At the risk of coming across like a jerk----I had noticed a few references to the
New Royal Palm, suggesting it might be the train that continued running on the Rat Hole until the late '60s. That's not it---and I'll quickly explain.
The Southern's Great Lakes area to Florida
Royal Palm dates to 1913. It ran continuously until late 1969, and was amputated in pieces. The first to go was south of Valdosta in 1966----then south of Atlanta the following year---and finally a Kentucky-only push-pull operation that lasted until late '69 (I think---could have been into 1970).
The
New Royal Palm was a separate and distinct train. It was originally the
Florida Sunbeam, which was seasonal only (in the winter). The first run was in 1936 (although it was discontinued for a couple of seasons during WW2). The Sunbeam made its last run in 1949 (spring). That December, the
New Royal Palm was its replacement---fully streamlined (which the "Sunbeam" was not).
The
New Royal Palm only lasted to 1955. Much of its equipment was absorbed into the regular Southern passenger pool (all stainless steel streamlined cars, by the way).
Afterwards----the
Royal Palm, the
Ponce de Leon, and the
Carolina Special were the primary "varnish" runs on the CNO&TP. The
Carolina Special was combined with the "Ponce" by the late '50s or so. The combined train continued to operate until late March 1968----but since it ran through such a sparsely populated section of the country in the dead of night, no one seemed to notice or care.
At any rate....the
New Royal Palm and the
Royal Palm were two different trains. Just thought you guys might want to know.
Not a good shot...but this is one of my old grainy views of the northbound
Royal Palm at Lexington in 1965. At the time, it was still a through train to and from Florida. The F3s with the air reservoirs on top were classic units on the Southern----very cool power, I thought.
Oh....the train had no less than THREE working RPOs (Railway Post Office). In those days, our mail service was outstanding!
Ron