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Gilbert -- as always, I believe you are correct that the train I rode from Cleveland to South Bend in the 1950's was the New York Central. I believe in those days we also rode the Nickel Plate on occasion.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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In January 1973 I transferred closer to home, Florida State University in Tallahassee. Unfortunately the Gulf Wind was axed 2 years earlier but I did manage a few train trips as the Floridian stopped 25 miles away in Thomasville, GA. On a couple occasions I rode it home to or from Miami in a roomette as it was an overnight trip at that time. I also made a one day round trip with a friend from Thomasville to Montgomery, AL and on another weekend rode overnight from Thomasville to Sebring, FL in former Denver Zephyr flat end dome observation car "Silver Veranda" then took the Silver Meteor to Ocala and a bus back to Tallahassee. The train also figured into a couple of sports events: two friends and I took the Floridian from Thomasville to Jacksonville and back to attend an afternoon basketball game between Florida State and Jacksonville University (the Floridian schedule was "flipped" at that time, 2 days + 1 night Chicago to FL rather than 2 nights + 1 day). And on another trip, a friend and I drove to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens then I took the Floridian from Clearwater to Winter Park so I could see FSU vs. Texas Tech in the 1977 Tangerine Bowl. Finally we got Amtrak here then just before my son started FSU, Amtrak pulled the plug with its "suspension" of the Sunset Limited.
Posts: 561 | Registered: Jul 2003
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Those are great Floridian memories SilverStar. I would add that during the time when the schedule was 'flipped', the original Auto-Train (not Amtrak's reincarnation) was running a Sanford, FL to Louisville, KY route and had an agreement to combine their train with Amtrak's Floridian.
This combined operation didn't quite last two years and the Auto-Train portion of the route was discontinued even before the Floridian was. Perhaps the biggest casualty of this arrangement was that when it began (October 1976 I think) Amtrak moved their Louisville operations from Union Station downtown out to Auto-Train's facility well south of town hidden behind rows of aluminum warehouses.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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