Jacksonville passenger train

For the most part, the tunnels remain intact and are currently filled with feet of water, roaches, rats, and various other critters. Toggle navigation. Subscribe via Email Enter your email address to get updates whenever there is a new post up on the site. Postcard depicting Jacksonville Terminal, c. Share this:. Like this: Like Loading Previous Post John Dutton House. Next Post G. To the far left some baggage cars on the express tracks, and the far right more baggage cars ready to leave. A photo testament of Jacksonville's position as the worlds largest railroad express station.

To the far left the "white" actually a mist green face of a Seaboard engine with what is probably the Gulf Wind being readied for evening departure for New Orleans. On the far right two sections of a train being combined, based on where they sit, one is off of the Florida East Coast, from Miami, and the other off of the Atlantic Coast Line, from Tampa. The last passenger train to run on the FEC in , arrives in Jacksonville from Miami in the early evening. Conductor Fields secured the doors and walked away into retirement, tears running down his cheeks.

Lucie Sound," today the car survives in a museum and so does it's last passenger, who BTW took that photo. On January 3, , the last passenger train rolled out of the Jacksonville Terminal, which had fallen victim to high modern maintenance costs and decreased rail travel. Restoration was begun in to convert the terminal into the Prime Osborn Convention Center.

If you could have walked straight down this sight line, you would have found yourself in the dining room. Incredible as it seems the place was packed with Jacksonville business men, travelers and railroaders, up until the day it closed, and Denny's thinks THEY know how to make a grand slam Denny's meet god! The terminal shortly after the completion of the convention center project in The Terminal Today Although the grand station remains, the scene today is a morbid one.

The tomb of the last remaining passenger rail car on site. This scene is double sad to a railroad historian, Seaboard Coast Line never operated the "Orange Blossom Special" passenger train, and where they have a train name painted, would have been the name of the car. In this case a First Class Sleeper Lounge. The railroad name should read Seaboard Air Line. Unlike the images, the old concourse often sits empty these days.

On this particular weekend, the entire complex was sealed shut. No one is purchasing tickets in The remains of Railroad Row. The Prime Osborn's exhibition hall has replaced the old terminal's platforms. This "concourse" and perhaps a ' extension of the adjacent exhibit building, is all that is worth saving of the 's convention center additions, according to our own Metro-Jacksonville Transportation Center redesign.

The photo just above the concourse shot is of that infamous corner again, those that have not heard the Big Jax Cat story, hang on to your seats.

This part of the terminal was a broad passage open to the street, it also was in the part of the concourse North end near track where all of the express and baggage was sorted.

Bags often were stacked just inside this area as it afforded a large open space to work through the sorting during heavy volume days. Theft from Bay Street became chronic, and finally, so frequent, that the "baggage-smashers" could almost predict the arrival of a particular group of thugs. This carload of thieves would race out Bay Street, screech to a stop in front of this passage way, they'd jump out toss 1 or 2 big bags in their 's era auto, then stomp it and make their getaway.

They were just irregular enough that they threw the police off, they had no luck in catching them in several stakeouts. Finally, an old train Conductor who lived in Hilliard, or Callahan, came in beaming one day with a big deluxe suitcase. Bliss, Ph. The company began to eliminate the use of ice from outside sources. Its onboard kitchens now featured refrigerators that could produce 4, ice cubes every 24 hours and maintain temperatures from sub-zero to 36 degrees F.

This allowed for cold drinks and permitted the storage of frozen meats, along with the serving of fruits and vegetables out of season. Each refrigerator also utilized an ultraviolet ray apparatus that killed harmful bacteria, according to the Florida Times-Union of May 21, Here's a peek behind the scenes in a dining car's kitchen. These ovens kept the passengers happy with hot edibles.

Most railroad cooks, waiters, porters, and attendants in this country used to be African American males. Just where did the diner personnel sleep at night? On Seaboard Railroad trains, the baggage dormitory cars not only carried luggage but also provided air conditioned quarters for dining staff. This info was obtained from the Florida Times-Union of May 21, If these travelers were rolling from New York to Jacksonville, how long did their journey require?

In , the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad advertised 25 hours between the two points. During the trip, its luxury trains provided radios, dressing rooms, tavern-lounge cars, and two diners that served full-course meals. It offered such pastimes as games, songfests, fashion shows, and TV programs. To help wile away the hours, for instance, a young, white railroad hostess, who resembled an airline stewardess, might oversee a bingo contest. Here's a railroad car from July 8, Notice how the seats could not be individually adjusted or reclined, as was also the case in two of the other cars on this webpage.

The railroad car, with an interior painted in a soothing color scheme, was built for overnight travel.