Panama Limited

Postcard depiction of the train,c. 1917.
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	discontinued
Locale	Central United States
First service	February 4, 1911 (IC) November 14, 1971 (Amtrak)
Last service	April 30, 1971 (IC) February 1, 1981 (Amtrak)
Successor	City of New Orleans
Former operators	Illinois Central Railroad (1911–1971) Amtrak (1971–1981)
Route
Termini	Chicago, Illinois St. Louis, Missouri New Orleans, Louisiana
Stops	19 (Chicago - New Orleans) 20 (New Orleans - Chicago) 17 (St. Louis - New Orleans)
Average journey time	16 hours 30 minutes (Chicago - New Orleans) 14 hours 15 minutes (St. Louis - New Orleans)
Service frequency	Daily
Train numbers	5 (Chicago - New Orleans) 6 (New Orleans - Chicago) 105-5 (St. Louis - New Orleans) 6-16 (New Orleans - St. Louis)
On-board services
Seating arrangements	No coaches
Sleeping arrangements	Sections,roomettes, double bedrooms, drawing room, compartment
Catering facilities	Dining car
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Operating speed	55.8 mph (Chicago - New Orleans) 49.8 mph (St. Louis - New Orleans) 48.1 mph (New Orleans - St. Louis)
Track owner	Illinois Central Railroad

ThePanama Limited was apassenger train operated from 1911 to 1971 betweenChicago, Illinois, andNew Orleans, Louisiana. The flagship train of theIllinois Central Railroad, it took its name from thePanama Canal, which in 1911 was three years from completion. For most of its career, the train was "all-Pullman", carryingsleeping cars only. ThePanama Limited was one of many trains discontinued whenAmtrak began operations in 1971, though Amtrak revived the name later that year and continued it until 1981.

Since 1981, overnight service between Chicago and New Orleans is provided by Amtrak'sCity of New Orleans, another former Illinois Central train that before Amtrak was the daytime counterpart of thePanama Limited.

In the early 1900s, the Illinois Central's premier train on the Chicago-New Orleans route was theChicago and New Orleans Limited. On February 4, 1911, the Illinois Central renamed this train thePanama Limited, in honor of the anticipated opening of thePanama Canal. The train included aSt. Louis, Missouri, section that connected atCarbondale, Illinois. The train was first-class only north ofMemphis, Tennessee. It carriedthrough sleepers forHot Springs, Arkansas, andSan Antonio, Texas. It made the journey in 25 hours.^[1]

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, theLouisiane.^[2]

TheGreat Depression led the Illinois Central to discontinue the luxuriousPanama 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.^[3][4]

ThePanama Limited was dieselized andstreamlined in 1942, duringWorld War II. The Illinois Central had ordered two lightweight sets of equipment before theattack on Pearl Harbor; after an appeal, theWar Production Board allowed their delivery. The first diesel/electric-powered streamlined run of thePanama Limited was on May 3, 1942, on an 18-hour schedule.^[5][6] On hand for the first run was Janie Jones, the widow of famed engineerCasey Jones.^[7] ThePanama Limited carried a new orange-and-brown paint scheme that later became standard on Illinois Central passenger trains.^[8] Today,Metra, Chicago's commuter rail system, honors this scheme by identifying theMetra 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 theCity of New Orleans as a daytime, all-coach companion to thePanama Limited along the same route. This created the longest daylight run in the United States.

ThePanama Limited maintained a high level of service for most of its existence. It was noted for its dining car service, with a first-rate culinary staff andcreole fare in theVieux Carre-themed dining cars, a service which the Illinois Central marketed heavily. A well-known multi-course meal on thePanama 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 175-foot (53 m) dining cars from theChesapeake and Ohio Railway which it used on thePanama. With the Pennsylvania'sBroadway Limited it was one of the last two "all-Pullman" trains in the United States.

v t e Panama Limited
Legend
Illinois Central
0.0 Chicago 6.6 63rd Street 22.1 Homewood 54.5 Kankakee 126.5 Champaign (Urbana) 171.0 Mattoon 197.9 Effingham 251.1 Centralia 0.0 St. Louis Missouri Illinois 17.8 Belleville 64.3 Pinckneyville 74.0 Du Quoin 95.4 306.9 Carbondale 360.2 NorthCairo Illinois Kentucky 404.8 Fulton Kentucky Tennessee 449.9 Dyersburg 527.2 Memphis Tennessee Mississippi 586.1 Batesville 626.3 Grenada 679.3 Durant 714.5 Canton 737.7 Jackson 791.8 Brookhaven 815.7 McComb Mississippi Louisiana 867.8 Hammond 918.7 Carrollton Avenue 921.1 New Orleans

On October 29, 1967, the Illinois Central added coaches to thePanama Limited for the first time in half a century, although it attempted to save face by designating the coaches theMagnolia Star. The Illinois Central dropped this separate designation on December 13, 1968. The Illinois Central petitioned theInterstate Commerce Commission to end the train altogether on November 23, 1970, but the ICC deferred the request with Amtrak due to launch the following spring.^[9]

The Illinois Central Railroad last ran thePanama Limited on April 30, 1971. On May 1,Amtrak took over, dropping thePanama Limited in favor of its former daytime counterpart, theCity 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 thePanama Limited name.^[10]

Amtrak restored theCity of New Orleans name, while retaining the overnight schedule, on February 1, 1981. Amtrak hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the eponymoussong written bySteve Goodman and recorded in 1972 byArlo Guthrie.^[11]

In 1923Esther Bigeou recorded a song she is credited as composing, "The Panama Limited Blues".

A different song of the same name was composed byRichard M. Jones. Jones recorded his "Panama Limited Blues" with singerBertha "Chippie" Hill in 1926. The same year it was covered byAda Brown. It was later covered byGeorgia White in 1940.

Another blues song "The Panama Limited" is credited toblues singerBukka White, who recorded it in the 1930.^[12] "The Panama Limited" was popularized byfolk singerTom Rush on his self-titled debut album in 1965^[13] and was recorded later by folk musiciansMike Cross andDoug MacLeod.^[14]

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.

• Passenger train service on the Illinois Central Railroad

Wikimedia Commons has media related toPanama Limited.

• 1962 timetable

• Named passenger trains of the United States
• Passenger trains of the Illinois Central Railroad
• High-speed rail in the United States
• Railway services introduced in 1911
• Transportation in New Orleans
• Panama Canal
• Night trains of the United States
• Railway services discontinued in 1981
• Former long-distance Amtrak routes
• North American streamliner trains

• Use mdy dates from October 2023
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Commons category link is on Wikidata