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 cars and Pullman service. The train left Jacksonville at night and arrived in New Orleans in the evening, as the Express had done.

Gulf Wind
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleUnited States Gulf Coast
PredecessorNew Orleans-Florida Express
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
TerminiJacksonville, Florida
New Orleans, Louisiana
Service frequencyDaily
Train number(s)38 (SAL), 98 (L&N) eastbound, 39 (SAL), 99 (L&N) 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
1949–1971[1]
Distance
 Station
0
 Jacksonville
43.7 km
27.2 mi
 Macclenny
94.6 km
58.8 mi
 Lake City
130.3 km
81 mi
 Live Oak
176.1 km
109.4 mi
 Madison
265.5 km
165 mi
 Tallahassee
304.1 km
189 mi
 Quincy
334.1 km
207.6 mi
 Chattahoochee
 Apalachicola River
375.9 km
233.6 mi
 Marianna
512.6 km
318.5 mi
 Crestview
 Escambia Bay
593.2 km
368.6 mi
 Pensacola
Florida
Alabama
664 km
413 mi
 Flomaton
 Mobile River
744.4 km
462.5 mi
 Mobile
Alabama
Mississippi
815.9 km
507 mi
 Pascagoula
 Pascagoula River
848.1 km
527 mi
 Biloxi
878.7 km
546 mi
 Edgewater Park
 Biloxi Bay
869 km
540 mi
 Gulfport
 St. Louis Bay
894.1 km
555.6 mi
 Bay St. Louis
Mississippi
Louisiana
985.9 km
612.6 mi
 New Orleans

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 made fewer stops, mainly in larger towns and cities.[4][5]

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

Louisville & Nashville 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.[6] After the Southern Railway discontinued the Piedmont Limited, the Pan-American carried the Gulf Wind in both directions from New Orleans to Flomaton.[7]

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.[8][9][10] 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.[11] By the December 1968 schedule, the L&N and the SCL had dropped sleepers from the Gulf Wind altogether.[12]

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.[13] 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.)[14] The local was eliminated in 1966.[15][16] In the train's final year, from 1970 to April 1971, the L&N and Seaboard Coast Line made the Gulf Wind a three departures a week train.[17][18]

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. Passenger service had not resumed as of 2016.[19] In 2016 and 2017 Gulf Coast regional officials agitated for restoration of daily train service between New Orleans and Florida.[20]

See also

References
  1. "Seaboard Air Line Railroad, Table 6". Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetables, effective December 16, 1966. Seaboard Air Line Railroad. December 16, 1966.
  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. Louisville & Nashville Railroad timetable, 1954, Tables 1, 2
  7. "Louisville & Nashville Railroad, Table 3". Official Guide of the Railways. National Railway Publication Company. 101 (1). June 1968.
  8. Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetable, September 24, 1950, Table 8
  9. Seaboard Air Line Railroad condensed timetable, April 24, 1955, 9
  10. "Seaboard schedule for October 25, 1959". geocities. Archived from the original on 2009-10-25.
  11. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad timetable, December 15, 1967, Tables 5, 18
  12. Seaboard Coast Line Railroad timetable, December 13, 1968, Table 11
  13. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1949, Seaboard Air Line section, Condensed Tables and Table 11
  14. Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetable, June 15, 1948, Table 8
  15. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' January 1966, Seaboard Air Line section, Table 8
  16. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' December 1966, Seaboard Air Line section, eliminated from Table 8
  17. Official Guide of the Railways May 1970, Seaboard Coast Line section, indicated as daily train
  18. Seaboard Coast Line timetable, December 11, 1970, Table 11, indicated as tri-weekly
  19. Laing, Keith (January 26, 2016). "Amtrak to test restoration of rail service lost since Katrina". The Hill.
  20. 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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