Is there any secret meaning behind the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo"? I have always believed it was simply about the train, but recently someone implied it has references to a hospital in Florida.

The song was written by the team of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren while traveling on the Southern Railway's "Birmingham Special" train. The song tells the story of travelling from New York City to Chattanooga. However, the inspiration for the song was a small, wood-burning steam locomotive of the 2-6-0 type which belonged to the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, which is now part of the Norfolk Southern Railway system. That train is now a museum artifact (see below). From 1880, most trains bound for America's South passed through the southeastern Tennessee city of Chattanooga, often on to the super-hub of Atlanta. The Chattanooga Choo Choo did not refer to any particular train, though some have incorrectly asserted that it referred to Louisville and Nashville's Dixie Flyer or the Southern Railway's Crescent Limited.

https://jaz.fandom.com/wiki/Chattanooga_Choo_Choo_(song)

The hospital would be the Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee, Fla. It isn't related to Chattanooga except in having a name of Indian (Native American) origin.

When I was growing up in Jacksonville in a less enlightened and cruel day we often in jest told a friend who was acting "crazy" to be careful or they'd be sent to Chattahoochee, or accused them of having escaped from there.