I.C. Passenger Trains

[Anonymous]

Soo6058 - It's your Uncle in Texas! Good to see you're still kicking!!! Merry Christmas to you and your family.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The City of Miami, along with the South Wind and the Dixie Flagler, were all-coach streamliners when they were inauguated in 1940 in an operating arrangement in which daily Chicago-Miami service was provided with each train operating on its own route every third day. Sleepers were added after World War 2.

The City of Miami and South Wind went to every-other-day operation when the Dixie Flagler was discontinued.

[Anonymous]

dont mean to hijack the post, but would this be uncle carl from TX, or cousin carl from OK?

[rrandb]

The Florida East Coast Railway operated the City of Miami between Jacksonville to Miami.

[eastside]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lehman

I'm interested in all passenger trains that ran in the 1940s & 1950s, especially the consists. I have been looking for information on I.C. passenger train consists and found some things I'd like to get more details on. It looks like the 'City of Miami' was all coach, which surprises me since the train took over 24 hours to make a run between Chicago and Miami! The 'City of New Orleans' appears to be all coach too. Again, it seems this train would have some sleepers since it was such a long trip. Anyone have consist information on these two I.C. trains? Anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Carl

In his book, Night Trains (Johns Hopkins University Press), Peter Maiken says that the City of New Orleans was indeed all coach. For the City of Miami he cites a sample consist from 1952 of 7 Pullmans, one to Jacksonville, one from St. Louis to Miami, and five from Chicago to Miami. "The City of Miami was inaugurated in December 1940, running every third day in rotation with the South Wind and Dixie Flagler.”

Given the era you’re interested in, this book is a must. For example, he takes an arbitrary midnight in April 1952, lists the location of every Pullman train running in the U.S., its consist, accommodations, schedule, and destination. It’s over 400 pages and, amazingly for a train book, is well-edited, probably because he is a retired editor of the Chicago Tribune.

[RudyRockvilleMD]

The City of New Orleans was a dawn-to-dusk Chicago - New Orleans streamliner which had coaches, a dining car, and a tavern-lounge observation car. It dropped some of its coaches at Jackson, MS on the southbound run, and it picked them up on the northbound run.. My wife and I rode it in 1958, and as I remember it left New Orleans at 7 AM, and it arrived in Chicago at 11 PM.

I never saw or rode the City of Miami. As i recall it was an every third day Chicago-Miami streamliner. It ran from Chicago to Birmingham on the IC, Birmingham to Albany, GA via the Central of Georgia, the ACL between Albany GA and Jacksonville, FL, and the between Jacksonville and Miami. It was all coach train prior to World War II, but it, as well as the other Every Third Day Chicago-Florida streamliers, acquired sleepers after the war.

[jeaton]

I don't remember the consist of the City of Miami for sure, but I really think it had sleeper service. On the other hand the City of New Orleans was a day train, leaving both Chicago and New Orleans around 8am and arriving at the destination cities in the late evening, maybe around 10pm or so. So it was all coach service, but it did have a full service diner and a round end observation/lounge car.

The Panama Limited was the all first class service between Chicago and New Orleans and ran overnight leaving about 5pm and ariving around 9am.

As I recall, all three of the trains used the post WWII lightweight streamlined equipment.

Jay

[Anonymous]

I'm interested in all passenger trains that ran in the 1940s & 1950s, especially the consists. I have been looking for information on I.C. passenger train consists and found some things I'd like to get more details on. It looks like the 'City of Miami' was all coach, which surprises me since the train took over 24 hours to make a run between Chicago and Miami! The 'City of New Orleans' appears to be all coach too. Again, it seems this train would have some sleepers since it was such a long trip. Anyone have consist information on these two I.C. trains? Anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Carl