The Southwestern Limited was a night train, as #205 of the Illinois Central Railroad in the Southeastern United States.

Running on the IC subsidiary Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Vicksburg Division, from Meridian, Mississippi's Union Station to Shreveport, Louisiana's own Union Station, it was one of the few trains spanning the Mississippi River south of St. Louis, Missouri and north of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Its opposite, #206, northeast bound, from Shreveport to Meridian, was carried by the Illinois Central's Northeastern Limited.

[2][3] It also had section which connected at Meridian, continued east to Birmingham, Alabama, whereupon it linked with the Southern Railway's Peach Queen (#29/#30) and continued to Atlanta, Georgia.

[5] However, by 1961 the IC no longer arranged to have Pullman sleepers carry passengers continuous from the Upper South and the Northeast down to Mississippi and Louisiana.