Illinois Central, Monday Morning Rail

The Illinois Central began giving names to trains in 1912 with the Chicago-New Orleans "Panama Limited" that would become a luxurious all-sleeping car express. The line was renamed City Of New Orleans when it was outfitted with new streamlined coaches aimed at the rural intermediate market and became known more for its speed than for luxury.

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As Illinois Central's first through train connecting Chicago and New Orleans in 1873, the route included stops in Kankakee, Champaign and Cairo, Illinois, Jackson, Tennessee, and Grenada, Mississippi. By 1900 the route was altered and would proceed via Memphis, which was fast becoming the railroad's most important intermediate terminal.

It was on this line, April 30, 1900, that the legendary Casey Jones would be killed when his train crashed into the caboose of a freight train, just north of Canton, Mississippi.

Newspaper reports from the time refer to the train as the "New Orleans Express," the "New Orleans Fast Mail" or the "Southbound Fast Mail." The Illinois Central designation used in official reports about the wreck refer to it as the No. 1. The train has also been called the "Cannonball Express" but there is no apparant record of that name until it was used in a newspaper article describing another wreck of No. 1, in 1903, near the Florence Pump works in south Memphis.

In 1947, the No. 1 train received its current name City Of New Orleans.

The congressionally created Amtrak took over the City Of New Orleans in April, 1971. On June 10, the No. 1 train would derail and Amtrak would experience its first wreck with 11 killed and 163 injured.

Poor maintenance was cited as the cause of the derailment.

The song City Of New Orleans, made famous by Arlo Guthrie in 1972, portrays a dilapidated image of the train. Perhaps because such imagery is considered part of the romanticism of rail travel.

Today, the City Of New Orleans boasts superior service and accommodations along a historic route from the Great Lakes to Lake Pontchartrain.