ACL E6m 511 "West Coast Champion" - Winter Park, FL - April 1952 - WB Cox Photo

ACL remained decidedly pro-passenger throughout the 1950s (including the transition in leadership from Champion Davis to Tom Rice). Passenger revenue in the first 10 months of 1956 was up 6.6% compared to the same period for 1955. In 1958, the road reported that the "East Coast Champion" was its top earner, grossing $9/mile. The "West Coast Champion" was no slouch, grossing $7/mile. It was not uncommon to find 20-car consists operating on these trains.

Turn your attention to E6m 511 heading the train this day. It began life as a normal E6, (S/N 1151, built 12/40). However, on November 27, 1950, this unit's life was decidedly changed in a head-on collision with a freight in Screven, GA. The impact of the collision raised the 511 off its rear truck, while both ends of the locomotive were significantly crushed in the collision. Subsequently, the unit caught fire doing further damage to it, along with the first two cars of the passenger train and the nearby depot. The ICC's October 11, 1951 report on the accident could not determine the cause.

ACL rebuilt the 511 to the functional equivalent of an E8 and it returned to service about a month prior to this photo.

SAL E4 3009 - "Silver Meteor" - NB Palm Beach, FL - 1956

Seaboard chose the "Silver Meteor" name out of 76,366 entries it received. The train (the first diesel powered streamliner on the New York-Florida run) began operating in February 1939 as a 7-car train. By the time of this unattributed photo, the consist routinely stretched to 18 cars (including the then-new sun lounge cars) and there were both east and west coast sections of the train in operation, attesting to its status as SAL's flagship name train.

Commensurate with a named limited, the "Meteor" could still roll of the miles at a fast clip. The 1957 "Trains" speed survey recorded an average speed for the "Meteor" of 70.6 mph for the 61.2 miles from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee. From Okeechobee to Sebring (41.4 miles), Train 58 was scheduled to average 70.8 mph.

E4 3009 had been built in December 1939 (S/N 962). SAL retired the unit in September 1964.

N&W J1 612 "Powhatan Arrow" - WB Webster, VA - ca. 1957 - J Schmidt Photo

N&W's J- and J1-class Northerns were exceptional locomotives in every regard, offering a handsome combination of speed and power. The 612 (built in August 1950) was a member of the 3-locomotive final build for Class J1 locomotives, which joined their 11 sisters on the point of N&W's crack trains on the Norfolk-Cincinnati run. This engine was retired during 1959.

Operation of the "Powhatan Arrow" began on April 28, 1946. That same year, the road placed the $2 million order for the Pullman-Standard-built streamlined cars that would enter service on the train from 1949. In Jim's view the train still has the tavern-lounge-obs on the rear. These cars were withdrawn in the spring of 1958 and later sold to Saudi Arabia. That was also the year that N&W leased diesels from ACL and from RF&P, at which time operation of the J-J1s was superseded.

As the "last stand of high-speed steam," N&W gave the J-J1s a good send-off. In 1956, the "Arrow" was scheduled to cover the 58.9 miles from Suffolk to Petersburg at an average speed of 65.4 mph. For the 1957 "speed survey,"" the train's schedule had been tightened to require it to average 66.7 mph over those same 58.9 miles.

L&N E7 779 "Southland" - SB West Knoxville - ca. March 1959

Operation of "The Southland" dated back to November 21, 1915, when the "South Atlantic Limited" was renamed and extended to become a Chicago-Jacksonville train running via the PRR-L&N-CofG-ACL. There was a brief stint (from December 11, 1935 until November 7, 1938) where the train operated under "The New Southland" banner. This change coincided with shortening the trip time by 3-4 hours (faster running in the south, along with an adjustment of arrival and departure times in Cincinnati).

Postwar, "The Southland" was one of the second-tier trains on the Chicago-Florida run. Hit hard by the recession in 1957, "The Southland" was reduced from December 1, 1957 to a Cincinnati-Atlanta run, connecting to the "Dixie Flyer" in Atlanta.

The terrain, foliage and a fair contingent of head-end cars hide the fact that by the time of this photo passenger accommodations on "The Southland" were down to a single coach. A "rolling buffet service" (food cart) was instituted on this train from April 27, 1958 until its discontinuance on July 25, 1959.

C&O E8 4000 "George Washington" - NB Alexandria, VA - July 21, 1966

Known as "George Washington's Railroad" (for its role in linking Virginia to the western waters), it's entirely logical that C&O would make the "George Washington" its premiere train. Begun on April 24, 1932 and air-conditioned from the first, the train also commemorated the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth.

On July 21, 1966, the US was 14 days into what would finally stretch out to be a 43-day airline strike. C&O/B&O (under C&O control since 1963) saw the strike as an opportunity to showcase their trains and service. In November of 1966 "Trains" reported that the two roads had seen their passenger loads boosted by 5,000 riders/week.

C&O/B&O obviously hoped to hang onto those new riders, but it was not to be. In the summer of 1966, the "George" had boasted five sleepers as it headed on its final lap into DC. Two years later, the train required just a pair of sleepers. On top of that, C&O had discontinued both the "FFV" and the "Sportsman" from May 12, 1968.