Nostalgia & History > Diesel assignments for Southern Railway's passenger trains

In the early 1950s, when the Southern bought the 20 FP7s and the 17 E8s, which trains were these engines assigned to?  

I believe the E8s usually powered the Crescent/Southern Crescent.

I believe the FP7s powered the Piedmont Limited, the Carolina Special and a few other trains.

Was the Royal Palm usually powered with E8s?

Any further help would be greatly appreciated

From what I've seen in the photo-histories from the sixties the E-8's in multiple(with E-7's) were common for both the Southerner and Crescent (thanks)  though not always exclusively . The FP-7's showed up everywhere else though along with the F-2's and F-3's, ditto the E-6's and E-7's. The Tennesean route west of Chattanooga was the haunt of the PA's, but as they were retired the F unit varieties and E-6,7's became the normal power. The joint N&W-Southern Pelican and Birmingham Special usually drew F units, perhaps because because of the grades on that route. Candidly the only "lock" for sure was the E-Units on the Southerner, at least have never seen photos of F's on that train.Post Amtrak 1971, it's F and FP-7's on the Piedmont, Ashland Special, mail trains etc and the E-8 on the Southern Crescent. Seen virtually all models on the Rat Hole and Carolina routes (Royal Palm, Ponce De Leon, Carolina Specials) but again mostly the F units, again think due to the grades.       



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/18 21:39 by Atlpete.

The name "Southern Crescent" came about after the "Southnerner" and "Crescent" were combined"

Here's a picture of the northbound Royal Palm with 2 E7's working mail and express at the Lexington KY depot. Tobacco hogshead cars in the yard to the right.

I was young and foolish to cross in front of the train and cross the southbound main, but I was smart enough to check for traffic first.

This would have been May 1967.  The previous month, my Father was fortunate enough to get clearance to ride the southbound Royal Palm to Danville KY scouting photo run-by locations for the 4501's appearance on June 10th and 11th 1967 with a round trip to Lexington.

His ride was also in an E7 in April.

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Wasn't there also a spell where the Alco PAs held down the Atlanta - Jacksonville Ponce De Leon for a while?  I think I've seen pictures online somewhere of tuxedo PAs in Atlanta.  

NIce shot!  Old Southern Railway passenger train and engine crews based in Cinncinati and worked to and from Danville, KY.

E units and PA2s were seen on the Tennessean.
E units were seen on the Birmingham Special.
E units were sometimes seen on the Crescent and Piedmont.
An E unit was sometimes seen on the rump Royal Palm as it was being discontinued in chunks.

Ex-CofG trains, in particular the Man O' War and Nancy Hanks II, usually ran behind ex-CofG E units (800 series) but I have seen a photo with a true Southern unit substituting.