The Orange Blossom Special was a deluxe passenger train operated primarily by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad between New York City and Miami in the United States.
The train was handled by the Pennsylvania Railroad from New York City to Washington, D.C., the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond, and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad from Richmond via Raleigh, Columbia, Savannah and Jacksonville to Miami. A section went to Tampa and St. Petersburg, as a winter season only service.
Inaugurated on November 21, 1925, the service was the brainchild of SAL president S. Davies Warfield, who wanted to capitalize on the booming development that was taking place in Florida at the time. Warfield believed that Florida was a land of opportunity, and with the addition of fast, luxurious train travel, he could lure influential (not to mention wealthy) business leaders to the Sunshine State.
Spurred on by the success of Henry Flagler and his rival Florida East Coast Railway in attracting travellers to the southeast, the Orange Blossom Special became quite famous in its own right. It was renowned for its speed and luxury. E. M. Frimbo, "The World's Greatest Railway Buff", offered this account of a dining car chef who had worked aboard the train:
| “ | Our chef...spent nine of his forty-three years with the Pennsylvania Railroad as chef on the celebrated all-Pullman New York-to-Florida train the Orange Blossom Special — the most luxurious winter-season train ever devised by man. Nothing even remotely resembling a can opener was allowed on the premises. All the pies, cakes, rolls, birthday cakes were baked on board under his supervision. Cut flowers and fresh fish were taken on at every revictualing stop, and the train carried thirty-five hundred dollars' worth of wine, liquor and champagne — these at pre-Prohibition prices — for each run. | ” |
The service was suspended during WWII to free the equipment for wartime use in carrying troops. Its last run was in 1953. This market is now handled by Amtrak's Silver Meteor.
It happened during the maiden run of the new streamlined train at the Jacksonville Seaboard Railroad Station that Ervin T. Rouse and Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise saw this train. Rouse and Wise wrote the "Orange Blossom Special" song as a fiddle tune. It has been called the best known fiddle tune of the twentieth century. The tune was first recorded by Ervin and his brother Gordon one year later in New York. Bill Monroe recorded Rouse and Wise's tune in 1942 (with Art Wooten on fiddle) and popularized the tune. Johnny Cash named his 1965 album after the song. The song was also recorded by Bill Ramsey and Don Paulin.
This popular cult tale explains the fascination which led Ervin Rouse and Robert "Chubby" Wise to write the now famous fiddle tune. However, historically the Blossom was never "streamlined" and used Pullman heavyweight sleepers, diners, and some coaches of the winter Tampa run. The Blossom may have used some lightweight cars sporadically in mixed consist with the Pennsylvania Railroad which hauled the Blossom in the Northeast Corridor. If Rouse and Wise did see a streamlined Seaboard train in 1938, it was most likely the "Silver Meteor" which was streamlined with its stainless steel coaches. The name of this train was chosen by a public contest. The Seaboards lightweight trains later became known as the Silver Fleet. This included the Silver Meteor, the Silver Star and the Silver Comet. The train did receive modern EMC E4 diesel locomotives in 1938, but continued using heavyweight Pullmans and American Flyer coaches until its demise in 1953.