Auto Train

The original Auto-Train operated on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac tracks. It was operated by Auto-Train Corporation, a privately owned railroad carrier founded by Eugene K. Garfield. Garfield had worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Department had funded a study of the practicality of an automobile-train service. Garfield resigned and used the study as the blueprint for his enterprise. The company used its own rolling stock to provide a unique rail transportation service for both passengers and their automobiles in the United States, operating scheduled service between Lorton, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and Sanford, Florida, near Orlando, Florida.[4]

Passengers rode either in wide coach seats or private first-class sleeping compartments while their vehicles were carried in enclosed autoracks. The train included dining cars and meals were served. The equipment of the Auto-Train Corporation was painted in red, white, and purple colors. The typical train was equipped with two or three General Electric U36B diesel-electric locomotives, 75 ft (22.86 m) double-deck auto carriers, streamlined passenger cars, including coaches, dining cars, sleeping cars, and 85 ft (25.91 m) full-dome cars, and a caboose, then an unusual sight on most passenger trains. Auto-Train's first auto carriers were acquired used, and started life in the 1950s as an innovation of the Canadian National (CN) Railroad. The engines were freight types that lacked steam generators for supplying heat to the passenger cars. They were purchased at much lower cost than passenger types. Separate steam generator cars supplied heat. The CN bi-level autorack cars had end-doors. They were huge by the standards of the time; each 75-footer (23.86 m) could carry eight vehicles.[4][5]

The Auto-Train began running on December 6, 1971. It was immediately popular with the traveling public and at first enjoyed financial success as well.[6] In FY1974 the company turned a profit of $1.6 million on revenues of $20 million. In May 1974, service began over a second route between Florida and Louisville, Kentucky, and the company was mulling additional service between Chicago and Denver.[5] The Louisville extension proved to be the company's undoing. The decaying Louisville and Nashville Railroad track between Louisville and Florida (which also hampered Amtrak's Floridian) hindered operations, and a pair of derailments stretched the company's finances to the breaking point. Service ceased in April 1981.[4][7][8]

Platform at Lorton station. Superliners are lined up at the left, with autoracks visible to the right.

Autoracks lined up at their loading ramps at the Lorton station. The ramps are not visible in this photo.

Autoracks lined up at their loading ramps at the Lorton station.

After 22 months, the service was revived by Amtrak, which operates most intercity passenger trains in the United States. Amtrak acquired the terminals in Lorton and Sanford and some of the Auto-Train equipment. On October 30, 1983, it introduced a triweekly version of the service under the restyled name "Auto Train". Daily service was introduced a year later.

Amtrak used Auto-Train's bi-level and tri-level autoracks. For passenger equipment, it initially used a mixture of former Auto-Train railcars and mid-century long-distance railcars from Amtrak's general fleet, all rebuilt to Amtrak's "Heritage Fleet" standards. In the mid-1990s, Amtrak replaced all these passenger railcars, which were of the conventional single-level type, with its newer, bi-level Superliner I and II equipment. In 2006, the aging bi-level, tri-level, and "van" autoracks were phased out and replaced with 80 new autoracks.[9] Unlike the old racks, the new racks have uniform heights and are most similar to the "vans" of the previous fleet.

Amtrak operates two Auto Trains in simultaneous operation each day. Each departs from their terminals in Lorton and Sanford at 4 pm.[10] They make one scheduled stop each for servicing only (passengers cannot board or disembark) at the approximate midpoint of the 855-mile (1,376 km) route, in Florence, South Carolina, where the engines are refueled and a new operating crew boards (engineer and conductor). Trains arrive in Lorton and Sanford at about 9am the next day, for average speed between termini of about 50 miles per hour (80 km/h).[10][11]

The Auto Train was the last Amtrak service to permit smoking on board. Amtrak discontinued the practice on June 1, 2013.

Auto Train operates on the same route it and its predecessor have always used, with a majority of the route owned by CSX Transportation and 16 miles of track being owned by SunRail. The trains are known by their route numbers (53 southbound and 52 northbound) internally by Amtrak. When communicating on the CSX road channels, they are known by their CSX designations: P053xx and P052xx, where xx is the 2-digit date at which the train departed its origin station.[12] For example, a southbound train that departed on the 23rd of the month would be known as CSX P05323 on the road channels. This allows for unique identification if two trains on the same route are operating simultaneously.

Lorton, Virginia, is about a half-hour drive south of Washington, D.C., near Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia. Amtrak's new Lorton terminal opened in early 2000 as a replacement for the original station built during the 1970s, and features a large, modern waiting area with high glass walls.[27] The station was designed by architect Hanny Hassan. The suspended sculpture in the lobby was designed by Patrick Sheridan.[28] The platform is 1,480 feet (451 m) long.

Lorton was selected as site of the northern terminal because the 20-foot-2-inch (6.15 m) height autoracks were too tall to pass through the First Street Tunnel into Washington, D.C.[29]

Sanford, Florida, is the southern terminus and is about a half-hour drive north of Orlando. The original facility was older and smaller than the terminal at Lorton. At Sanford, the Auto Train loads passengers on two tracks, as no one track is long enough to accommodate all the passenger railcars. Sanford's operation is unique in that a railroad crossing runs through the middle of the rail yard. This complicates some switching procedures and also requires a three-man yard conductor crew – conductor, assistant conductor, and a utility conductor – while operations at Lorton requires only a conductor and assistant conductor. Both yards operate with one engineer. Sanford serves as the main mechanical and maintenance location for Auto Train, with diesel and car shops to service the fleet. The city of Sanford provides a shuttle bus to the historic district departing every 20 minutes between noon and 2:00 pm free of charge on all days except Sundays and certain major holidays.[10]

A typical consist includes two GE Genesis locomotives in the front, a Superliner transition sleeper car, three Superliner sleeping cars, a Superliner sightseer lounge car, a Superliner dining car, two Superliner sleepers, another Superliner dining car, three Superliner coaches, another Superliner sightseer lounge car, three more Superliner coaches, another Superliner dining car, and 33 autoracks.

With a total length of roughly 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km), the Auto Train is often said to be the longest passenger train in the world.[30]