i believe it was a song. is this true.
…Song for sure but real railroading too…And a place to visit now…at least it was a few years ago…Even rode a trolley there. And had a great southern chicken dinner too…in the former passenger station.
Yes. it was a standard of the “Big Band Era”. The opening lyrics went “Pardon Me Boy, Is that The Chattanooga Choo Choo? Yes sir, track 29. Well, You Can Give me a shine”. In this PC time the lyrics would require some major revision. It refers (probably) to Pennsylvania/Southern/ N&W train 45-46 which ran NY to Wash on the PRR, Wa***o Lynchburg Va behind a SR streamlined Pacific, Lynchburg to Brstol VA/Tennon th N&W and the rest of the way on the SR. At Knoxville it seperated into a Memphis and nashville sections. The only problem with the above is that the song refers to dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer going through Carolina, which the train didn’t do. Nice lyric though. A bit of poetic license? The train was the Tennessean.
It’s a combination of all of the above. The song refers to a train that did link Chattanooga to New York. THe Southern may have also operated the Knoxville-Nashville section of the Tennessee Central. THe TC had their own #9.
THe old Union Station turned into a holiday inn, complete with Pullman cars to sleep on. THe Incline Railway goes to the top of Lookout Mountain, with Civil War history. finally, Chattanooga is also home to the NMRA and a fine railway museum nearby.
But is it still closed in winter? I was in Tennessee in Jan. '97 but the museum was closed for the season according to the brochure I had.
It was the centerpiece of a truly bad movie starring “Broadway” Joe Namath, too.
Classic Trains Streamliner Special discusses the train, which initially did not have through NYC cars, but did add them during WWII, as I saw.