Jax Term 1970

I digitized this 8mm film. It's a compilation I made years ago, splicing together 8mm film I had shot at the Jacksonville Terminal from late 1969 to the end of 1970. Mel Hazen, Lloyd Bragoz, and I were members of the Gateway Model Railroad Club, which then met upstairs at the Bay Street end of the Jacksonville Terminal on Friday nights. We would go down to the platform to watch the Silver Star come in. We were friends with Wayne Bellamy, an SCL agent, who tolerated us and more or less let us out on the platforms to take pictures or just trainwatch. (Wayne went with Amtrak and retired as a supervisor; he passed away in 2006.)
All of us took trips from the Terminal, of course. Everything was Seaboard Coast Line by then, but SCL still ran a fair number of trains at that late date.
These are home movies, basically, shot with a wind-up 8mm movie camera using rolls of film. I am responsible for shakiness, bad focus, bad lighting, and so on. I have slowed the film down: The digitizing runs it at 20 frames per second, a speed-up from the 16 frames my camera used - also depending on how tight the spring was, I think! Slowing down brings the speed closer to reality, and makes seeing what's there a bit easier. I've done little captioning to identify things. If you see something of note, feel free to comment below.
So, re-live the wonderful days when the Terminal still handled the Champion, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Gulf Wind, Gulf Coast Special, Everglades, and the City of Miami and South Wind on alternating days, and a time when these trains were switched here in Jacksonville to change engines, add or remove cars and shuffle them about between trains.

[@rustygladden9813]

I am from Jacksonville and took a trip to Washington DC as a reward for being a patrol boy in the 6th grade. It was the summer of 1967. All of the patrol boys and a teacher rode in the observation car. It was a wonderful time to be a kid!

[@jamesyourse6611]

Growing up on the Southern mainline my first trip to DC we pulled into the station next to an ACL train and I was captivated by the purple and gold coaches. I can only imagine how Jacksonville looked in 1963. Thanks for this video

[@kellymcdonald1895]

Brings back so many memories, Jacksonville to Wilmington, and then when they shut down traffic, passenger traffic to Wilmington, then it was Jacksonville to Fayetteville.

[@ChromeShade]

I’m sitting in the Prime Osborn right now. I spend a few days a year here for a work conference with a lot of down time. This building and it’s history absolutely infatuate me. I try to learn everything I can about it’s history by reading online and talking to the staff. I’ve seen lots of photos, but this is the first time I’ve found actual video of its days as an active station. Thank you so much for sharing! It means the world to me

[@samtrak1204]

The "City of Miami" was a perfectly matched chocolate, orange and yellow consist with a beautiful round end observation tavern lounge car on the rear before this film was made.

[@dorun2002]

Thanks for the memories. Rode the Champion to NYC as a child so many times. Brought back great memories of the "Silver Gate Bridge" we used to call the bridge just north of the station. Standing at the end of our sleeper car as the train backed into the station watching the movement between the vestibules going through the switches. A far better time one that this let me relive.

[@JacobCothren]

Wow, thank you for sharing. A true time capsule.

[@georgebenson6036]

I remember you. You used to volunteer on the Suwanee Steam Special back in the eighties and early nineties. I rode it almost every year back then. Joe Miller was the conductor. I used to love his stories about working on the railroad. Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[@intuitive7274]

The dome car was amazing. The streamliner was the best train ever in looks

[@dougow3061]

Great video i went through here on the Champion NY to St pete in 1967 remember it a busy place then

[@michaelmulligan975]

Thank you! That was a trip back to another era I wish I had been old enough to have experienced.

[@sarasotasage6135]

That was a real treat! Thanks for sharing! Very strange looking dome/observation car in there with the squared off door/roofline! Looks like a former C&O low height dome? Good shot of the Seaboard Coast Line (now CSX) headquarters building @ 15:56! Obvious former C&O car (now lettered for SCL) @ 18:00! Thanks again!

[@jenniferfuller1791]

Had many great memories in that station in the 60's. Dad had an ACL pass and I rode free ( mostly) as a pre-teen and teen. Many trips thru there. Spent nights at the Desoto Hotel across the street. Ate at I believe was Fielding's(?) restaurant across the street from the station. Good food. Railroad folks ate there. Sure do miss those days. Bill not Jennifer

[@margiecooper6045]

Good one. Thanks!

[@Ausmerica]

Fantastic video. Seeing so many different Railroad passenger cars that came to Jacksonville in this time. Gives me a great insight to what ran down here, as I'm modelling this line here in Australia, mainly passenger trains.

[@GuyjKite]

Thank you for cool video. My grandfather loco. engineer for southern railway in alex va. Right outside wash. dc. Back in late 60s i remember rf&p merged with scl.

[@Gracebeliever077]

This is so awesome. I was about 1 or 2 years old when this was captured and living here. I'm looking at Google Earth now, viewing the Prime Osborn rear parking lot to get a general idea of where some of these scenes might have been.

[@Railfan56]

Wonderful stuff, this video was linked off a Facebook post. I was a frequent traveler on the Silver Meteor from 1962-1973 and so remember some shuffling in Jacksonville, and being in the observation car with the flagman operating a horn and brake from a cabinet near the rear window.

[@MinimaxDieselDude]

Incredible footage , thank you for sharing . Living in Jacksonville now it was hard to imagine what the Prime Osborne was back in it's hay-day without footage like this. Reminds me of the Johnny Cash song , "the l&n don't stop here anymore"

[@trainsupporter9088]

Wow - a great video! It looks like even at this era, the train station was a busy place. Thanks.

[@toddcampbell5603]

Can't ever get enough of those E units painted up in all of those fallen flag colors. Progress sucks a lot of the time!!

[@GuyjKite]

Back when railroading was railroading. Those men and some women were family

[@tommythomason6187]

Nice to see this. Seems there isn't a lot of footage of action at the grand, intercity passenger terminals in the South - Atlanta and Birmingham Terminal Stations, and Jacksonville Terminal. And, no footage, that I know about, of Atlanta Union Station, used by L&N and The Georgia Railroad. Rode Southern's Royal Palm to Jacksonville, early 1960s. Lots of Sailors aboard both southbound and northbound trains between Atlanta Terminal Station and Jacksonville. I remember the train left Atlanta @ 10:00 p.m. and backed into Jacksonville Terminal the next morning. Looks like Seaboard Coast Line was working to keep the service good. The locomotives look shiny and clean. Their New York/Miami trains remained popular up through Amtrak .

[@ChromeShade]

Do you know of any other footage of the Jax terminal?

[@tommythomason6187]

@@ChromeShade Yes, "fmnut," has one called, Railfanning The South, 1960s/1970s. Has all the big stations in Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans. I'm sure Jacksonville is in it. 30 minutes long.

[@ChromeShade]

@@tommythomason6187 Thank you very much my friend. I’ll check it out

[@KTnc-f4z]

Great video- would be nice to see other old railroad footage of Jax

[@ChromeShade]

Were you ever able to find any?

[@BB63]

Sir, enjoyed the video about union terminal in Jacksonville. Great to see all the different railroads that used the station. Did you ever video any of the inside of the station from room to room. I model in o gauge and would like to see what it looked like inside.

[@kevinhoward9593]

The terminal closed prior to Amtrak, right?