Pelican

Southern's advertisement touting thePelican service
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Northeastern United States/Southeastern United States
Last service	1970
Former operator	Southern Railway
Route
Termini	New York, New York New Orleans, Louisiana
Distance travelled	1,114 mi (1,793 km)
Average journey time	Southbound: 36 hrs 40 min; northbound: 38 hrs 50 min
Train number	Southbound: 41; northbound: 42
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Reclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangements	Open sections,roomettes,double bedrooms
Catering facilities	Diner car,cafe-lounge
Route map v t e Legend New York City New York New Jersey Newark Trenton New Jersey Pennsylvania North Philadelphia Philadelphia Pennsylvania Delaware Wilmington Delaware Maryland Baltimore Maryland District of Columbia Washington, D.C. District of Columbia Virginia Alexandria Culpeper Orange Charlottesville Monroe Lynchburg Bedford Roanoke Christiansburg Radford Dublin Pulaski Wytheville Rural Retreat Marion Chilhowie Glade Spring Emory Abingdon Bristol Virginia Tennessee Johnson City Jonesboro Greenville Morristown Jefferson City Knoxville Lenoir City Loudon Sweetwater Athens Cleveland Chattanooga Tennessee Georgia Trenton Georgia Alabama Valley Head Fort Payne Collinsville Attalla Whitney Springfield Trussville Birmingham Bessemer Tuscaloosa Akron Eutaw Livingston York Alabama Mississippi Meridian Laurel Ellisville Hattiesburg Purvis Lumerton Poplarville Picayune Mississippi Louisiana Slidell New Orleans

ThePelican was a named train of theSouthern Railway which ran fromNew York City toNew Orleans and back until 1970.

ThePelican (train #41) departed New York'sPennsylvania Station going south via thePennsylvania Railroad toWashington, D.C., then on Southern's line toLynchburg, Virginia, then toBristol, Virginia via theNorfolk and Western Railway with a major stop inRoanoke, Virginia and several stops toward Bristol.^[1] From Bristol to New Orleans, thePelican ran on Southern's line with major station stops inKnoxville, Tennessee,Chattanooga, Tennessee,Birmingham, Alabama, andMeridian, Mississippi. South of Birmingham it made more local stops than other Southern Railway trains on the Birmingham-New Orleans route, such as theSoutherner.^[2]

Train #42, the northboundPelican, reversed the route.

In 1957, thePelican carried:^[3]

• ANew York toNew Orleans 10-roomette-6-double-bedroom sleeping car;
• A New York toKnoxville 10-roomette-6-double-bedroom car;
• AWashington toShreveport 8-section-5-double-bedroom car (handled byIllinois Central Railroad'sSouthwestern Limited betweenMeridian and Shreveport);
• A New York to Knoxville 10-roomette-6-double-bedroom car;
• A New York toBristol 10-roomette-6-double-bedroom car;
• A Washington toWilliamson 10-roomette-6-double-bedroom car (handled byNorfolk and Western Railway'sCavalier betweenRoanoke and Williamson);
• APetersburg to Bristol 10-section-1-compartment-2-double-bedroom car (handled by Norfolk and Western Railway'sCavalier between Petersburg and Roanoke);
• A Roanoke toBirmingham dining car;
• Washington to New Orleans coaches.

Into the 1950s, the train carried throughsleeping cars which would split from the main route at Meridian and continue on theIllinois Central Railroad'sSouthwestern Limited into central Mississippi and central Louisiana toShreveport, Louisiana. Timetables referred to section, compartment, and drawing room accommodations carrying from New York to Shreveport^[4][5]

O. Winston Link recorded the eastboundPelican arriving inRural Retreat, Virginia on December 24, 1957. The recording is noted as being one of the last recordings of a Norfolk and Western Class J locomotive as well as the chimes from the nearby church. The actual details are all steam power was discontinued on the Bristol Line (Radford, VA to Bristol, VA) after December 31, 1957. The Class J locomotives continued in passenger service on other divisions until April 1959.

With passenger traffic declining, thePelican was combined with theBirmingham Special in 1970.^[6]

This United States train or rolling stock-related article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byadding missing information.

• v
• t
• e

• Named passenger trains of the United States
• Passenger trains of the Southern Railway (U.S.)
• Passenger trains of the Norfolk and Western Railway
• Night trains of the United States
• Passenger rail transportation in Alabama
• Passenger rail transportation in Delaware
• Passenger rail transportation in Maryland
• Passenger rail transportation in Louisiana
• Passenger rail transportation in Mississippi
• Passenger rail transportation in New Jersey
• Passenger rail transportation in New York (state)
• Passenger rail transportation in Tennessee
• Passenger rail transportation in Virginia
• Passenger rail transportation in Pennsylvania
• Railway services discontinued in 1970
• United States train and rolling stock stubs

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All stub articles