Amtrak train with the most route changes

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Twin Star Rocket

Service Attendant
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
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I think it has to be the CARDINAL and its antecedents. I've given up trying to keep track of them all. Most occurred in Indiana.

I believe Passenger Train Journal had an article and route map on it some years ago.
 
I think that designation might go to the Floridian. Despite its relatively short life, it was rerouted several times on various routes between 1974 and 1977.
 
Weren't most of the Floridian reroutes also in Indiana or Illinois?

The National Limited had its own trial and tribulations with routes through Indiana and Ohio, before it was put out of its misery.

All Florida trains went through a bunch of gyrations within Florida too.
 
What reroutes did the National Limited have in Ohio and Indiana? I am only aware of its reroutes between Harrisburg and either New York or Washington....

As for the Floridian and its predecessor,..if you try to find all of its reroutes in the old timetables....you won't. Some of its frequent reroutes due to poor track condition's in Indiana were so short lived, that were not even published, AFAIK. One example was when it used the C&EI route, via Evansville, I can't find any timetables that showed that.
 
What reroutes did the National Limited have in Ohio and Indiana? I am only aware of its reroutes between Harrisburg and either New York or Washington....

As for the Floridian and its predecessor,..if you try to find all of its reroutes in the old timetables....you won't. Some of its frequent reroutes due to poor track condition's in Indiana were so short lived, that were not even published, AFAIK. One example was when it used the C&EI route, via Evansville, I can't find any timetables that showed that.
I don't recall whether the portions of the Panhandle Route that were taken out of service in Ohio was during that period or later. If later then I guess I am mistaken.

Yeah, the Floridian was a mess.
 
The Floridian was moved several times in order to find a useable route across Indiana. The Penn Central was rapidly falling apart in those days. I think at some point either the Floridian or the Cardinal (or one of its predecessors) was routed on to a C&O line that hadn't had passenger service since the 1930's. I do believe the Floridian also made some runs on the old C&EI north of Evansville.

The Penn Central was in such sad shape that freight trains would derail while standing still due to the deteriorating track conditions.
 
I think that the "Texas" Trains also rate highly when it comes to re-routing and Scheduling.

The Sunset Ltd. originally ran all the way to Miami( as an Amtrak Train,Thanks jis!),was cutback to Orlando, is now "Temporarily Suspended East of NOL. IlNM it ran through Las,Cruces for awhile and now skips it out of El Paso.Also it ran through Phoenix and now stops in Maricopa skipping the West of Phoenix route.

As for the various Texas Eagles,Lone Stars and Inter-Americans, there were so many changes in routing and Scheduling that one would need lots of Employee Time Tables to keep the many changes straight.
 
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I believe it was Trains magazine that printed an "all-time" Amtrak route map that would have shown all of these reroutes, although I don't remember exactly when -- perhaps it was 2011 for the 40th anniversary.
 
A recent special on Maps published by Trains Magazine among others there is a map showing all the routes on which Amtrak ever ran showing how many passenger trains were on the route on day Amtrak-1, Amtrak+1 and today. Quite interesting actually. Some routes have had enormous growth while others have languished. It has a very good collection of maps showing what happened to the major railroads of the past and what constitutes the current major railroads too. Quite worth getting a copy. I picked one up at the local Barnes and Noble.
 
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The Floridian was moved several times in order to find a useable route across Indiana. The Penn Central was rapidly falling apart in those days. I think at some point either the Floridian or the Cardinal (or one of its predecessors) was routed on to a C&O line that hadn't had passenger service since the 1930's. I do believe the Floridian also made some runs on the old C&EI north of Evansville.

The Penn Central was in such sad shape that freight trains would derail while standing still due to the deteriorating track conditions.
In the beginning of Amtrak service, both the Cardinal and Floridian predecessor trains started out from Chicago's Central Station as Penn Central trains, using their 'Big Four' route trackage rights on the Illinois Central mainline until just north of Kankakee. Then stopped at the Big Four Kankakee station, and on to Lafayette and Indianapolis. The Cardinal continue on the former NYC to Cincinnati, thence to the C&O to Washington and Newport News (splitting at Charlottesville).

the Floridian ran on the former PRR to Louisville, then the L&N and SCL to Florida's east and west coasts.

It was the Cardinal that moved over to the C&O of Indiana freight line, completely bypassing Indianapolis from 1974 until 1986, via Peru, Muncie, and Richmond, In. to Cincinnati. They later altered the route to serve Hamilton, Oh. In 1986, they moved to the current route.

Meanwhile, the Floridian also moved off the Big Four, and used the former route of PRR's South Wind, from Chicago to Indianapolis via Logansport. When that route got too bad, they shifted all over the state, including the C&EI via Evansville for a while. Finally they settled on a route using the former Monon via Lafayette and Bloomington to Louisville, also bypassing Indianapolis. The only train left serving Indianapolis was the National Limited. The Floridian and National Limited ended at the close of the '70's, but the new Hoosier train began serving Indianapolis also using parts of the former Monon....
 
However, I believe at one point or the other there was a through Sleeper that ran from the Sunset all the way to Miami by way of JAX, handled by L&N and SCL IIRC. But that was discontinued a while before A-Day, again IIRC. Have not had a chance to dig into old timetables to check for sure.
 
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However, I believe at one point or the other there was a through Sleeper that ran from the Sunset all the way to Miami by way of JAX, handled by L&N and ACL IIRC. But that was discontinued a while before A-Day, again IIRC. Have not had a chance to dig into old timetables to check for sure.
At the other end, way before Amtrak, the Sunset continued up the coast all the way to San Francisco...
 
However, I believe at one point or the other there was a through Sleeper that ran from the Sunset all the way to Miami by way of JAX, handled by L&N and ACL IIRC. But that was discontinued a while before A-Day, again IIRC. Have not had a chance to dig into old timetables to check for sure.
At the other end, way before Amtrak, the Sunset continued up the coast all the way to San Francisco...
Really, who ran it back then? And do you recall what the eastern terminus was at the time as well?
 
I believe it was Trains magazine that printed an "all-time" Amtrak route map that would have shown all of these reroutes, although I don't remember exactly when -- perhaps it was 2011 for the 40th anniversary.

Late reply, but I wonder if anyone could scan and post some pics of that article here, IF they ever find that issue of Trains? I'd SO LOVE to read that article, myself. I always think I know most of the former Amtrak trains, but it's funny when occasionally I've discovered other former Amtrak trains that existed before my time(born in 1982 btw), that I wasn't aware of. I.e. James Wilcomb Riley(sp?) that ran through towns like Welch, WV and Roanoke(paralleling US Hwy 52), North Coast Hiawatha(paralleling I-94 and I-90 west of Billings, plus it had a routing that went through Breckinridge, Morris, and Willmar east of Fargo), The Arrowhead(St. Paul to Duluth), and more probably.
 
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