Gulf Wind
{{Short description|Former Seaboard Air Line Railroad service between Jacksonville, FL, and New Orleans, LA}}
{{italic title}}
{{Infobox rail service
|name = Gulf Wind
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|type = Inter-city rail
|status = Discontinued
|locale = United States Gulf Coast
|predecessor = New Orleans-Florida Express
|first = July 31, 1949
|last = April 30, 1971
|operator =
|formeroperator = Louisville and Nashville Railroad/Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (1967-1971)
|start = Jacksonville, Florida
|end = New Orleans, Louisiana
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|frequency = Daily
|trainnumber = 38 (SAL), 98 (L&N) eastbound, 39 (SAL), 99 (L&N) westbound
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|seating = Reclining seat coach
|sleeping = sections, and double bedrooms
|autorack =
|catering = dining cars
|observation =
|entertainment =
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|gauge = {{track gauge|ussg}}
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|map = {{Gulf Wind}}
|map_state = show
}}
The Gulf Wind was a streamlined passenger train inaugurated on July 31, 1949, as a joint operation by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (Seaboard Coast Line after merger with the Atlantic Coast Line on July 1, 1967).{{cite web| url=http://greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000aet| title=Gulf Wind| website=Greenspun.com}} {{unreliable source|date=January 2019}} The Gulf Wind replaced the heavyweight New Orleans - Florida Express on this routing. The Gulf Wind was a limited stops train and offered amenities such as dining cars and Pullman service. The train left Jacksonville in late afternoon, arriving in New Orleans the next morning, and likewise in the other direction.
Prior to the establishment of the Gulf Wind the New Orleans-Florida Express had a counterpart train, the New Orleans-Florida Limited, which left Jacksonville in the morning.Seaboard Air Line, June 15, 1948 timetable, Table 8 For much of the twentieth century, one or two other passenger trains, numbered but unnamed, also plied this route daily; these were much-slower local trains, stopping at each small town along the route, and were labeled simply as "passenger, mail, and express" in timetables. The Express, contrary to its name, made stops at small towns; while the Gulf Wind made fewer stops, mainly in larger towns and cities.Seaboard Air Line, June 15, 1948 timetable, Table 8'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1949, Seaboard Air Line section, Condensed Tables and Table 11
Route
The train's 617-mile route ran from Jacksonville, Florida via Tallahassee, Chattahoochee, Pensacola, Flomaton, Mobile, and Biloxi to New Orleans. Locomotives were changed at Chattahoochee, where the SAL rails met those of the L&N.
With a schedule designed for passengers changing to or from the Seaboard's Silver Meteor at Jacksonville, the Gulf Wind originally departed both endpoints at 5 p.m. daily for the overnight run across the Florida Panhandle and along the Gulf Coast, arriving in the morning at the other end of the line. The name was likely inspired by the success of another train carried partly over L&N rails, the Chicago-Miami South Wind.
File:Southern one-third L&N main line.png 1954 timetable, showing Gulf Wind running in tandem with the Pan-American, as one of five trains traveling daily west from Mobile to New Orleans]]
Heading westbound, the Gulf Wind joined onto Louisville & Nashville's Pan-American at Flomaton, Alabama. On the eastbound trip, the Gulf Wind ran from New Orleans to Flomaton along with the Southern Railway's Piedmont Limited, and at Flomaton departed as its own train.Louisville & Nashville Railroad timetable, 1954, Tables 1, 2 After the Southern Railway discontinued the Piedmont Limited, the Pan-American carried the Gulf Wind in both directions from New Orleans to Flomaton.{{cite journal |title=Louisville & Nashville Railroad, Table 3 |journal=Official Guide of the Railways |publisher=National Railway Publication Company |volume=101 |issue=1 |date=June 1968}}
Equipment
The consist of the Gulf Wind included baggage cars, coaches, and Pullman sleepers with a mix of rooms and traditional open sections, as well as an L&N diner between New Orleans and Mobile, and an SAL diner between Chattahoochee and Jacksonville. By 1955, modern roomettes were added to the consist.Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetable, September 24, 1950, Table 8Seaboard Air Line Railroad condensed timetable, April 24, 1955, 9{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/ORVILLEI/seaboard59.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025065058/http://geocities.com/orvillei/seaboard59.html |archive-date=2009-10-25 |url-status=dead |title=Seaboard schedule for October 25, 1959 |website=geocities}}{{rs|date=March 2021}} A round-ended observation car was also a regular part of the Gulf Wind consist.
In December 1967, the first winter season of the merged Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the train was the last, along with the company's Silver Star, to have open section sleepers, along with roomettes and other rooms.Seaboard Coast Line Railroad timetable, December 15, 1967, Tables 5, 18 By the December 1968 schedule, the L&N and the SCL had dropped sleepers from the Gulf Wind altogether.Seaboard Coast Line Railroad timetable, December 13, 1968, Table 11
History
Passenger service existed on this route from its construction in 1882 by the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad, at times with three or four daily trains in each direction. In 1949, the L&N and the SAL had a local train that arrived at its destinations in the early evening.'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1949, Seaboard Air Line section, Condensed Tables and Table 11 This local train had no diner or lounge; besides coaches, it carried just baggage and mail cars. (The local train's predecessor, the New Orleans-Florida Express, had a dining car and sleeping cars.)Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetable, June 15, 1948, Table 8 The local was eliminated in 1966.'Official Guide of the Railways,' January 1966, Seaboard Air Line section, Table 8'Official Guide of the Railways,' December 1966, Seaboard Air Line section, eliminated from Table 8 In the train's final year, from December 1970 to April 1971, the Gulf Wind ran only three days a week.Official Guide of the Railways May 1970, Seaboard Coast Line section, indicated as daily trainSeaboard Coast Line timetable, December 11, 1970, Table 11, indicated as tri-weekly
The last run of the Gulf Wind occurred on April 30, 1971. Amtrak, which took over nearly all passenger train operations in the United States on the following day, elected not to continue running the Gulf Wind, which despite good equipment and service was not a profitable train at that point in time.
The western portion of the Gulf Wind route from Mobile to New Orleans was briefly served by Amtrak's Gulf Coast Limited from 1984 to 1985, and again from 1996 to 1997.
The Gulf Wind route had no scheduled passenger train service between Jacksonville and Flomaton until the revived and extended tri-weekly Sunset Limited was inaugurated by Amtrak in 1993. The service was again suspended in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage to the Gulf Coast. Passenger service had not resumed {{as of|2016|lc=y|url=http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer/AM_Route_C/1241245650939/1237405732511}}.{{cite web| url=https://thehill.com/policy/transportation/267101-amtrak-to-test-restoration-of-rail-service-lost-since-katrina/| title=Amtrak to test restoration of rail service lost since Katrina| website=The Hill| date=January 26, 2016| first=Keith| last=Laing}} In 2016 and 2017, Gulf Coast regional officials agitated for restoration of daily train service between New Orleans and Florida.{{cite news| first=Paul| last=Hampton| newspaper=The New Orleans Advocate| date=July 19, 2017| url=http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/business/article_c4156654-6c7f-11e7-a8ae-9b949731c5f0.html| title=Gulf Coast leaders push to restore passenger train service with two New Orleans routes}}
See also
- Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad - predecessor of the L&N
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.american-rails.com/gulf-wind.html Running The Coast, The Joint Seaboard/L&N, Gulf Wind]
- [http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track2/gulfwind194912.html The Gulf Wind{{'}}s timetable and consist, November, 1949]
- [http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track2/gulfwind197104.html The Gulf Wind{{'}}s final timetable and consist, January - April, 1971]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080415165105/http://wfrm.org/wfrmhist.html West Florida Railroad Museum, Milton, Fla.]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080521110945/http://heritage-museum.org/exhibits.htm Heritage Museum of Northwest Florida, Valparaiso, Fla.]
- [http://www.privaterailcars.net/royalstreet.html Pictures of the restored L&N observation car Royal Street, used on the Gulf Wind until 1970] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516114956/http://www.privaterailcars.net/royalstreet.html |date=2008-05-16 }}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080512153334/http://www.americanrail.com/Royal_Street.htm More pictures of the Royal Street, now in private hands]
{{LN named trains}}
{{SAL named trains}}
{{SCL named trains}}
Category:Named passenger trains of the United States
Category:Passenger trains of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Category:Passenger trains of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Category:Passenger trains of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
Category:Night trains of the United States
Category:Passenger rail transportation in Alabama
Category:Passenger rail transportation in Florida
Category:Passenger rail transportation in Louisiana
Category:Passenger rail transportation in Mississippi