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So I took a sabbatical for a year and a half...well, actually, I was trying to tackle a timetable for the 1947 Sunshine Special. Through service New York-Mexico City with sections for Memphis, Lake Charles, Shreveport, Houston/Galveston, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso, and a handful of little towns in the Rio Grande Valley. Whoever prepared this timetable originally was probably certifiable; it makes the "City of Everywhere" look simple. And I'm still working on it...it's not ready yet.
But I did, finally, go through some of my almost-ready-for-prime-time projects and now have them up for your viewing pleasure. They include:
Atlantic Coast Line's Florida Special from 1949.
The 1951 Lone Star, Cotton Belt's overnight service between Memphis and Shreveport/Dallas.
The 1941 Morning Star, Cotton Belt's companion train between St. Louis/Memphis and Dallas.
The 1951 Super Chief...the definitive edition of the definitive streamliner.
The 1952 Louisiana Eagle, T. & P.'s service between New Orleans and Dallas/Fort Worth (via Shreveport).
A nondescript Missouri Pacific motor local which my grandmother used to call, "The Chippy".
The prewar City of San Francisco from 1938. 'Bout time!
Santa Fe's third string, the Grand Canyon of 1966.
The 1971 Rio Grande Zephyr and Burlington's companion California Service between Chicago and Ogden.
An update to the 1950 Sam Houston Zephyr page; it now includes the Twin Star Rocket between Fort Worth and Houston as well as a B-RI local.
And, finally, a major update to the 1971 City of Los Angeles page; it now includes all of the various City sections which made it known as the "City of Everywhere."
Enjoy! Comments welcome!
palmland Member # 4344
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Thanks Eric. As a southerner I went directly to your 1949 schedule of the Florida Special. Quite interesting. It had a 25 hour schedule even with the 19 stops in FL along the FEC (Amtrak's Meteor takes almost 28). Referencing Mr Norman's Cuba thread, there is no question I would take the overnight P&O steamer to Havana that's shown as a connection. Who needs an airplane even if it is Pan Am.
notelvis Member # 3071
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Impressive. I really enjoy your site.
George Harris Member # 2077
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Eric: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
yukon11 Member # 2997
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The book, "The Trains We Rode", has quite a write-up on the Florida Special. As mentioned by Mr. Palmland, it only took 24-25 hrs from New York to Palm Beach-Miami. The Atlantic Coast track was considered one of the fastest in the world. Put into operation in 1888 by Henry Flagler, the Florida Special was considered one of finest trains and most luxurious train experiences ever, possibly only matched by the Broadway Limited.
Nice to have you back, Eric.
Richard
MargaretSPfan Member # 3632
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Eric -- Welcome back!
I really like your website! Absolutely fascinating! What a monumental amount of work and so well done!
Re: the "Florida Special": Was 1949 considered part of its heyday? 29 or 30 stops in 1949 does not exactly sound like what I had imagined a super-luxury train would make, if it was catering mostly to a NYC-Miami clientele. What was the max speed it achieved?
About the "fastest train in the world": I wish I could have ridden the "Florida Special" in its heyday. What a train that must have been. wow..... A now-deceased friend who was a Milwaukee Road late-steam-era fireman, claimed to have fired their 94-inch-drivered "F-7s" (Hudsons) at better than 120 mph!! He said his personal best was 127.6 mph!! None of that is official -- just personal recollection. And who knows whether or not the milepost markers on lineside poles were always exactly one mile apart? Maybe not, but, still -- I do believe those trains ran at better than the century mark.
What a time that was!
ehbowen Member # 4317
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quote:Originally posted by MargaretSPfan: Re: the "Florida Special": Was 1949 considered part of its heyday? 29 or 30 stops in 1949 does not exactly sound like what I had imagined a super-luxury train would make, if it was catering mostly to a NYC-Miami clientele. What was the max speed it achieved?
If you double-check that schedule, you will see that most of those stops were at the various beachside resorts along the Florida coast. ACL and FEC wouldn't want to skip those; the resorts were the train's reason for being. North of Washington it stopped at the major Northeast Corridor stations; gotta go where the passengers are. But in the nearly 800 miles between Washington and Florida--over half of its run--it only made five stops northbound and four southbound.
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Interesting thread, GBN. During my four years in college at Ashland, VA I saw the Florida Special almost every day in the winter as it slowed for town and made its way through edge of the campus.
It was always an interesting consist with many foreign road sleepers in the mix. On one occasion when I was in Ft. Lauderdale for spring break I noted 5 ATSF cars included in its 9 sleepers. I had the pleasure of riding it from Wilmington, DE to Ft. Lauderdale in 1968 and it was still an impressive train. I was hoping to have Royal Palm on the train but had to make do with Mountain View off the Broadway Ltd. Here's a photo of it on our model railroad, not quite as good as the real thing.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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Off topic Mr. Palmland, but might you be interested in real life Morton Salt?
Oh and were you in one of the frats at Randolph-Macon that are visible from trackside?
GBN,Most all the fraternity houses had (have) a view of the tracks. Mine, Kappa Sigma, was subsequently removed along with several others to make room for a new dorm. A new one right on Railroad Av is even better as is the one my son (KA'94) joined. Check out the large stone building next to the tracks on your next A-T trip.
DonNadeau Member # 61606
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Eric,
Can't tell you how much I love your site. I approach it all the fervor I should have shown my high school textbooks.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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Well, I just made the first major change to the home page layout in seven years. I would lie and said that I made the change to be more convenient and more readable, but the truth is that I was primarily interested in improving the advertising performance.
With that said, I think that it IS more readable, since I was able to go to a larger size of type and those who need to CTRL-+ to zoom to an even larger size now have more real estate in which to display it. But if you're put off by the larger ads for today's larger monitors, let me know and I will consider reverting to the old layout. If you have no problems with it, though, I might start revising some of the pages to the larger layout. Again, comments welcome, either way.
DonNadeau Member # 61606
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Looks fine to me.
The ads are hardly intrusive compared to many websites. Moreover you do not use pop up ads and those irritating ads that cover pages that are shown to be so hated in web usability studies.
Here are some usability articles. You are doing well. The type of ads you show, though, may not be productive.
I have long wondered why the SSW passenger trains were so slow given their long time reputation for moving freight fast. You have given me the tools I need. When I get through playing with the schedules, I will send you what I have calculated.
Not to pick a nit, and no mistake I think what you do is great, I did find one error in your time and speed calculation. The time and speed for the southbound Morning Star, St. Louis to Dallas is 21 hours 35 minutes, average 35.04 mph for the 756.2 miles. You had it one hour less. All else I got your numbers.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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Oops. Good catch. I'll fix it.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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Just added a new section. The Official Guide also carried transatlantic sailing schedules for many of the peacetime years between the early 1920s and 1960. I've begun to scan these schedules and the associated steamship company advertisements and post them in the new area: The Steamship Agency.
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On your schedule for the WABASH CANNONBALL of 1952 Montpelier is in Ohio, not Indiana.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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Ah. You are correct, sir; my bad. Thank you; it will be corrected.
PullmanCo Member # 1138
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If you are on facebook, there's a Streamliner Schedules Group there
Please, just make sure your profile allows Mr Bowen or I to see that you do like trains. We've had our share of spammers try to get onto the group.
ehbowen Member # 4317
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A couple more entries from the Deep South; G. M. & O.'s Rebel franchise: The Rebel of April 1953 and the Gulf Coast Rebel of August 1950. The latter offered through sleepers between Chicago and Mobile and between St. Louis and Montgomery, Alabama.
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