=%22dixie+flyer%22+discontinued&pg=PR4}} From 1965 the Atlantic Coast Line RR (and then its successor, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad) kept the train running on the route from Atlanta Union Station south to Jacksonville, on an overnight schedule, but without sleeping cars.{{fact|date=October 2024}} The train was finally discontinued on January 8, 1969.{{cite news |last=Hurt | first=Bob |title=A Tearful Gooodby To 'Dixie Flyer' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-constitution-a-tearful-goood/157919168/ |newspaper=The Atlanta Constitution |date=January 9, 1969 |page=30 |via=Newspapers.com |access-date=October 27, 2024}} Like many other passenger trains a victim of plummeting ridership in the face of airline and highway competition.

Major stops

The following were major stops. Precise stops are in the diagram map at the right.Official Guide of the Railways May 1946, Louisville and Nashville section

  • Chicago
  • St. Louis (the Chicago and St. Louis branches converged in Evansville)
  • Terre Haute
  • Evansville
  • Nashville
  • Tullahoma
  • Chattanooga
  • Dalton
  • Atlanta
  • Albany
  • Jacksonville
  • West Palm Beach
  • Fort Lauderdale
  • Miami

Separate connecting Atlantic Coast Line branches from Jacksonville served Gainesville, Orlando, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Dixie Route trains

File:Dixie Route brochure 1926 3 map.jpg

Other trains from the Midwest to Florida using the Dixie Route included:{{cite web|title=Time Tables, December 12, 1946|url=http://cid.railfan.net/image2/l_timetab.jpg|website=railfan.net|publisher=Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad|accessdate=3 March 2016}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

{{Commons}}

  • [http://www.ncstl.com/equipment/passenger/dixie_flyer/dixieflyer.htm "Dixie Flyer,"] NC&StL Preservation Society, accessed 23 August 2014. Includes photos, time tables, and newspaper accounts of the train's discontinuance.

{{CEI named trains}}

{{LN named trains}}

{{NC named trains}}

{{CG named trains}}

{{ACL named trains}}

{{FEC named trains}}

{{SCL named trains}}

Category:Named passenger trains of the United States

Category:Night trains of the United States

Category:Passenger trains of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad

Category:Passenger trains of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad

Category:Passenger trains of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway

Category:Passenger trains of the Central of Georgia Railway

Category:Passenger trains of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Category:Passenger trains of the Florida East Coast Railway

Category:Passenger trains of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Florida

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Illinois

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Indiana

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Missouri

Category:Passenger rail transportation in Tennessee

Category:Railway services introduced in 1892

Category:Railway services discontinued in 1969