Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans"

 “Ridin' on the City of New Orleans”

By Tom Parker

(Reprinted from the June 2012 Memphis Buff

(who borrowed liberally from other sources)

Perhaps the most popular train song ever written is “City of New Orleans” by Steve Goodman. A hit for Arlo Guthrie in 1972 on his album “Hobo's Lullaby”, it has remained an all time favorite some forty years later, joining such train songs as the “Chattanooga Choo Choo”(Benny Goodman, 1941) and the “Wabash Cannonball”(Roy Acuff, 1936) as a classic railroad song.

Steve Goodman - Photo by David Gans
- licensed under "Creative Commons "

I have imagined Steve Goodman aboard the southbound “City of New Orleans” shortly before Amtrak took over, in the observation/lounge car, busily observing and writing, capturing on paper the feeling of a train having “the disappearing railroad blues”. The real story is not that simple.

In 1965 Goodman, a native of Chicago, enrolled at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Il. Like a lot of other Chicago area U of I students, he regularly used the Illinois Central to commute between Chicago and Champaign. In 1967, towards the end of his two year off and on career as a student, he decided to skip class and remained on the “City of New Orleans” until it reached its namesake destination.

Shortly afterward, in a club in Chicago's Old Town, he related his adventure to Howard Primer, a high school chum, and was particularly animated when he talked about falling asleep on the return trip. “When he woke up”, as Primer relates Goodman’s story, “it was like he was in a surreal world: The sound of the train, the rhythm of the train, the swaying of the train, looking out the windows at the misty morning on the delta country. And he was talking about ‘Good morning, America.’” The two wrote the first lyrics of the “City of New Orleans” on a napkin that night, including the phrase “don't you know me, I'm your native son”. Some time later, Goodman would add “Good morning America, how are you”.

It wasn't until some three years later that the rest of the song came together. Goodman had dropped out of school to pursue his musical career, gotten married and in 1969 was diagnosed with leukemia. In April of 1970, he and his wife boarded the “City of New Orleans” on a chilly Monday morning to visit her grandmother in a nursing home near Mattoon, Il.

“Nancy was sleeping in the seat next to me. I just took out a sketchpad, and I looked out the window and wrote down everything I saw: junkyards, little towns that didn’t even have a sign to say what they were. Just out of Chicago, there was a bunch of old men standing around tin cans, warming themselves and waving. Nancy was still asleep after about an hour and a half, so I went down to the club car and ended up playing cards with a couple of old men.”

On that train ride, Goodman wrote two verses to add to the chorus he had written three years earlier. After his return to Chicago he added a third verse describing life inside the train; “pass he paper bag that holds the bottle” and “feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor”, etc.

Goodman first recorded the song on March 3, 1970 and was released on his album “Gathering at the Earl of Old Town”. John Denver had a version on his album “Aerie” released on December 4, 1971, just a few weeks after the train was cancelled by Amtrak. Neither version went anywhere.

At this point in his life Goodman was eking out a living recording jingles for TV ads (Dial Deodorant and Maybelline Blushing Eye Shadow were two of his accounts) and performing at local Chicago clubs. It was at one of these clubs that as fate would have it, Goodman met Arlo Guthrie.

Guthrie was sitting at the bar after doing a show, trying not to be noticed. The club owner approached Guthrie and said he would like him to listen to a “train” song in which might be interested. Guthrie replied angrily that he didn't like train songs, but the club owner assured him he wouldn't be disappointed and introduced Goodman to Guthrie.

Guthrie told Goodman to give him the tape, he would listen to it. Goodman replied that he didn't have a tape, but could sing it for him. This angered Guthrie even more, but he agreed with the stipulation that Goodman buy him a beer and finish the song before Arlo finished the beer. Guthrie would later say “one of the finer beers of my life”.

Arlo Guthrie's recording of “City of New Orleans” peaked at number 18 nationally and the rest, as they say, is history. The song has been recorded by at least eighty artists. Darcie Sanders, co-founder of Amazingrace, a cooperative in the Chicago suburb of Evanston that often hosted Goodman in concert, keenly observed that the song

“goes beyond classic into something archetypal that hooks into people so deeply that they’re moved, and they join in. . . . It’s the best outsider anthem anyone has ever written for America. We were the native sons and daughters, but maybe America didn’t know us or recognize us. Who has not felt that their life is disappearing? It’s the questioning, the trying to get closer, and yet the train is speeding away, the sense of the lost moment. That’s how a whole generation felt about their relationship with America and themselves as Americans.”

Original Lyrics by Steve Goodman

City of New Orleans© Turnpike Tom Music 1970

Original Lyrics by Steve Goodman

City of New Orleans© Turnpike Tom Music 1970

Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passin' towns that have no names
Freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles
Chorus
Good morning, America, how are you
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

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point, ain't no one keepin' score
Won't you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor
And the sons of pullman porters
And the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpet made of steam
Mothers with their babes asleep
Are rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream
Chorus
Night time on The City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Half way home, and we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness
Rolling down to the sea

And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
The passengers will please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues
Final Chorus

Good night, America, how are you
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

Repeat First Chorus

Good morning, America, how are you

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

FEMA Evacuation Trains at Memphis Tennessee August 2008

FEMA's Evacuation Trains

By Tom Parker

History

In the aftermath of Katrina, governmental agencies, particularly FEMA, stung by criticism for by their response both prior to and after the storm, went back to the drawing board and formulated new plans for future emergencies.

At issue was the failure to utilize Amtrak in the evacuation effort and reports of Amtrak trains leaving New Orleans empty.

In 2006, FEMA entered into a $700,000 per year year with Amtrak to provide emergency railroad transportation services for evacuating persons from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. This contract provided for 24 rail cars with stored equipment, food and provisions, an equipment mobilization plan, refrigerated rail cars, staff mobilization plans, insurance, and standby costs. The plan called for transportation 6000 evacuees by rail from New Orleans' Union Passenger Terminal to the Memphis, Tennesssee “Rail Depot” using two 24 car trains, with each train having a capacity of 1500 persons. Both trains were to make two trips within a forty eight hour window. One of the considerations in selection of a destination was “that arrival locations are suitable for a safe unloading operation and that arrangements are in place to care for the evacuees”.

In December 2007, the lease for the storage of these cars in New Orleans (and presumably the contract) expired and the cars were removed to Delaware. On August 1^st and 2^nd, 2008, 10 ex Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT) cars were moved to New Orleans on the Crescent for “hurricane storage”.

Preparations for Gustav

In anticipation of hurricane Gustav hitting New Orleans, Amtrak ran five locomotives to New Orleans on train #59 from Chicago on August 28^th. AMTK 122 was in the lead with engines 87, 115, 139 and 63 trailing. The additional power was for use on evacuation trains out of New Orleans.⁶

On August 29^th, with hurricane Gustav projected to make landfall on September 1^st, Amtrak announced suspension of service for the three trains serving New Orleans; the Sunset Limited was stopped at San Antonio, the Crescent at Atlanta and the City of New Orleans from Chicago was cancelled. ⁷

Using the Amtrak equipment on hand in New Orleans and the 10 CDOT commuter cars, two evacuation trains were assembled, designated by railfans as FEMA-1 and FEMA-2

Evacuation

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagen announced the mandatory evacuation of residents of the West Bank starting at 8:00 AM, Sunday, August 31^st with evacuation of the rest of the city to begin four hours later at noon.

Under plans developed post Katrina, residents with no other means to leave the city were to call 311 and register for pick up at one of 17 designated spots around the city. They would then be transported to Union Passenger Terminal where they would be evacuated from the city by bus and train.

FEMA-1, departed New Orleans Union Terminal at 11:30 AM, August 31^st , with 1024 mostly elderly and disabled evacuees . FEMA-2 followed at 3:00 PM ⁴ with 876 evacuees. Upon arrival in Memphis early Sunday morning each train was met by 20 to 25 MATA buses and about a half dozen ambulances. Evacuees were taken to the National Guard Armory on Democrat Road where they were processed and transferred to one of ten shelters in West Tennessee

After the trains delivered the first group of evacuees, they returned to New Orleans for an anticipated additional 1676 passengers. However, when FEMA-1 returned to Memphis at 3:30 Sunday morning there were only 101 evacuees on board. FEMA-2 evidently returned to Memphis empty, although there was one report that the evacuees on FEMA-2's second trip detrained at Jackson, MS.

FEMA trains 1 & 2 through Hammond en route to Memphis on August 30, 2008. Photos copyright by Shawn Levy and used with permission (See Shawn's photos at: http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=19450, Train photos at http://shadow_warrior_usmc.rrpicturearchives.net/)ption

The same procedure was followed the next day. 853 evacuees³ boarded FEMA-1, which was minus sufficient Superliner cars and power for a northbound City of New Orleans from Memphis scheduled to leave from Central Station at its usual time of 10:40 PM that same night.With FEMA-1 at Central Station, FEMA-2 was held at Memphis' North Yard. On Wednesday, September 3^rd, FEMA-1 was relocated to North Yard and by Thursday afternoon, FEMA-2 had been spotted at Central Station. An estimated 1000 evacuees from the Jackson, TN, area began boarding the train for their return to New Orleans with departure “sometime after 8:00PM”

Track damage along Lake Ponchartrain by hurricane Gustav necessitated that the two FEMA trains be detoured.

The CN McComb Sub had a large section of track washed out in the vicinity of the Bonnet Carre' spillway and the returning trains were rerouted via the Canadian National to Hattiesburg, MS and then via the Norfolk Southern to New Orleans.

City of New Orleans Returns To Central Station

By Tom Parker

The City of New Orleans had it a little tougher than norm for nearly a month as a result of hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

On August 29^th Amtrak suspended train 58 and 59 for their entire route due to the approaching Gustav. It was not until a week later, on Friday, September 5^th that service was restored between Memphis and Chicago. Service south of Memphis remained suspended due to a washout along Lake Ponchartrain. For a very brief period, from the night of September 5^th through September 8^th, regular passenger service returned to Central Station after an absence of over four months.

When srvice over the entire route was restored from Chicago on Monday, September 8^th and from New Orleans on Tuesday, September 9^th, Amtrak again started bypassing Central Station and using the temporary facility near Johnston Yard.

FEMA-1 at Central Station 9/1/08 Tom Parker Photo

FEMA-1 looking south from Nettleton Avenue 9/1/08 Tom Parker Photo

  Mother nature would not go down without a fight, however. On September 11^th, winds from approaching hurricane Ike again drove Lake Ponchatrain water over the newly repaired track. #58 managed to get out of New Orleans before the track was closed, but a late running #59 was stopped at McComb, MS. GP38-2 GTW 5813 was coupled to the north end of the train and it was run north from the next day as #58.

It was over a week before the track was repaired and train service was restored. In the interim, buses service was substituted between McComb and New Orleans.

Finally, on September 20^th the “City” again rolled into New Orleans. The first northbound train departed New Orleans the following day. 

FEMA-2 at North Yard (Looking South) 9/2/08 Tom Parker Photo

FEMA-2 at North Yard (Looking North) 9/2/08. Don't know where the reefer came from, perhaps they picked it up on the second trip. It probably made the move from Woodstock interesting! Tom Parker Photo