The Midnight Special

The Midnight Special was the name of a passenger train formerly operated by the Chicago and Alton Railroad and its successor, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The train ran on an overnight schedule, and in later years carried the last regularly scheduled Pullman sleeping car between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. The train made its final run on April 30, 1971, although Amtrak continued several other passenger trains over the same route traversed by the Midnight Special.

This Midnight Special, is not the same train as in the famous Leadbelly song "Midnight Special." That song refers to the Southern Pacific's Golden Gate Limited, which was locally known in Houston, Texas, as the Midnight Special, because it departed Houston's Southern Pacific Depot at Midnight.