Kansas City–Florida Special

The Kansas City–Florida Special was a pooled night train and the premier train of the Frisco Railroad and the Southern Railway. Operating from Kansas City, Missouri to Jacksonville, Florida, it was unique as being one of very few long distance passenger train to traverse the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, Missouri and north of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Kansas City–Florida

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Southeastern United States
First service	November 26, 1911 (1911-11-26)
Last service	1965 (1965)
Former operator(s)	Frisco Railroad Southern Railway
Route
Termini	Kansas City, Missouri Jacksonville, Florida (1959)
Distance travelled	1,229.5 miles (1,978.7 km) (1959)
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	105 (eastbound), 106 (westbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Reclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangements	Sections, roomettes, double bedrooms, and a compartment (1959)
Catering facilities	Dining car
Route map Kansas City Paola Fort Scott Lamar Springfield Mansfield Mountain Grove Cabool Willow Springs West Plains Thayer Missouri Arkansas Hoxie Jonesboro Arkansas Tennessee Memphis Holly Springs New Albany Tupelo Tennessee Mississippi Amory Mississippi Alabama Sulligent Winifield Carbon Hill Jasper Birmingham Alabama Georgia Atlanta Macon Georgia Florida Jacksonville

Additionally, it contrasted with trains of the Illinois Central Railroad and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad which offered Great Lakes Mid-West to Florida service, and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Seaboard Coast Line Railroad which offered New York to Florida service. A running advertisement read, "Only the Kansas City–Florida Special offers through train service between Kansas City and the East Coast of Florida [with] convenient one-change connections at Kansas City and Pacific Coast points. This popular through train has modern roomette and bedroom sleeping cars between Kansas City and Miami - section, double bedroom and compartment sleeping cars and luxury reclining-seat coaches between Kansas City, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Jacksonville - lounge and dining car facilities." (Generally, the service to Miami required a transfer in Jacksonville.)[1]

The lounge car interior of the Kansas City–Florida Special, c. 1930s

The train was inaugurated on November 26, 1911. Sleeping cars were dropped from the train by the train's last year of operation and service was terminated in 1965. The Frisco's Sunnyland ran generally parallel with this route as a local train, first starting from St. Louis, then joining Frisco's eastern mainline at Memphis to Birmingham.[2] By the mid-1940s, the Sunnyland route began in Kansas City instead, with a sleeper partnership with the Southern Railway continuing beyond Birmingham to Atlanta.[3] The Sunnyland had the eastern variant of second section veering south from Amory to Pensacola.[1][4] The Sunnyland had the western variant, the Sunnyland-Will Rogers: a section originating in Oklahoma City and connecting with the Sunnyland in Springfield, Missouri.[5]

In final years, the Kansas City-Florida Special and the Sunnyland lost their sleepers. Also, the Sunnyland was reduced to a strictly Kansas City - Birmingham route.[6][7][8][9]