For the next seventy years, Montgomerians had the benefit of passenger service, but it ended in 1979; however, in the late 1980s Amtrak scheduled the Gulf Breeze through the city, bringing jubilation to many who could now take the train to Mobile or Birmingham. Unfortunately, this was only temporary for the service did not survive too many years.

As I write this, I hear a train whistle in the distance; would that it were a passenger train and how I wish I were on it, off for one of those magical trips that only a train, clicking over rails, can provide. Those of us who remember the Crescent, the Pan-American, the Humming Bird, Numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the L&N between Montgomery and Birmingham are fortunate because we were a part of the Grand Adventure which was Montgomery railroading.

Mary Ann Neeley is the recently-retired executive director of the Montgomery Landmarks Foundation. She is a well-known historian and former teacher. She is author of Montgomery: Capital City Corners, published in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.