This train was suggested by two correspondents, one direct to me and the other a participant on one of the Yahoo! groups. It seems that the latter gentleman rode this train from Kansas City through to Jacksonville sometime in 1961. Some of his memories of this train concerned the food service; he remembered the dining car as having been removed in Birmingham due to "racial tension" and having to eat a box dinner that evening. Racial tensions may very well have been a factor but my belief is that the motive was primarily financial; dining cars were very expensive to operate and never recouped their operating costs from food sales. This was about the time that Southern was starting to actively try to shed its unwanted passenger trains; the removal of on-board food service may have been part of that strategy. At least the Frisco continued to offer full dining and lounge service on their portion of the train's run.

The Southern Railway would continue to operate the Birmingham-Jacksonville portion of this train through (at least) August of 1963, but by the time of my October 1964 guide through service between Kansas City and Florida had ended. The Kansas City-Brunswick service remained, but passengers for Florida had to transfer to either the South Wind or the City of Miami (on alternate days) in Birmingham—after a six hour layover.