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
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
1949–1971[1]
Distance
 Station
0
 New Orleans L&N
Louisiana
Mississippi
52 km
32 mi
 Bay St. Louis
 St. Louis Bay
67 km
42 mi
 Gulfport
 Biloxi Bay
80 km
50 mi
 Biloxi
Mississippi
Alabama
140 km
87 mi
 Mobile
 Mobile River
200 km
124 mi
 Flomaton
Alabama
Florida
244 km
152 mi
 Pensacola
 Escambia Bay
294 km
183 mi
 Crestview
379 km
235 mi
 Marianna
 Apalachicola River
405 km
252 mi
 Chattahoochee
SAL
447.6 km
278.1 mi
 Tallahassee
553.8 km
344.1 mi
 Lake City
616.6 km
383.1 mi
 Jacksonville
(some stops not shown)

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, as well as an L&N diner between New Orleans and Mobile, and an SAL diner between Chattahoochee and Jacksonville.[8] A round-ended observation car was also a regular part of the Gulf Wind consist.

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.[9] 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.)[10] The local was eliminated in 1965 or 1966.[11][12] 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.[13][14]

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.[15] In 2016 and 2017 Gulf Coast regional officials agitated for restoration of daily train service between New Orleans and Florida.[16]

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. 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 schedule for October 25, 1959". geocities. Archived from the original on 2009-10-25.
  9. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' August 1949, Seaboard Air Line section, Condensed Tables and Table 11
  10. Seaboard Air Line Railroad timetable, June 15, 1948, Table 8
  11. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' July 1965, Seaboard Air Line section, Table 8
  12. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' December 1966, Seaboard Air Line section, eliminated from Table 8
  13. Official Guide of the Railways May 1970, Seaboard Coast Line section, indicated as daily train
  14. Seaboard Coast Line timetable, December 11, 1970, Table 11, indicated as tri-weekly
  15. Laing, Keith (January 26, 2016). "Amtrak to test restoration of rail service lost since Katrina". The Hill.
  16. 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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