Auto-Train
This is a shot of the original Auto-Train, albeit the short-lived Louisville extension; as we see above, it’s teamed up with Amtrak. The location is somewhere just south of Louisville, Kentucky, along the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
By the time of this photo, six or seven years in, Auto-Train was under some duress, while Amtrak’s Floridian was struggling as well. During a brief period then, the southbound Floridian would combine itself with the Louisville version of the Auto-Train for the trip to Florida. I believe this occurred beginning November 1st 1976 until September of 1977 when Auto-Train stopped service to Louisville. The Floridian itself was discontinued in October of 1979.
Auto-Train used some interesting locomotives along with the legacy equipment bought from railroads (which were able to drop passenger service in 1971). The power for the upstart road were new GE U36Bs delivered with Blomberg trucks. Not sure if they had steam generators, but I think not: heat was supplied by a generator in a modified heavyweight car in the consist.
Auto-Train as a corporation lasted only ten or eleven years and succumbed to financial difficulties—due to this extension (beyond the original east coast run) and more than one derailment. Amtrak revived the idea in October of 1983, and it’s still popular to this day. I have another post on this interesting train, from the spring of 1976.
One image by Richard Koenig; taken March 26th 1977.
