The ''Panama Limited'' was a

passenger train A passenger train is a train used to transport people along a railroad line. These trains may consist of unpowered passenger railroad cars (also known as coaches or carriages) hauled by one or more locomotives, or may be self-propelled; self pr ...

operated from 1911 to 1971 between

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, and

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. The flagship train of the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

, it took its name from the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit ...

, which in 1911 was three years from completion. For most of its career, the train was "all- Pullman", carrying

sleeping car The sleeping car or sleeper (often ) is a railway passenger car (rail), passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car. ...

s only. The ''Panama Limited'' was one of many trains discontinued when

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

began operations in 1971, though Amtrak revived the name later that year and continued it until 1981. Today, overnight service between Chicago and New Orleans is provided by Amtrak's ''

City of New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

In the early 1900s, the Illinois Central's premier train on the Chicago-New Orleans route was the ''Chicago and New Orleans Limited''. On February 4, 1911, the Illinois Central renamed this train the ''Panama Limited'', in honor of the anticipated opening of the

. The train included a

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, section that connected at

Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson and Williamson Counties, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". The city developed from 1853 because of the stimulation of railroad construction into the ...

. The train was first-class only north of

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. It carried through sleepers for

Hot Springs, Arkansas Hot Springs is a resort city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Garland County. The city is located in the Ouachita Mountains among the U.S. Interior Highlands, and is set among several natural hot springs for which the city is n ...

, and

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

. It made the journey in 25 hours. In 1912, the train was replaced with an all-steel, all-electric consist. The Illinois Central relaunched the train on November 15, 1916, with new equipment and a new schedule: 23 hours from Chicago to New Orleans, all-Pullman. Its old equipment and schedule became a new train, the ''Louisiane''. The

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

led the Illinois Central to discontinue the luxurious ''Panama Limited'' between May 28, 1932, and December 2, 1934. When it returned, it had new air-conditioned equipment and a faster, 20-hour schedule between Chicago and New Orleans.

Streamliner

Panama Limited Interiors in 1964 (34238155352)

The ''Panama Limited'' was dieselized and

streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the framework of ...

in 1942, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Illinois Central had ordered two lightweight sets of equipment before to the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

; after an appeal, the

War Production Board The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Sup ...

allowed their delivery. The first diesel/electric-powered streamlined run of the ''Panama Limited'' was on May 3, 1942, on an 18-hour schedule. On hand for the first run was Janie Jones, the widow of famed engineer

Casey Jones John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois Ce ...

. The ''Panama Limited'' carried a new orange-and-brown paint scheme that later became standard on Illinois Central passenger trains. Today,

Metra Metra is the commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 242 stations on 11 rail lines. I ...

, Chicago's commuter rail system, honors this scheme by identifying the Metra Electric District, the Illinois Central's former commuter service to the southern suburbs, as "Panama Orange" on system maps and timetables. For the duration of WWII, the Illinois Central dropped the extra fare. In June 1946, the schedule dropped to 17 hours. Later, the extra fare was reinstated, and the schedule was reduced to 16 hours, 30 minutes. In 1947, the Illinois Central introduced the ''

City of New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

creole fare in the '' Vieux Carre''-themed dining cars, a service which the Illinois Central marketed heavily. A well-known multi-course meal on the ''Panama Limited'' was the Kings Dinner, for about $10; other deluxe, complete meals such as steak or lobster, including wine or cocktail, were priced around $4 to $5. In 1952, the Illinois Central acquired several 2-unit dining cars from the

Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, it reached from Virginia's capital city of Richmond to ...

which it used on the ''Panama''. With the Pennsylvania's ''

Broadway Limited The ''Broadway Limited'' was a passenger train operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) between New York City and Chicago. It operated from 1912 to 1995. It was the Pennsylvania's premier train, competing directly with the New York Central R ...

'' it was one of the last two "all-Pullman" trains in the United States. On October 29, 1967, the Illinois Central added coaches to the ''Panama Limited'' for the first time in half a century, although it attempted to save face by designating the coaches the ''Magnolia Star''. The Illinois Central dropped this separate designation on December 13, 1968. The Illinois Central petitioned the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later trucking) to ensure fair rates, to eliminat ...

to end the train altogether on November 23, 1970, but the ICC deferred the request with Amtrak due to launch the following spring.

Amtrak service

The Illinois Central Railroad last ran the ''Panama Limited'' on April 30, 1971. On May 1,

took over, dropping the ''Panama Limited'' in favor of its former daytime counterpart, the ''City of New Orleans.'' This train made no connections in either New Orleans or Chicago, so Amtrak moved the train to an overnight schedule on November 14, 1971, and revived the ''Panama Limited'' name. Amtrak restored the ''City of New Orleans'' name, while retaining the overnight schedule, on February 1, 1981. Amtrak hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the eponymous

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

written by

Steve Goodman Steven Benjamin Goodman (July 25, 1948 – September 20, 1984) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter from Chicago. He wrote the song "City of New Orleans", which was recorded by Arlo Guthrie and many others including John Denver, ...

and recorded in 1972 by

Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his father, Woody Guthrie. Gut ...

The Panama Limited in song

In 1923

Esther Bigeou Esther Bigeou (1892 – November 15, 1936) was an American vaudeville and blues singer. Billed as "The Girl with the Million Dollar Smile", she was one of the classic female blues singers popular in the 1920s. Biography She was born in New Orlean ...

recorded as song she is credited as composing, "The Panama Limited Blues". A different song of the same name was composed by

Richard M. Jones Richard M. Jones, born Richard Marigny Jones (sometimes written Richard Mariney Jones), (June 13, 1892 – December 8, 1945) was an American jazz pianist, composer, band leader, and record producer. Numerous songs bear his name as author, includi ...

. Jones recorded his "Panama Limited Blues" with singer

Bertha "Chippie" Hill Bertha "Chippie" Hill (March 15, 1905 – May 7, 1950), was an American blues and vaudeville singer and dancer, best known for her recordings with Louis Armstrong. Career Hill was born in Charleston, South Carolina, one of sixteen childre ...

in 1926. The same year it was covered by Ada Brown. It was later covered by

Georgia White Georgia White (9 March 1903 – c.1980) was an American blues singer, most prolific in the 1930s and 1940s. Little is known of her early life, but it has been suggested that she was born in Sandersville, Georgia. By the late 1920s she was singin ...

in 1940. Another blues song "The Panama Limited" is credited to blues singer

Bukka White Booker T. Washington "Bukka" White (November 12, 1906 February 26, 1977) was an American Delta blues guitarist and singer. Biography White was born south of Houston, Mississippi. He was a first cousin of B.B. King's mother (White's mother and ...

, who recorded it in the 1930. "The Panama Limited" was popularized by

folk singer Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

Tom Rush Thomas Walker Rush (born February 8, 1941) is an American folk and blues singer, guitarist and songwriter who helped launch the careers of other singer-songwriters in the 1960s and has continued his own singing career for 60 years. Life and ...

on his self-titled debut album in 1965 and was recorded later by folk musicians Mike Cross and Doug MacLeod. A British band of the late 1960s and early 1970s called itself Panama Limited Jug Band, later shortened to Panama Limited. The song "Railroad Lady" was said to have been written by Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmy Buffett on the final run of the Panama Limited, from New Orleans to Nashville.

Notes

References

* * * * * *

External links