#u36b

The Original Auto-Train

This private company operated trains to Florida from 1971 to 1981. While forced to cease its services, the business model lives on in an Amtrak train with a similar name. Here we see a few images made at the northern terminus of their second route, which ran from Louisville southward (on the L&N) to the sunshine state.

The equipment of this railroad is interesting: they acquired and utilized a large batch of full-length dome cars from the Santa Fe, the road locomotives were new General Electric U36Bs with Blomberg trucks (to satisfy the SCL of their main route on the east coast), and in at least one case they converted a heavyweight baggage car to serve as a steam generation car.

While most of the big domes were eventually preserved, the one pictured above was involved in a wreck and later scrapped. The action shots come from Farmer's Lane south of Louisville.