What kind of trains were used DC to FL back in 1980?

[Pirate]

What kind of trains were used from DC to FL back in 1980? I was sorting through boxes of old slides(yes, slides) and found several that contained my family riding Amtrak to Disneyworld back in 1980. It looked like were were in coach seats. Can't really tell what kind of cars were used on these trains. I don't have a projector, but I'm having these slides digitized soon.

 

[gn2276]

Those cars would have been the old herage cars that Amtrak got from the frieght railroads at start up.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

Amtrak also used E Units and F Units it inherited from railroads as well. They were replacing those with SDP40Fs (which were replaced by F40s due to problems) as well as the P30CHs.

 

[DET63]

E unit

F unit

SDP40F

P30CH

 

[xyzzy]

Heritage Fleet consisted of all-electric rebuilds of passengers cars from the 1940s and 1950s that previously used steam. Amfleet has always been all-electric.

E units and SDP40F's were assigned to steam cars. F40's and P30CH's were assigned to electric cars.

The Palmetto, which began in 1976, used Amfleet and ran behind a P30CH into the 1980s.

E units were gone from the NY-Florida trains (Silver Star, Silver Meteor, and until 1979 the Champion) by 1976 or maybe 1975. Those trains were pulled by SDP40Fs in the late 1970s. The Silver Star was the last train in the east to convert to Heritage Fleet, so it would still have been using SDP40Fs in 1980. The Silver Meteor might have been partially or completely converted to Heritage Fleet by December 31, 1980, so there is a chance that an F40 was used on the Silver Meteor in 1980. The Champion was discontinued before it could be reequipped with Heritage Fleet.

And don't forget the Floridian, which ran Chicago-Florida. In its final year, 1979, it ran behind an F40/E8 combo. (The E8 provided steam to the cars.) This train never received Heritage Fleet. The F40/E8 combo replaced the SDP40F which had pulled the Floridian after 1976, except for the brief period of time when the Floridian was combined with the Auto-Train and was pulled by Auto-Train U36B's that were accompanied by a separate steam heater car.

 

[Notelvis]

Here are a few examples from my collection of equipment you would have seen running to/from Florida in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

Heritage Fleet coach on the Cardinal in Cincinnati in 1981 -

Heritage Fleet rolling stock on the northbound Floridian doing some street running on the old Monon Railroad through New Albany, IN in December 1978.

And finally - a pair of those SDP40F's with the northbound Silver Star at the old Seaboard Station in Raleigh, NC on a snowy January morning in 1979.

 

[Notelvis]

And don't forget the Floridian, which ran Chicago-Florida. In its final year, 1979, it ran behind an F40/E8 combo. (The E8 provided steam to the cars.) This train never received Heritage Fleet. The F40/E8 combo replaced the SDP40F which had pulled the Floridian after 1976, except for the brief period of time when the Floridian was combined with the Auto-Train and was pulled by Auto-Train U36B's that were accompanied by a separate steam heater car.

Here are a couple Floridian pictures for you -

Pulled by Auto-Train U36B's southbound at DeLand, FL

And southbound at Louisville, KY with the F40/E8 combo in August 1979. The E-unit is trying it's best to hide behind a tree!

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Before Amtrak every train was not defined by words like superliner, or viewliner etc

Trains were operated by many different freight/ passenger lines.They had their own interior spaces,features, color schemes etc..

The better trains,which had lightweight equipment, faster schedules, more amenities etc were called "streamliners".

Much but certainly not all streamlined equipment was silver,that is, unpainted stainless steel and that is mostly what went with Amtrak. Amtrak of course painted its own logo on the cars it bought

You might want to surf the internet for words like streamliner, Seaboard railroad, Atlantic Coast railroad to get an idea what such trains looked like and their accomodations. The Silvers and most Florida streamliners used silver stainless steel cars which later came to be known by Amtrak as "heritage".

 

[mistered]

When I read about what train travel must have been like back in the day, it evokes a sadness of how much was lost. Now all we have left is the very skeleton of a once mighty nationwide passenger train network. ALL major cities enjoyed passenger train service, and there were stations at cities such as Chattanooga, Tallahassee, Las Vegas, Louisville, Nashville, Augusta, Asheville, Roanoke, Allentown, and loads of others. We built roads and decided to abandon much of the passenger train routes. Amtrak is now bursting at the seams and crying out for more routes but there is little money to put them back.

As for the 80's east coast to Florida trains; the Seaboard Railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line and the Southern railroad were three that provided the service. It was better than what Amtrak provided in many respects but certain modern innovations do make Amtrak a comfortable and safe way to travel to Florida.

 

[Palmland]

We took our young sons to Disneyworld in 1980. We had a double bedroom (2 bedrooms that open up to each other). No shower, but a toilet and sink. The car was a former SCL 10 roomette-6DBR. The train was cooled and heated through the steam lines that came from the boiler in the E's. Seeing those wisps of steam from the last car on the train is another sight now gone. Service was excellent and probably 18 cars on our Silver Star. On the return we sat in the observation lounge that was operating on the rear of the train. As I recall we had a special rate of around $450 (which was a major expense then) that included an auto rental in Orlando that we returned in Ft. Lauderdale. Our camping gear was loaded in the baggage car.

 

[jphjaxfl]

Heritage Fleet consisted of all-electric rebuilds of passengers cars from the 1940s and 1950s that previously used steam. Amfleet has always been all-electric.
E units and SDP40F's were assigned to steam cars. F40's and P30CH's were assigned to electric cars.

The Palmetto, which began in 1976, used Amfleet and ran behind a P30CH into the 1980s.

E units were gone from the NY-Florida trains (Silver Star, Silver Meteor, and until 1979 the Champion) by 1976 or maybe 1975. Those trains were pulled by SDP40Fs in the late 1970s. The Silver Star was the last train in the east to convert to Heritage Fleet, so it would still have been using SDP40Fs in 1980. The Silver Meteor might have been partially or completely converted to Heritage Fleet by December 31, 1980, so there is a chance that an F40 was used on the Silver Meteor in 1980. The Champion was discontinued before it could be reequipped with Heritage Fleet.

And don't forget the Floridian, which ran Chicago-Florida. In its final year, 1979, it ran behind an F40/E8 combo. (The E8 provided steam to the cars.) This train never received Heritage Fleet. The F40/E8 combo replaced the SDP40F which had pulled the Floridian after 1976, except for the brief period of time when the Floridian was combined with the Auto-Train and was pulled by Auto-Train U36B's that were accompanied by a separate steam heater car.

If the Floridian had survived the 1979 cuts, the plan was to use Superliners. Amtrak had already ran test Superliner trains along the route. It likely would have run with a consist similar to the City of New Orleans. The Champion was actually combined into the Silver Meteor. The Champion had run as a seperate New York to Tampa-St. Petersburg train running down the A-line where the Silver Meteor took the S-Line to Jacksonville. After the Champion was combined into the Sliver Meteor, it ran to Jacksonville on the A-line where it split with a section going down the S-Line through Ocala and Wildwood to Miami. The West Coast section took the A-line through Orlando to Tampa and St. Pete. I remember watching the train split at Jacksonville a few times when I was waiting to board to Fort Lauderdale. The Silver Meteor was a very long train from New York to Jacksonville after it combined with the Champion.