Wabash Cannon Ball (train)

The Wabash Cannon Ball was a train line on the Wabash Railroad that ran from 1950 to 1971. The train was named after the song "Wabash Cannonball". It was the second train to bear the name "Cannon Ball", the first was the fast express Cannon Ball which ran in the late 1800s to early 20th century.[1]

For the song, see Wabash Cannonball.
Wabash Cannonball
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleMidwestern United States
PredecessorDetroit Special, St. Louis Special
First serviceFebruary 26, 1950
Last serviceApril 30, 1971
Former operator(s)Wabash Railroad/Norfolk and Western Railway
Route
StartSt. Louis, Missouri
EndDetroit, Michigan
Distance travelled488.8 miles (786.6 km) (1959)
Service frequencyDaily (1959)
Train number(s)Eastbound: 4
Westbound: 1
On-board services
Seating arrangementsReclining seat coaches and chair cars
Catering facilitiesDiner-lounge with radio
Other facilitiesDrawing room
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

History

First Cannon Ball trains

There had been several Wabash Cannon Ball trains traveling throughout the middle and western United States as early as the 1880s.[2] The first Cannon Ball express train traveled from Chicago, Illinois southwest to El Paso, Texas.[1] This express train traveled throughout the western part of Midwest and the eastern part of the Southwestern United States. In addition to traveling on the Wabash Railroad, it also traveled on the "Great Rock Island Route" in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s.[3][4][5]

Song and reinstituting of a new train and new route

J. A. Roff wrote a song, The Great Rock Island Route, in the 1880s. In the 1930s, after a rewrite as Wabash Cannonball, country and western singer Roy Acuff gained great popularity with the song.[6] Subsequently, the Wabash Railroad in 1950 resurrected the train in an entirely different route that capitalized on the railroad territory between to two major Midwestern cities, St. Louis, Missouri and Detroit, Michigan.[7] [8]

Wabash Cannon Ball at Danville, Ill. station in 1962

The new route was one of the Wabash company's prestige trains. The Wabash Cannonball, number 4 eastbound, and number 1 westbound, had a parlor car, a dining-lounge car, chair cars and reclining seat coaches. In St. Louis it made connections with the Wabash's City of Kansas City, bound for Kansas City, and the Wabash's City of St. Louis for Denver and points further west. A nighttime counterpart, the Detroit Limited, made the trip eastbound, and another night train counterpart, the St. Louis Limited, went westbound on the same route.[9]

The train was under the administration of the Norfolk and Western Railway from 1964, as the Wabash company merge with the N&W that year.[10] The train did not survive the conversion of private passenger lines to administration of the trains by Amtrak in May, 1971.[11]

Major stops of the Wabash Cannon Ball

Notes
  1. Decatur Daily Review (Decatur, IL) 31 Dec 1881 Pg. 2. Col. 3. "THE WABASH".
  2. Sullivan, Steve (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1. Scarecrow Press. p. 67. ISBN 9780810882966.
  3. The St. Joseph Weekly Gazette (St. Joseph, MO) 4 Oct 1882 Pg. 5 Col. 6.
  4. Western Kansas World (WaKeeney, Kansas) 8 Jun 1889 Pg. 3 Col. 4.
  5. Logansport Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Indiana) 4 Nov 1897 Pg. 16 Col. 3.
  6. "Wabash Cannonball, The". California State University, Fresno.
  7. American rails, "Wabash Railroad, 'Follow the Flag'" https://www.american-rails.com/wabash-railroad.html
  8. Wabash 1959 timetable, p. 4 http://streamlinermemories.info/Eastern/Wabash59TT.pdf
  9. Wabash 1959 timetable, p. 4, 10 http://streamlinermemories.info/Eastern/Wabash59TT.pdf
  10. American rails, "Wabash Railroad, 'Follow the Flag'" https://www.american-rails.com/wabash-railroad.html
  11. Passenger trains operating on the eve of Amtrak http://ctr.trains.com/~/media/import/files/pdf/f/7/7/passenger_trains_operating_on_the_eve_of_amtrak.pdf
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