TheGulf Wind was astreamlinedpassenger train inaugurated on July 31, 1949, as a joint operation by theLouisville and Nashville Railroad and theSeaboard Air Line Railroad (Seaboard Coast Line after merger with theAtlantic Coast Line on July 1, 1967).^[2] TheGulf Wind replaced theheavyweightNew Orleans - Florida Express on this routing. TheGulf Wind was a limited stops train and offered amenities such asdining cars andPullman service. The train left Jacksonville in late afternoon, arriving in New Orleans the next morning, and likewise in the other direction.

Gulf Wind

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	United States Gulf Coast
Predecessor	New Orleans-Florida Express
First service	July 31, 1949
Last service	April 30, 1971
Former operator(s)	Louisville and Nashville Railroad/Seaboard Air Line Railroad Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (1967-1971)
Route
Termini	Jacksonville, Florida New Orleans, Louisiana
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	38 (SAL), 98 (L&N) eastbound, 39 (SAL), 99 (L&N) westbound
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Reclining seat coach
Sleeping arrangements	sections, anddouble bedrooms
Catering facilities	dining cars
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map v t e Legend 1949–1971[1] Distance Station 0 Jacksonville 43.7 km 27.2 mi Macclenny 94.6 km 58.8 mi Lake City 130.3 km 81 mi Live Oak 176.1 km 109.4 mi Madison 265.5 km 165 mi Tallahassee 304.1 km 189 mi Quincy 334.1 km 207.6 mi Chattahoochee Apalachicola River 375.9 km 233.6 mi Marianna 512.6 km 318.5 mi Crestview Escambia Bay 593.2 km 368.6 mi Pensacola Florida Alabama 664 km 413 mi Flomaton Mobile River 744.4 km 462.5 mi Mobile Alabama Mississippi 815.9 km 507 mi Pascagoula Pascagoula River 848.1 km 527 mi Biloxi 878.7 km 546 mi Edgewater Park Biloxi Bay 869 km 540 mi Gulfport St. Louis Bay 894.1 km 555.6 mi Bay St. Louis Mississippi Louisiana 985.9 km 612.6 mi New Orleans

Prior to the establishment of theGulf Wind theNew Orleans-Florida Express had a counterpart train, theNew Orleans-Florida Limited, which left Jacksonville in the morning.^[3] 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, andexpress" in timetables. TheExpress, contrary to its name, made stops at small towns; while theGulf Wind made fewer stops, mainly in larger towns and cities.^[4][5]

The train's 617-mile route ran fromJacksonville, Florida viaTallahassee,Chattahoochee,Pensacola,Flomaton,Mobile, andBiloxi toNew 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'sSilver Meteor at Jacksonville, theGulf Wind originally departed both endpoints at 5 p.m. daily for the overnight run across theFlorida Panhandle and along theGulf Coast, arriving in the morning at the other end of the line.^[2] The name was likely inspired by the success of another train carried partly over L&N rails, the Chicago-MiamiSouth Wind.

Heading westbound, theGulf Wind joined onto Louisville & Nashville'sPan-American atFlomaton, Alabama. On the eastbound trip, theGulf Wind ran from New Orleans to Flomaton along with theSouthern Railway'sPiedmont Limited, and at Flomaton departed as its own train.^[6] After the Southern Railway discontinued thePiedmont Limited, thePan-American carried theGulf Wind in both directions from New Orleans to Flomaton.^[7]

Theconsist of theGulf Wind includedbaggage cars,coaches, andPullman sleepers with a mix of rooms and traditional open sections, as well as an L&Ndiner between New Orleans and Mobile, and an SAL diner between Chattahoochee and Jacksonville. By 1955, modernroomettes were added to the consist.^[8][9][10] A round-endedobservation car was also a regular part of theGulf Wind consist.

In December 1967, the first winter season of the mergedSeaboard Coast Line Railroad, the train was the last, along with the company'sSilver Star, to have open section sleepers, along with roomettes and other rooms.^[11] By the December 1968 schedule, the L&N and the SCL had dropped sleepers from theGulf Wind altogether.^[12]

Passenger service existed on this route from its construction in 1882 by thePensacola and Atlantic Railroad, at times with three or four daily trains in each direction. In 1949, the L&N and the SAL had alocal train that arrived at its destinations in the early evening.^[13] This local train had no diner or lounge; besides coaches, it carried just baggage and mail cars. (The local train's predecessor, theNew Orleans-Florida Express, had a dining car and sleeping cars.)^[14] The local was eliminated in 1966.^[15][16] In the train's final year, from December 1970 to April 1971, theGulf Wind ran only three days a week.^[17][18]

The last run of theGulf 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 theGulf Wind, which despite good equipment and service was not a profitable train at that point in time.^[2]

The western portion of theGulf Wind route from Mobile to New Orleans was briefly served by Amtrak'sGulf Coast Limited from 1984 to 1985, and again from 1996 to 1997.

TheGulf Wind route had no scheduled passenger train service between Jacksonville and Flomaton until the revived and extended tri-weeklySunset Limited was inaugurated by Amtrak in 1993. The service was again suspended in 2005 whenHurricane Katrina did extensive damage to the Gulf Coast. Passenger service had not resumed as of 2016^[ref].^[19] In 2016 and 2017, Gulf Coast regional officials agitated for restoration of daily train service between New Orleans and Florida.^[20]

• Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad - predecessor of the L&N

• Running The Coast, The Joint Seaboard/L&N, Gulf Wind
• TheGulf Wind's timetable and consist, November, 1949
• TheGulf Wind's final timetable and consist, January - April, 1971
• West Florida Railroad Museum, Milton, Fla.
• Heritage Museum of Northwest Florida, Valparaiso, Fla.
• Pictures of the restored L&N observation car Royal Street, used on the Gulf Wind until 1970Archived 2008-05-16 at theWayback Machine
• More pictures of the Royal Street, now in private hands