Spot1181 you beat me to the draw on Chattanooga Ccoo Choo, and Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe. ALso, about Johnny Cash, he also wrote something about the "South WInd',a, real train, a streamliner, which used to run from Chicago to Miami.
RKA, regarding "Wreck of old 97"--yes, it was a real mail train wreck as you thought...well documented. In that song there is a line which says. ".....it was not 38, but it was ol' 97...." The "38" referred to in that line was an older train number for the Crescent.. Its old nujmbers were 37-38. A touch of genuine authenticity , there. The wreck happened between Lynchburg and Danville, as you well know from the song. I think of it often when I ride through on today's Crescent. My mother used to sing that song(and a million others).