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The City of New Orleans, Illinois Central's Most Famous Passenger Train

The Illinois Central may have only been a moderately sized Class I system but its passenger services were legendary. While the railroad’s flagship train was the Panama Limited, it’s super luxurious service between New Orleans and Chicago, its fabled City of New Orleans, which plied the same route as the Panama became its most legendary train. While the Panama was all about luxury and first class traveling the City of New Orleans, similar to that of the California Zephyr, was meant to be a vacationing experience that anyone could enjoy. The City of New Orleans would earn renowned status when Steve Goodman wrote that famous song immortalizing the train, City of New Orleans, in 1970 (performed by Arlo Guthrie). Today, due the immense popularity brought to the train by Mr. Goodman’s hit song, Amtrak revived the City of New Orleans in 1981 after a brief hiatus when it was initially discontinued upon the railroad’s startup in 1971.

The Illinois Central Railroad's slogan described the railroad quite well, The Main Line of Mid-America. It was one of only a very few railroads to serve markets with north-south running main lines and not the traditional east-west movements. What made its routing even more odd was that it served Midwestern markets that likewise traditionally moved goods east and west, such as Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. Regardless of this the IC carved out a living hauling goods from Chicago to New Orleans and while today the Canadian National Railway owns the railroad, its name continues to survive after over 150 years of existence.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Illinois Central Railroad was its electrification project around Chicago (perhaps the largest Midwestern Class I railroad to ever electrify any of its lines), connecting the city's suburbs with its urban centers.

However, what the Illinois Central Railroad is best remembered for is a simple locomotive engineer who gave his life trying to avoid a train collision, John Luther “Casey” Jones. The wreck itself occurred on April 30, 1900 when a freight and passenger train (the City of New Orleans) collided at Vaughan, Mississippi. In his efforts to avoid the collision Jones saved everyone’s lives except his own. Today, of course, there is now the legendary folk song, “Casey Jones,” which was actually inspired by a worker of the IC who also knew Jones, Wallace Saunders. Another notable person associated with the Illinois Central Railroad was Abraham Lincoln, who worked for the railroad from 1853 to 1860 just prior to the Civil Ware as the IC’s corporate lawyer.

While the IC’s Panama Limited was all about style and class, the railroad’s City of New Orleans was all about speed and comfort. The train debuted in 1947 entirely streamlined and bedecked in IC’s beautiful livery of chocolate brown and orange with yellow trim (just like its sister train) with EMD E7s for power. However, aside from their matching liveries the two trains were very different from an operational and equipment standpoint. Whereas the Panama Limited was an overnight passenger train complete with all-Pullman status, the City was a dayliner, or a train that reached its destination in one day and was coach-only.

However, the train was very popular with the everyday American and even with the City’s many station stops along the way, could reach Chicago or New Orleans usually within 16 hours, covering over 900 miles! Another attribute that made the train very popular was its punctuality. As with all IC passenger trains, they very rarely ever departed late from the scheduled timetable, even by a few minutes!

Interestingly, the City of New Orleans did not earn iconic status until nearly the days of Amtrak. In 1970 the train was commemorated by songwriter Steve Goodman, which was performed by Arlo Guthrie. However, just a year later when Amtrak took over intercity passenger rail operations in the spring of 1971 it dropped the City in favor of the Panama. This setup lasted for a decade until 1981 when, due to the City’s immense popularity brought on by Mr. Goodman’s song it was brought back by Amtrak and today remains one of the carrier’s most popular trains. To have a listen to the City of New Orleans please click here.

For more reading on streamliners like the City of New Orleans you might want to also consider the book Streamliners: A History of the Railroad Icon from renowned author Mike Schafer who covers in detail most of the well known and remembered “classic” passenger trains to operate in the country. If you have any interest in such you should very much enjoy Mr. Schafer’s book.

Also, for a superb general history of passenger trains consider the book American Passenger Train from Mike Schafer. Using plenty of colored photographs complemented with lots of good information, if you are interested in passenger trains or would like to learn more about them this book will get you started. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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