In the heyday of overnight travel, from 1920 through the end of World War II, the Midnight Specials were all Pullman Co. trains carrying no coaches and as many as 12 sleeping cars.
On December 29/30, 1968, the Midnight Special carried 19 passengers on the last Pullman sleeping car trip between Chicago, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri.
Operations of the Pullman Company sleeper cars ceased and all leases were terminated on December 31, 1968.
(The most visible result on many railroads, including Union Pacific, was that the Pullman name was removed from the letterboard of all Pullman-owned cars.)
Although later versions place the locale of the song near Houston, early versions such as "Walk Right In Belmont" (Wilmer Watts; Frank Wilson, 1927) and "North Carolina Blues" (Roy Martin, 1930) — both essentially the same song as "Midnight Special" — place it in North Carolina.