Southbound Floridian is close to on-time on a beautiful summer afternoon.

The northbound Floridian is just a few hundred feet short of Union Station. The engineer has just restarted his train after stopping for an SCL employee to drop from the lead SDP. The SCL man is... (more)

New SDP40Fs - a trio, no less - are in stark contrast to shabby, old Union Station and its shed.

Ex-SCL E8A gets a little attention in Birmingham.

612 leads two other SDP40Fs with the nb Floridian. The train was due in Montgomer in mid-morning and was - in my experience - rarely late.

The sb Floridian is making its station stop in Montgomery. As I recall, the train was due around 'dinner time', but was often 2-3 hours late. That meant that - except in the long days of summer ... (more)

It might be impossible to make an E8A ugly, but PC and Amtrak came close with 275. It is - I believe - a little unusual in that it has an Amtrak number, but nothing about 'Amtrak' anywhere. PC's... (more)

Employees chat during the crew change at Montgomery. One of only two times that I saw four SDPs on Floridian. Guess they were ferrying SDPs to Florida.

The northbound Floridian kicks up dust as it speeds through Elmore, site of the junction with a branch to Wetumpka, the county seat. The tank cars - probably carrying chemicals needed by a local ... (more)

A shabby ex-B&O E8A (assisted by a leased SCL E7A) is on the headend of the Floridian during its stop at Montgomery's equally shabby Union Station.

In Amtrak's early days, the Floridian was generally short enough to be handled by a single E, like this B&O hand-me-down getting its windshield cleaned. The train would grow for a couple years, t... (more)

Amtrak initiated operations with a fleet of Es and Fs bought or leased from the member roads. Most of them were quite old, while the rest were very old. In spite of the fleet's age, scenes like ... (more)

A trio of SDPs takes the Floridian out of town and toward Birmingham and points north. It was still a big train in those days, but nightmarish problems north of Louisville would eventually kill r... (more)

A coal train cools its heels as the Floridian pulls away from Union Station.

On a hazy, humid Alabama summer afternoon, a quartet of Amtrak's big SDPs slides to a stop in Montgomery with the southbound Floridian. A pair of SDPs was typical, with an occasional trio showing... (more)