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Piedmont Limited

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Piedmont Limited
The Piedmont Limited in Charlotte in 1962
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleSoutheastern United States
First serviceMarch 12, 1899
Last service1967
Former operator(s)Southern Railway
Route
TerminiNew York, New York
New Orleans, Louisiana
Service frequencyDaily
Train number(s)33 (southbound), 34 (northbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangementsReclining seat coaches
Sleeping arrangementsPullman open sections, roomettes and other closed rooms
Catering facilitiesDining car
Entertainment facilitiesLounge-coach with radio

The Piedmont Limited was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the southern United States. For most of its life it was a New YorkNew Orleans train, operating over the same route as the more famous Crescent Limited. The Southern Railway discontinued the Piedmont Limited in 1967, though reused the name Piedmont a few years later for an Atlanta–Washington service.

History

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The Southern Railway introduced the train on March 12, 1899, and it was known as the crack train of the route until the introduction of the Crescent in 1925.[1][2]

A spur branch served Birmingham, but this was eliminated by 1964.[3] By the end of that year, the southbound itinerary of the route was cut from running from New York to New Orleans to having Kings Mountain, North Carolina, south of Charlotte, North Carolina as the southern terminus of the route.[4] By late 1966, the train was running from Washington, D.C. to Salisbury, North Carolina in both directions.[5][6] Amid the postwar decline in passenger rail service, the train was eliminated in 1967.[7]

Piedmont

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Beginning in 1970 the Piedmont name was revived for an Atlanta–Washington daytime service, supplementing the then-Southern Crescent along its middle leg. Southern did not join Amtrak in 1971, leaving the service as one of the few intercity rail routes in America which was not operated by the new quasi-government agency.[8][9] In 1975, its southern terminus was truncated to Charlotte. This train was discontinued in 1976; by then its southern terminus had been cut back to Salisbury, North Carolina.[7]

Route details

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In its prime the Piedmont Limited operated over the following roads:[2]

Major cities served

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Aside from the above cited cities, the train served Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Greensboro, Charlotte, Spartanburg, Greenville, Gainesville, Mobile and Gulfport.[10]

References

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  1. ^ "This date in Southern Railway history". Southern Railway History. Southern Railway Historical Association. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
  2. ^ a b "New Southern Train Will Be Put On April 26". Spartanburg Herald-Journal. March 7, 1925. Retrieved 2011-06-19.
  3. ^ Southern timetable, April 1964, Table B http://streamlinermemories.info/South/SRR64-4TT.pdf
  4. ^ "Southern Railway, Table B". Official Guide of the Railways. 97 (7). National Railway Publication Company. December 1964.
  5. ^ "Hearings Set On Bid To Drop SR Train". The Durham Sun. May 26, 1967. p. 14. Retrieved August 24, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. Free access icon
  6. ^ "Southern Railway, Table D". Official Guide of the Railways. 99 (7). National Railway Publication Company. December 1966.
  7. ^ a b Cox, Jim (2011). Rails Across Dixie: A History of Passenger Trains in the American South. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 9780786445288. OCLC 609716000.
  8. ^ Edmonson, Harold A. (1972). Journey to Amtrak. Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 102–104. ISBN 978-0890240236.
  9. ^ "Passenger trains operating on the eve of Amtrak" (PDF). Trains. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-02-24.
  10. ^ Southern timetable, July 1952 Table B http://streamlinermemories.info/South/SOU52TT.pdf
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