CITY OF NEW ORLEANS

Actually, the song was written by Steve Goodman and performed by Arlo Guthrie.

Rick

There are surely a ga-zillion memories of passengers of that train, and my wife's family (Wilken) has its own. The train passed through the small town of Onarga, IL -- her home town. At that time, Onarga was a "flag stop" just miles south of Watseka, IL.

A lighted sign with large vertically-arranged letters ONARGA was placed at that flag stop. The sign was still there in the 1970s and afterwards as an identifying "monument" of that town situated on US Route 45.

As noted, The train stopped at the University of Illinois (at Champaign, IL) and also at Southern Illinois University (at Carbondale, IL). UofI students from the Chicago area would take that train to/from school, and Chicago-based alumni  would take the train to the campus for football games of the Fighting Illini.

The good old days of railroading ...

Mike Mottler
Still married to a gal from Onarga

@Rick posted:

Actually, the song was written by Steve Goodman and performed by Arlo Guthrie.

Rick

And also performed by Steve Goodman. Although Steve’s upbeat versions didn’t quite mesh with the melancholy character of the song, which Arlo captured so beautifully.

One of the best railroad songs ever written.

Hassilev and the Limeliters also recorded "City of New Orleans."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG3wQEbrDRk

Hassilev was an interesting guy.

https://www.limeliters.com/abo...ex-hassilev-tribute/

Steve Goodman also wrote some CUB songs. Go Cubs Go, etc. He died  young unfortunately.

I also liked Arlo’s performance best.

I heard Arlo tell the story of how he came to discover "City."

After a show in Chicago, a then-unknown Steve Goodman cornered Arlo to pitch the song by playing it for Arlo. All kinds of would-be songwriters approached Arlo all the time, and most of their songs weren't very good, but Arlo was always a gentleman about it.

Arlo told Goodman, "Buy me a beer, and I'll listen to your song as long as the beer lasts."

The rest, as they say, is history. Arlo said it was the best beer he ever drank.

A reminder....this is the real trains forum.  Please post models of trains on one of the more appropriate forums.

I once rode the City (when it was an IC service) from Memphis to a small town somewhere in Alabama and a train back to Memphis. I was stationed at the Naval Technical training Center Memphis and decided to ride the City one weekend. I did not have enough time to go all the way to New Orleans so I checked the schedule that I had gotten and bought a round-trip ticket to that Alabama town. It was as far south that I could go and still be able to return without having to spend a night somewhere. There was about an hour layover for me. All I remember now is that the trains were reasonably on time and my journey was successful and enjoyable.

My favorite YouTube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF1lqEQFVUo

Give Willie Nelson's version of CNO a listen

Yeah, Willie's version is a good one. My late father-in-law, who lived in the Memphis area, told me once that they used to call the CNO The Ghost, because it went by so fast you were't sure you saw it!