Gulf Wind
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). 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. 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. Route. The train's 617-mile route ran  from Jacksonville, Florida via Tallahassee, Chattahoochee, Pensacola, Flomaton, Mobile, and Biloxi to New Orleans. Locomotives were changed at Chattahoochee, where the SAL rails met those of the L&N. With a schedule designed for passengers changing to or from the Seaboard's "Silver Meteor" at Jacksonville, the "Gulf Wind" originally departed both endpoints at 5 p.m. daily for the overnight run across the Florida Panhandle and along the Gulf Coast, arriving in the morning at the other end of the line. The name was likely inspired by the success of another train carried partly over L&N rails, the Chicago-Miami "South  Wind." Heading westbound, the "Gulf Wind" joined onto Louisville & Nashville's "Pan-American" at Flomaton, Alabama. On the eastbound trip, the "Gulf Wind" ran from New Orleans to Flomaton along with the Southern Railway's "Piedmont Limited," and at Flomaton departed as its own train. After the Southern Railway discontinued the "Piedmont Limited," the "Pan-American" carried the "Gulf Wind" in both directions from New Orleans to Flomaton. Equipment. The consist of the "Gulf Wind" included baggage cars, coaches, and Pullman sleepers, as well as an L&N diner between New Orleans and Mobile, and an SAL diner between Chattahoochee and  Jacksonville. A round-ended observation car was also a regular part of the "Gulf Wind" consist. History. Passenger service existed on this route from its construction in 1882 by the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad, at times with three or four daily trains in each direction. In 1949, the L&N and the SAL had a local train that arrived at its destinations in the early evening. This local train had no diner or lounge; besides coaches, it carried just baggage and mail cars. (The local train's predecessor, the "New Orleans-Florida Express," had a dining car and sleeping cars.) The  local was eliminated in 1965 or 1966. In the train's final year, from 1970 to April 1971, the L&N and Seaboard Coast Line made the "Gulf Wind" a three departures a week train. The last run of the "Gulf Wind" occurred on April 30, 1971. Amtrak, which took over nearly all passenger train operations in the United States on the following day, elected not to continue running the "Gulf Wind", which despite good equipment and service was not a profitable train at that point in time. The western portion of the "Gulf Wind" route from Mobile to New Orleans  was briefly served by Amtrak's "Gulf Coast Limited" from 1984 to 1985, and again from 1996 to 1997. The "Gulf Wind" route had no scheduled passenger train service between Jacksonville and Flomaton until the revived and extended tri-weekly "Sunset Limited" was inaugurated by Amtrak in 1993. The service was again suspended in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage to the Gulf Coast. Passenger service had not resumed . In 2016 and 2017 Gulf Coast regional officials agitated for restoration of daily train service between New Orleans and Florida.