Gulf Wind

Gulf Wind

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	United States Gulf Coast
Predecessor	New Orleans-Florida Express
First service	July 31, 1949
Last service	April 30, 1971
Former operator(s)	Louisville and Nashville Railroad/Seaboard Air Line Railroad Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (1967-1971)
Route
Termini	Jacksonville, Florida New Orleans, Louisiana
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	38 (SAL), 98 (L&N) eastbound, 39 (SAL), 99 (L&N) westbound
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Reclining seat coach
Sleeping arrangements	sections, and double bedrooms
Catering facilities	dining cars
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map v t e Legend 1949–1971[1] Distance Station 0 Jacksonville 43.7 km 27.2 mi Macclenny 94.6 km 58.8 mi Lake City 130.3 km 81 mi Live Oak 176.1 km 109.4 mi Madison 265.5 km 165 mi Tallahassee 304.1 km 189 mi Quincy 334.1 km 207.6 mi Chattahoochee Apalachicola River 375.9 km 233.6 mi Marianna 512.6 km 318.5 mi Crestview Escambia Bay 593.2 km 368.6 mi Pensacola Florida Alabama 664 km 413 mi Flomaton Mobile River 744.4 km 462.5 mi Mobile Alabama Mississippi 815.9 km 507 mi Pascagoula Pascagoula River 848.1 km 527 mi Biloxi 878.7 km 546 mi Edgewater Park Biloxi Bay 869 km 540 mi Gulfport St. Louis Bay 894.1 km 555.6 mi Bay St. Louis Mississippi Louisiana 985.9 km 612.6 mi New Orleans

The Gulf Wind was a streamlined passenger train inaugurated on July 31, 1949, as a joint operation by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (Seaboard Coast Line after merger with the Atlantic Coast Line on July 1, 1967).^[2] The Gulf Wind replaced the heavyweight New Orleans - Florida Express on this routing. The Gulf Wind was a limited stops train and offered amenities such as dining cars and Pullman service. The train left Jacksonville at night and arrived in New Orleans in the evening, as the Express had done.

Prior to the establishment of the Gulf Wind the New Orleans-Florida Express had a counterpart train, the New Orleans-Florida Limited, which left Jacksonville in the morning.^[3] For much of the twentieth century, one or two other passenger trains, numbered but unnamed, also plied this route daily; these were much-slower local trains, stopping at each small town along the route, and were labeled simply as "passenger, mail, and express" in timetables. The Express, contrary to its name, made stops at small towns; while the Gulf Wind made fewer stops, mainly in larger towns and cities.^[4][5]