Passenger Trains > Sunset in Florida?

I need some info for a report. When did Amtrak's Sunset Ltd. serve Florida and what was the furthest end point city: Orlando, Miami or? Anyone know? Thanks beforehand!

The only thing that I remember about the florida extension on the SUnset Limited is that it did ideed run all the way to Miami. WIkipedia confirms this history with the APril 4, 1993 entry mentioning MIAMI FL as the eastern terminus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset_Limited
I wonder where exactly was the Miami terminal when the SUnset Limited was extended in 1993 ???
---Daniel

Here's a shot of the train in Auburndale, FL coming up from Miami on 05/14/1995. I have shots here from 1994 thru 1996.

Stanley Jackowski
Valrico, FL

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The Miami Terminal is where Amtrak has its New York - Florida service.  Nothing changed, just adding the Sunset to the mix.

Original terminal for the Sunset extension was Miami, with the train serviced at Hialeah. Previously Hialeah had only serviced single-level equipment. The Mercer report in the mid-nineties recommended changing the eastern maintenance terminal to Sanford to take advantage of commonality of equipment type with the Auto Train. However, as a passenger terminal, Sanford proved to be a revenue killer so the end point was moved again to Orlando, with the equipment deadheading back and forth to Sanford between runs.

Dave

Was the Mercer Report also responsible for closing the Tampa Amfleet shop?

Posted from iPhone

altoonafn Wrote:
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> Was the Mercer Report also responsible for closing
> the Tampa Amfleet shop?
>
> Posted from iPhone


I believe so. Before Mercer Amtrak had an OBS crew base in Tampa as well, as the Star and Meteor had Tampa sections. Post- Mercer Tampa became an out-and-back leg for one of the Miami trains, with all servicing consolidated at Hialeah.

Dave

Why would a California Car be deadheading out of Florida ?

Originally, in 1993 when the Sunset was extended the primary maintenance base for the Sunset equipment was Los Angeles, as was the crew base.

When the Florida extension happened, the Los Angeles crew base OBS crew only traveled as far as New Orleans - their original turn destination. A second OBS crew took over for the run from New Orleans to Miami. Later, it was determined that it was best for one OBS crew to make two runs a month for the complete round trip from Los Angeles to Sanford/Orlando.

And, later, Sanford Auto Train's maintenance shop offered a better deal than the Los Angeles maintenance base for the overall care and feeding of the Sunset trainsets, so the primary maintenance was moved to Sanford. There was a noticeable difference in detail cleaning. The downside to this was the diner, because when a diner had to be switched out at Sanford for deep cleaning and maintenance, the Los Angeles crew base dining car crew had to completely pack up everything and remove it from the car for a new diner to be substituted for the return trip to Los Angeles. This meant the dining car crew had a "cold car" to go back to, and everything had to be set up from scratch. This also meant that if a very late train came into Sanford, that cut into the dining car crew's downtime because they had to report back early to put the new diner together and be ready to serve dinner upon departure from Orlando.

It also made sense to service the Sunset at Auto Train instead of Miami because Auto Train had spare equipment and parts for Superliners, not found in Miami. It was a win-win-win all the way around to base the maintenance in Sanford.

When the decision was made to extend the actual train route from Sanford to Orlando, with a deadhead move between the two in each direction, the extra costs were dwarfed by the new revenue because passengers wanted a one-seat ride to Central Florida, not a combination of train/bus. Also, the Amtrak timetables played Sanford rather than Orlando more prominently in the timetable heading, confusing most people because Sanford is just a suburb of Orlando, not the other way around. The OBS and T&E crew would report to the Auto Train terminal in Sanford, set the train up, have a crew meeting, then the train would depart for Orlando. The wye to turn the train was several miles south of Orlando, and the conductors had to throw hand switches. But, when the train arrived back in the Orlando station, it was pointed in the right direction and ready to go, and the OBS crew was ready and waiting.

The reason the train was cut back from Miami to Sanford/Orlando was the small amount of revenue business south of Orlando. Orlando, with Disney and the other theme parks, was the prize. South of Orlando, it was financially best to transfer the few passengers who wanted to go all the way to South Florida to one of the Silver trains - at that time, there were still three Silver trains.

It was not unusual to board 100+ passengers at Orlando for a westbound trip. Station stops all the way through Jacksonville had good boardings, especially Jacksonville, which was the hub for southbound Silver train passengers wanting to go west.

Unfortunately, we will not be seeing a return of this service, which filled a gap in the national network.

Not to derail the topic but what would an Amtrak California car be doing deadheading on the Sunset Limited? Given the date this must have been around the time of delivery, is this the route they went West from New York?