Flamingo (train)

The Flamingo was a passenger night train operated by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

Flamingo

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Midwestern United States/Southeastern United States
First service	September 27, 1925
Last service	March 7, 1968
Former operator(s)	Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
Route
Start	Cincinnati, Ohio
Stops	17 Winchester, KY; Knoxville, TN; Cartersville, GA; Marietta, GA; Atlanta, GA; Albany, GA
End	Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia, beginning in 1962
Distance travelled	886 miles (1,426 km)
Average journey time	Southbound: 25 hrs 30 min Northbound: 24 hrs 5 min
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	17 (southbound), 18 (northbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Reclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangements	Sections, roomettes, and double bedrooms (1955)
Catering facilities	Diner
Route map Cincinnati Ohio Kentucky Covington Latonia Paris Evansville Winchester Richmond Berea London Corbin Williamsburg Kentucky Tennessee La Follette Knoxville Etowah Tennessee Georgia Chatsworth Cartersville Marietta Atlanta Macon Americus Albany Tifton Waycross Georgia Florida Jacksonville

History

Inaugurated on September 27, 1925, it operated between Cincinnati and Jacksonville, Florida, with sleeper service between Cincinnati Union Terminal and Atlanta Union Station. South of Atlanta, towards Jacksonville, it was operated in conjunction with the Central of Georgia Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.[1] From Albany to Jacksonville the Flamingo[2] ran in tandem with the Illinois Central's Seminole, departing stations with an identical schedule for that final segment.[3] In Jacksonville riders could continue their trips to elsewhere in Florida on various ACL branch lines that served different parts of the state, such as St. Petersburg, Sarasota (via Orlando and Tampa), Ft. Myers and Miami. Travellers to Miami would transfer in Jacksonville to the FEC's Havana Special.[4][5] The Southland operated on similar route from Cincinnati to Albany portion, however, the Southland ran overnight through Georgia.

An empty oil tanker that had been attached to a north-bound freight train came loose and hit and wrecked the Flamingo near Falmouth, Kentucky in 1957. The injured received care at a local hospital.[6]

Service was truncated to Atlanta in 1962; by September 8, 1965 the name was removed from the train. It was discontinued on March 7, 1968.[1]

The dining car, originally built in 1948, was restored and returned to service by the Kentucky-Indiana Rail Advocates in 1998, serving up food on the dinner train from original recipes like seafood gumbo, lamb, plum pudding, and ham with red eye gravy.[7]

Major stations served

• Cincinnati Union Station
• Covington, Kentucky
• Winchester, Kentucky (with connections for Lexington to the west)
• Corbin, Kentucky
• Knoxville L&N Station
• Cartersville, Georgia
• Marietta Depot
• Atlanta Union Station
• Albany Union Station
• Jacksonville Union Station

References

1. "The Flamingo". American Rails. Retrieved August 3, 2017.
2. Atlantic Coast Line Timetable, June 12, 1955, Table L
3. Atlantic Coast Line Timetable, June 12, 1955, Table I
4. Atlantic Coast Line Timetable, June 12, 1955, Tables C, L
5. 'Official Guide of the Railways,' June 1961, Florida East Coast section, Table 1
6. Penny Tuemler Conrad (2010). Pendleton County. Arcadia Publishing. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-7385-8621-2.
7. "Recipes from L&N Revived". November 22, 1998. p. 4. Retrieved August 3, 2017 – via newspapers.com.

Further reading

• Maury Klein (December 6, 2013). History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-4675-1.
• The Railroad Journal. 1947.
• United States. National Railroad Adjustment Board. Third Division. Awards. Third Division, National Railroad Adjustment Board. p. 364.

External sites

• December 1965 L&N schedule