Trains: January 2008 Archives

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The Panama Limited ran the same route as its more famous cousin, the City of New Orleans, but with two main differences. The "Limited" in the train's name meant that it made fewer stops, covering the distance between Chicago's Central Station and New Orleans' Union Station in 23 hours. The

Panama Limited

was an all-Pullman train, meaning that it consisted of just baggage, slepper, dining, and club cars--no coaches. It was a first-class affair. The dining cars on the Panama Limited were staffed by New Orleans chefs, and were essentially moving French Quarter restaurants.

This photo, from the late 1940s, shows two Illinois Central "F" diesel units (the front engine is an "A" unit, and behind it is a "B" unit) pulling the Panama Limited over the train bridge that roughly parallels modern-day I-55 over the eastern edge of Lake Pontchartrain, crossing Pass Manchac.

Amtrak continued the Panama Limited for three years after taking over IC passenger operations in 1971. The train was consolidated into the City of New Orleans in 1974.

The Florida Avenue bridge over the Industrial Canal, 1942. The bridge served two purposes at this time, to allow the Southern Railway tracks to cross the canal, and to link the neighborhoods of Gentilly (west of the canal) and Seabrook (east of the canal).

The construction of the high-rise Seabrook Bridge next to the Florida Avenue bridge in the 1950s made the latter a train-only bridge. Now, the train bridge stays up, allowing marine traffic to move unobstructed most of the day. The drawbridge lowers when a train approaches.