Editing Auto Train (section)

=== Auto-Train Corporation ===
{{stack|[[File:Autotrain Lorton.jpg|thumb|The ''Auto-Train'' at Lorton, Virginia, in 1973]]}}
{{Main|Auto-Train Corporation}}
The original ''Auto-Train'' operated on [[Seaboard Coast Line Railroad]] and [[Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad|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 [[United States Department of Transportation|U.S. Department of Transportation]], which had funded a study of the practicality of an automobile-train service. He then resigned and later used the study as the blueprint for his enterprise. The company provided a service unique in the country: scheduled rail transportation for passengers and their automobiles between [[Lorton, Virginia]], near Washington, D.C., and [[Sanford, Florida]], near [[Orlando, Florida]].<ref name="Ely2009p5">{{Harvp|Ely|2009|p=5}}.</ref>

The Auto-Train Corporation used its own [[rolling stock]], painted in red, white, and purple. The typical train was equipped with two or three [[General Electric]] [[GE U36B|U36B]] [[Diesel–electric transmission|diesel-electric]] [[Locomotive|locomotives]]; {{convert|75|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} [[Bilevel rail car|double-deck]] auto carriers; [[Streamliner|streamlined]] [[Passenger car (rail)|passenger cars]], including coaches, [[Dining car|dining cars]], and [[Sleeping car|sleeping cars]]; and {{convert|85|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} full-[[Dome car|dome cars]]; and a [[caboose]], then an unusual sight on most passenger trains. The engines were [[Cargo|freight]] types, purchased at much lower cost than passenger types. But they lacked [[Steam generator (railroad)|steam generators]], so heat to the passenger cars was supplied by steam-generator cars. Passengers rode in wide [[Passenger car (rail)#Coach|coach]] seats or private first-class [[Sleeping car|sleeping compartments]], and meals were served in dining cars. Their vehicles were carried in enclosed [[Autorack|autoracks]]. The company's first autoracks were acquired used, and started life in the 1950s as an innovation of the [[Canadian National Railway|Canadian National]] (CN) Railroad. The CN cars were huge by the standards of the time: each 75-footer (23.86 m) could carry eight vehicles, which were loaded through doors at each end.<ref name="Ely2009p52">{{Harvp|Ely|2009|p=5}}.</ref><ref name="lukasiewicz2">{{cite book |last=Lukasiewicz |first=Julius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lii3rcEBG30C |title=The Railway Game |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-7735-8307-8 |pages=198}}</ref>

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.<ref name="life">{{cite magazine | title=All Aboard! Cars and People | magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] | volume=72 | issue=11 | pages=54–57 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=elIEAAAAMBAJ | date=March 24, 1972 | access-date=October 11, 2012 | first=Mary | last=Leatherbee}}</ref> In [[fiscal year]] 1974 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]].<ref name="lukasiewicz">{{cite book |last=Lukasiewicz |first=Julius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lii3rcEBG30C |title=The Railway Game |publisher=[[McGill-Queen's University Press]] |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-7735-8307-8 |pages=198}}</ref> 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 (train, 1971–1979)|Floridian]]'') hindered operations, and a pair of derailments stretched the company's finances to the breaking point. Service ceased in April 1981.<ref name="Ely2009p5" /><ref name="JARRATT">{{Cite web|author=National Transportation Safety Board |author-link=NTSB |date=October 21, 1976|title=Railroad Accident Report: Auto-Train Corporation Train Derailment on the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Near Jarratt, Virginia, May 5, 1976 |id=NTSB-RAR-76-11 |url=http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=63795 |publisher=Transportation Research Board }}</ref><ref name="FLORENCE">{{Cite web|author=National Transportation Safety Board |author-link=NTSB |date=September 21, 1978|title=Railroad Accident Report—Derailment of Auto-Train No. 4 on Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, Florence, South Carolina, February 24, 1978 |id=NTSB-RAR-78-6 |url=http://trid.trb.org/view.aspx?id=76346 |publisher=Transportation Research Board }}</ref>