The ''Pan-American'' 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 by the

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

(L&N) between

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

and

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

. It operated from 1921 until 1971. From 1921 to 1965 a section served

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 ...

via

Bowling Green, Kentucky Bowling Green is a home rule-class city and the county seat of Warren County, Kentucky, United States. Founded by pioneers in 1798, Bowling Green was the provisional capital of Confederate Kentucky during the American Civil War. As of the 2 ...

. The ''Pan-American'' was the L&N's flagship train until the introduction of the ''

Humming Bird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

'' in 1946. Its name honored the substantial traffic the L&N carried to and from the

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

s on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. The ''Pan-American'' was one of many trains discontinued when Amtrak began operations in 1971.

History

The L&N introduced the ''Pan-American'' on December 5, 1921. A section of the train diverged at

to serve

. At the outset the train carried both sleepers and coaches, and was noteworthy for its all-steel construction in an era when wood heavyweight coaches were still common. The name honored the substantial traffic the L&N carried to and from the

s on the

. It covered the from Cincinnati to New Orleans in 26 hours, soon shortened to exactly 24 hours. The train proved popular with the traveling public, and in 1925 was re-equipped as an "All- Pullman" (no coaches) train. Its popularity contributed to businesses named after it; the Pan-American Lunch Room operated in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1920s.https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/2469/13399408?pid=1373584605&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D2469%26h%3D1373584605%26tid%3D82991240%26pid%3D382070537565%26hid%3D1041385891937%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3DIAO2307%26_phstart%3Ddefault%26usePUBJs%3Dtrue&treeid=82991240&personid=382070537565&hintid=1041385891937&usePUB=true&_phsrc=IAO2307&_phstart=default&usePUBJs=true Pan-American Lunch Room, 2620 Jefferson, Nashville, TN City Directory, 1929 The economic pressures of 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 ...

forced the ''Pan-American'' to start carrying coaches again in 1933. Like many L&N trains, the ''Pan-American'' experienced a surge in ridership 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 ...

, carrying four times its normal traffic. The ''Pan-American'' lost its title as the L&N's flagship train in 1946 with the introduction of faster ''

'' over the same route. Although never fully

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 ...

, the ''Pan-American'' began receiving streamlined equipment in 1949. The southbound ''Pan-American'' carried through sleepers for

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

and Memphis from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

conveyed by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

in Cincinnati. Further south in

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

it received New York-New Orleans and Washington-New Orleans sleepers from the Southern Railway's ''

Piedmont Limited The ''Piedmont Limited'' was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the southern United States. For most of its life it was a New York—New Orleans train, operating over the same route as the more famous '' Crescent Li ...

''. In 1953 the ''Pan-American'' was one of several L&N trains to receive new lightweight "Pine"-series

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 from

Pullman-Standard The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...

. Throughout the 1960s, the decline of passenger railroading in the United States took its toll on ridership and amenities. A counter-lounge replaced the diner-lounge in 1965. The ''Pan-American'' began handling some of the ''

South Wind A south wind is a wind that originates in the south and blows in a northward direction. Words used in English to describe the south wind are auster, buster (a violent south gale), föhn/foehn (alps), ghibli (Libya with various spellings), friagem ...

s through traffic in 1970 after the

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

withdrew from joint operation. By 1970 the train's

consist In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

had shrunk dramatically: between Cincinnati and Louisville it might carry only a

baggage car A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passen ...

, coach, and

dining car A dining car (American English) or a restaurant car (British English), also a diner, is a railroad passenger car that serves meals in the manner of a full-service, sit-down restaurant. It is distinct from other railroad food service cars that ...

, with a sleeper for New Orleans added in Louisville. Amtrak did not retain service over the L&N route, and the ''Pan-American'' ended on April 30, 1971.

Cultural influence

In the words of Kincaid Herr, official historian of the L&N, the ''Pan-American'' "came to be the symbol of the L&N's passenger service." The train was made famous by WSM Radio's nightly broadcast of the passing train's whistle. Some ''Pan-American'' passengers were lucky enough to sit in comfortable lounge chairs and hear the sound of their own train's whistle from a wood-cabinet table radio tuned to WSM in the

observation car An observation car/carriage/coach (in US English, often abbreviated to simply observation or obs) is a type of railroad passenger car, generally operated in a passenger train as the rearmost carriage, with windows or a platform on the rear of th ...

. The broadcasts began on August 15, 1933. The ''Pan-American'' inspired several songs: * "Pan-American Blues" (1926) by

DeFord Bailey DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982) was an American country music and blues star from the 1920s until 1941. He was one of the first performers to be introduced on Nashville radio station WSM's Grand Ole Opry, the first African-A ...

* "The Pan-American" (1948) by

Hank Williams Hank Williams (born Hiram Williams; September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Regarded as one of the most significant and influential American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, he reco ...

* "Pan-American Boogie" (1949) by

the Delmore Brothers Alton Delmore (December 25, 1908 – June 9, 1964) and Rabon Delmore (December 3, 1916 – December 4, 1952), billed as The Delmore Brothers, were country music pioneer singer-songwriters and musicians who were stars of the Grand Ole Opry in the 1 ...

"Pan-American Blues" was one of two railroad songs recorded by DeFord Bailey (the other being " Dixie Flyer Blues", so named for another L&N train. Bailey saw the ''Pan-American'' frequently at Nashville's

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

in the 1920s, but the inspiration for name came from one of his foster sisters, who noted that "it was the fastest around." Bailey, with his

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

, imitated the sound of the ''Pan-Americans whistle and it quickly became one of his most-requested performances at the

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...

and elsewhere.

References

External links

The Pan-American - January 1927 - Streamliner Schedules

{{LN named trains Named passenger trains of the United States Passenger trains of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Transportation in New Orleans Passenger rail transportation in Cincinnati History of Cincinnati Railway services introduced in 1921 Railway services discontinued in 1971 Passenger rail transportation in Alabama Passenger rail transportation in Kentucky Passenger rail transportation in Louisiana Passenger rail transportation in Mississippi Passenger rail transportation in Ohio Passenger rail transportation in Tennessee