Travel to Florida

[Bill Haithcoat]

According to the 4/29/79 timetable, the Floridian would leave Chicago at 9 PM on day 1, and arrive in Miami at 1:10 PM on day 3. A bit less than 40 hours to get there. It now, going CHI to WAS, takes 46, via the Capitol Limited and Silver Meteor.
Now then, we can honestly come close to that time, say 40.5 hours, creating a tri-weekly "Floridian" running CHI-WAS-MIA with 3 P42s, 3 CCCs, 3 Trans/dorms, 4 sleepers, 4 coaches, and 4 coach baggages. Here's how it works. The Capitol Limited on those three days runs P42, Transdorm, 2 WAS sleepers, CCC/Diner, SSL, 3 WAS coaches, 2 FL coaches, 1 FL sleeper. At Washington, the CL breaks up short of the station, decoupling the 2 coaches and one sleeper, then pulls itself into the station. A single P42, coupled to to a CCC and Trans/Dorm, backs up to the other 3 cars, couples, then pulls into WAS. It then leaves shortly along the Silver Meteor route.

The train gets to MIA, and turns for the next day. The train then goes back to WAS, uncouples its CCC and P42, and gets reattached to the CL. In essence, the three CCCs and Trans/Dorms short turn in WAS. For servicing, they could be rotated into the CL.

That might be a good idea,with what we have to work with.

But keep a couple of things in mind, in case you do not already know them.

One,I believe for a brief period of time there was through CHI-MIA equipment on that route. Perhaps it did not work well.

Secondly, just for a little historical perspective, when the South Wind--later called the Floridian-- (and two other trains, the Dixie Flagler and the City of Miam) were placed in service in 1940 they took just over 29 hours. That is about eleven hours faster than the Floridian eventually had to take.

Maybe that does not matter anymore. I am not sure if Amtrak is still trying to sell some concept of "speed" for LD trains. The intersate highways put the trains on the back seat for speed even back then. So much padding, trains like the Sunset Limited, so much slower than they used to be. Maybe taking that much longer isn't too much of a problem.

Who knows?

The concept would have died, if not already dead, when the Capitol Limited went Superliner. That changes everything.

Anyway, I'm something of an Amtrak historian. I've never seen through cars on the Capitol Limited.

Actually I found mention of it in the 4/5/92 through 10/24/92 timetable. Page 50 shows the Capitol Limited with a thru Chicago to Miami coach, exchanged with the Silver Star. No mention of a sleeper.

My timetables for that period are currently scattered around so I did not try to find the timetables before and after these dates. I do seem to recall that this thru service was dropped by the time I had heard it had started.

 

[the_traveler]

I used to have a job where we had customers drive into Albany NY anywhere from Poughkeepsie, NY up to the Canadian border. The ones that traveled from the extreme tips of the range rarely complained how far they had to travel, but those within say a 30-45 minute drive would regularly say "I traveled all the way from ***** and bla-bla-bla." Of course I think to myself "Big deal! How'd you like to travel from **** like so and so over there!" I guess like with rail distances, it's all a matter of perspectives!

I know what you mean Joe. I used to live in Glens Falls and worked in both Latham and Albany (both about 50 miles away) every day. During snow storms, I made it in to work, but the employees from Colonie (<5 mile away) could - or would - not!

The ones most likely to make the drive in were those of us who lived 40-50 miles away!

 

[sky12065]

I used to have a job where we had customers drive into Albany NY anywhere from Poughkeepsie, NY up to the Canadian border. The ones that traveled from the extreme tips of the range rarely complained how far they had to travel, but those within say a 30-45 minute drive would regularly say "I traveled all the way from ***** and bla-bla-bla." Of course I think to myself "Big deal! How'd you like to travel from **** like so and so over there!" I guess like with rail distances, it's all a matter of perspectives!

I know what you mean Joe. I used to live in Glens Falls and worked in both Latham and Albany (both about 50 miles away) every day. During snow storms, I made it in to work, but the employees from Colonie (<5 mile away) could - or would - not!

The ones most likely to make the drive in were those of us who lived 40-50 miles away!

We too had one employee that drove in from Queensbury (for others... just north of Glens Falls) and also showed up dispite the weather, unless it was really bad. She was part time to boot! In the early 90's we camped seasonally for a few years at Lake George RV Resort (for others... just north of Queensbury) and would drive in from there. But the only thing I liked about it was that the drive was at least virtually without traffic and peaceful... until I reached Clifton Park. The it was as annoying as you know what! Now I'm retired for several year and happy not to do the commute anymore!