Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?

It's make believe ballroom time.

Lend an ear and listen to my version
Of a really solid Tennessee excursion.

Satin & lace, I used to call funny face.

"Carolina" refers to the two-state area made up of North Carolina and South Carolina. In song, it is so referred to much more often than either of the two Carolinas is specifically referred to. An article about this song on Wikipedia indetifies three historical trains (none actually named "Chattanooga Choo-choo") that might fit the song's overall discription as qualifying as the train so informally named. It also says that the song's title train has also been incorrectly identified at times with the Southern Railroad's Crescent. If any particular lines in the song are resposible for that confusion, it must be these. That is because the Crescent actually went through the Carolinas, while the other three trains in question, which actually went to Chattanooga, did not. The Crescent still has a counterpart today, the Amtrack Crescent, while no passenger trains any longer run on the probable Chattanooga Choo-choo route where it doesn't follow the same route. What I've heard called the "main line" of the Southern Railway extended from Washington, DC, south through Lynchburg, Virginia; Greensboro and Charlotte, North Carolina; Spartanburg and Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Meridian and Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and on to New Orleans, Louisiana. Historically other passenger trains as well as the Crescent ran that route route; today the Crescent is the only one that follows all of that route, today part of the Norfolk Southern Railway. When today's Crescent stops at Atlanta, is is about 110 miles form Chattanooga, the closest that any passenger train stops today to the train destination made so famous by this song. The historical "Chattanooga Choo-choo" route followed the Crescent route as far south as Lynchburg, Virginia, but south of there went instead to Bristol, on the Virginia - Tennessee, border, then on, through Knoxville, Tennessee, to Chattanooga. It missed the Carolinas, making these lines of the song problematic, unless the singer is lamenting that he WON'T be having his ham and eggs in the Carolinas. But if, indeed, nothing could be finer, there could have been ways, by changes of train, to make the journey to Chattanooga via the Carolinas. One possibility was to continue on one of the trains on the Crescentt route southward to Salisbury, North Carolina. There a branch of the then Southern (now Norfolk Southern) Railway turns off and goes through Asheville, North Carolina to Knoxville, Tennessee, and points beyond. It is still an active freight line today, but ceased any passenger service by around 1970, about the time passenger trains also stopped going to Chattanooga. With that option, one would rejoin the Chattanooga Choo-choo route at Knoxville to go on southwestward to Chattanooga. Another option would invilve staying on the Crescent route on to Spartanburg, South Carolina. There one would catch a train on a route that went northwest from there to join the route of the previous option at Asheville. Alas, for those wishing to see more passenger service restored, it probably could never happen on that route, as for the last decade or so, part of the tracks between Spartanburg and Asheville have been removed. That included the famous or infamous "Saluda Grade" by the town of Salude, NC, once known for being the steepest grade on any through railroad of the U.S. Problems associated with that may well be why the Norfolk Southeren Railway decided to discontinue the route. Lastly, an option in the song's day would have been to ride the Crescent route all the way to Atlanta and then catch another train northwestward to Chattanooga.

Refers to the city of Baltimore, Maryland. This song is about a train journey to Chattanooga , Tennessee, usually presumed to be from New York City, perhaps since that is where the most famous Pennsylvania Station is. That station, or any other so named in any other city is named because it was served by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The state of Pennsylvania is only indirectly referred to here, considering that the direct reference is to a station probably not in Pennsylvania, so named becaues it was served by a rail line not limited to Pennsylvania in terms of where its lines were located. Since around 1970, no passenger trains go to Chattanooga anymore. Contrary to a belief often generated by this song, there was never a train with tne name "Chattanooga Choo-choo", but once upon a time the Southern Railroad ran three passenger trains along the route mostly implied by the song, those trains being called the Pelican, the Birmingham Special, and the Tennessean. They travelled Southern's own lines between Washington, DC and Lynchburg, Virginia, and again between Bristol, on the Virginia - Tennessee border, and Chattanooga. Between Lynchburg and Bristol, those trains changed engines, to be run by the Norfolk and Western Railway. Since then, the Southern and the Norfolk and Western lines have been part of a merger, to form the Norfolk Southern Railway. But despite this route's being now all part of the same system from Washington to Chattanooga, no passenger service exists anymore on any portion of that route south of Lynchburg.