The train is referred to in the popular 1920s railroad ballad "Wreck of the Old 97", which describes the doomed train No. 97 as ""not" 38." Number "38" was the operating number of the northbound "New York & New Orleans Limited". No. 97 had operated over the same tracks as No. 38 between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, and over the same trestle where No. 97 wrecked in 1903. The original songwriter was a Southern Railway employee, who certainly knew which train was No. 38.