Riding The Train They Call The City Of New Orleans March 1965.. Monday Morning Rail 25 Sacks Of Mail

Click on these pictures to enlarge them. Black and white pictures taken by Rachel Lefebure.

Above picture is me in Hammond La. after I picked some flowers. Happy to be back in the warm Southland.

This is what was frozen in the ice on a sidewalk when we left Chicago.

 Here we are in Batesville Mississippi.
 Below looking out the vestibule window.

Train station in New Orleans.

Jackson Square in New Orleans showing the St. Louis cathedral and some azaleas.

Lee Circle New Orleans. This is where we had to take our coats off because it was so warm in early March.
We rode this train in 1965 on the original Illinois Central Railroad. It is now operated by Amtrak.
Steve Goodman did not write the song below until 1970.
But I can assure you every line is 100 per cent accurate.

Arlo Guthrie – The City Of New Orleans Lyrics

Riding on the City Of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three Conductors; twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the southbound odyssey - the train pulls out of Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms, and fields
Passing trains that have no name, and freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobile

Good morning, America, how are you?
Say, don't you know me? I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City Of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Dealing card games with the old man in the Club Car
Penny a point - ain't no one keeping score
As the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumbling 'neath the floor
And the sons of Pullman Porters, and the sons of Engineers
Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel
And, mothers with their babes asleep rocking to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel

Good morning, America, how are you?
Say, don't you know me? I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City Of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Night time on the City Of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis Tennessee
Halfway home - we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness, rolling down to the sea
But, all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again - the passengers will please refrain
This train got the disappearing railroad blues

Good night, America, how are you?
Say, don't you know me? I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City Of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

Songwriters: STEVE GOODMAN

The City Of New Orleans lyrics © AL BUNETTA D/B/A JURISDAD MUSIC