Gulf Wind

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).[2] 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 and sleeping car service. The train left Jacksonville at night and arrived in New Orleans in the evening, as did the Express also. 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.[3] 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 did make limited stops.[4][5]

Gulf Wind
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleUnited States Gulf Coast
First serviceJuly 31, 1949
Last serviceApril 30, 1971
Former operator(s)Louisville and Nashville Railroad/Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (1967-1971)
Route
StartJacksonville, Florida
EndNew Orleans, Louisiana
Service frequencyDaily
Train number(s)34,38 (eastbound), 39,99 (westbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangementsReclining seat coach
Sleeping arrangementssections, and double bedrooms
Catering facilitiesdining cars
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map

Gulf Wind route 1949-1971[1]

 Distance Station
 0 New Orleans
L&N
52 mi (84 km) Bay St. Louis
 St. Louis Bay
 67 mi (108 km) Gulfport
 Biloxi Bay
 80 mi (130 km) Biloxi
140 mi (230 km) Mobile
 Mobile River
 200 mi (320 km) Flomaton
244 mi (393 km) Pensacola
 Escambia Bay
 294 mi (473 km) Crestview
 379 mi (610 km) Marianna
 Apalachicola River
 405 mi (652 km) Chattahoochee
SAL
 447.6 mi (720.3 km) Tallahassee
 553.8 mi (891.3 km) Lake City
 616.6 mi (992.3 km) Jacksonville

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.[2] The name was likely inspired by the success of another train carried partly over L&N rails, the Chicago-Miami South Wind.

The consist of the Gulf Wind included baggage cars, coaches, and Pullman sleepers, as well as an L&N diner between New Orleans and Mobile, and an SAL diner between Chattahoochee and Jacksonville.[6] A round-ended observation car was also a regular part of the Gulf Wind consist.

In its later years, as passenger numbers dwindled, the Gulf Wind was often combined with L&N's northbound Piedmont Limited from New Orleans to Flomaton, and with the southbound Pan-American from Flomaton to New Orleans. The Gulf Wind's daily schedule was cut back to triweekly in the late 1960s.[2]

As early as 1949, the L&N and the SAL had a counterpart daytime train, Passenger Mail and Express, which made the whole trip within a day, arriving at its destination in the early evening.[7] The latter decades day train had no refreshment amenities; besides coaches, it carried just baggage and mail cars. (Its predecessor, the New Orleans-Florida Express, had a dining car.)[8] The Passenger Mail and Express was eliminated in 1965 or 1966.[9][10]

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.[2]

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. It has not been resumed as of 2016.[11] In 2016 and 2017 Gulf Coast regional officials agitated for restoration of daily train service between New Orleans and Florida.[12]

See also

References
  1. "Gulf Wind time table, November 1, 1949". Streamliner Schedules. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  2. "Gulf Wind". Greenspun.com.
  3. Seaboard Air Line, June 15, 1948 timetable, Table 8
  4. Seaboard Air Line, June 15, 1948 timetable, Table 8
  5. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1949, Seaboard Air Line section, Condensed Tables and Table 11
  6. "Seaboard schedule for October 25, 1959". Archived from the original on |archive-url= requires |archive-date= (help).
  7. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1949, Seaboard Air Line section, Condensed Tables and Table 11
  8. Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetable, June 15, 1948, Table 8
  9. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' July 1965, Seaboard Air Line section, Table 8
  10. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' December 1966, Seaboard Air Line section, eliminated from Table 8
  11. Laing, Keith (January 26, 2016). "Amtrak to test restoration of rail service lost since Katrina". The Hill.
  12. Hampton, Paul (July 19, 2017). "Gulf Coast leaders push to restore passenger train service with two New Orleans routes". The New Orleans Advocate.
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