A favorite photo subject of mine whenever I go to Independence, Iowa is this long retired three car train. This time I tried an aperture priority at f/22 but it was this f/9 version that won the battle. The sky conditions were sunny with some haze. Since Independence was once served by the Illinois Central Railroad (a portion of the depot is in the background) and this is an Illinois Central locomotive, coal tender and caboose the following is appropriate from song composer Steve Goodman:
"...All along the southbound odyssey - the train pulls out of Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms, and fields..."
- The City of New Orleans
In 1972, singer Arlo Guthrie put Illinois Central's Chicago-to-New Orleans rail streamliner on the national map with a recording of a song written by Steve Goodman. Riding on the City of New Orleans is basically about the demise of traditional rail passenger service.
Recently 42N found an Illinois Central timetable for passenger service. In 1966, the line ran multiple routes primarily throughout the middle portion of the USA. In addition to the City of New Orleans the IC passenger streamliners included names like the Panama Limited, City of Miami, Green Diamond, Land O'Corn, Chickasaw, Southern Express, Louisiane, Northeastern Limited, Southwestern Limited, No. 108, and the Hawkeye.
Lyrics to the song (found here) describe leaving Chicago on Monday morning with 15 sacks of mail, pulling out of Kankakee, and then running down to the Mississippi Delta. This April 1966 timetable lists the City of New Orleans leaving Kankakee at 8:40 A.M. for all you railroad purests.
Today the train runs as a part of Amtrak and delivers passengers from the Windy City to the Big Easy and back. A modern timetable can be found here. Know that.
