Mississippi Railroading and Railfanning Through "The Magnolia State"

Mississippi railroading defines Southern rail operations at their finest, flat and swampy terrain mixed in with lots of water, coastal operations and port services. Perhaps no other railroad defined the Magnolia State like the Illinois Central which had a significant presence there, along with the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio. Today the state is still an important originator of traffic with most movements handled by five of North America’s seven Class I carriers, along with a number of shortlines.

Mississippi railroading has its beginnings dating back to 1842 when the West Feliciana Railroad began operations between St. Francisville and Woodville, a distance of 25 miles, to haul the southern staple product of cotton (interestingly the little railroad lasted 136 years until being dissolved into the IC). In the succeeding years the Magnolia State would find itself home to not only the Illinois Central and GM&O but also several other celebrated railroads. These include the Southern Railway, Louisville & Nashville, Missouri Pacific (only a very minor presence) and Frisco.

It was the Illinois Central and GM&O, however, that ruled the Mississippi landscape and the two would eventually merge to form the short-lived Illinois Central Gulf (the railroad later returned to its original name, dropping the Gulf and just calling itself the Illinois Central again).

The Illinois Central slogan described the railroad very well, The Main Line of Mid-America. It was one of only a very few railroads to serve markets with north-south running main lines and not the traditional east-west movements. What made its routing even more odd was that it served Midwestern markets that likewise traditionally moved goods east and west, such as Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. Regardless of this the IC carved out a living hauling goods from Chicago to New Orleans and while today the Canadian National owns the railroad, its name continues to survive after over 150 years of existence.

As for the IC itself, the railroad throughout much of the early part of the 20th century was quite conservative, partly due to the fact that it had a rough time surviving the Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was not as quick to dieselize as most other carriers and did not completely do so until 1960 (part of this reason was due to the railroad serving a number of mines along the eastern part of its system and had a cheap source of fuel for its locomotives). Even after the railroad began purchasing main line diesels it chose to paint them in a drab all-black livery with white trim.

Similar to the Chessie System in the east, the Gulf Mobile and Ohio of the Midwest and South was a short-lived railroad whose legend continues to live on today. The GM&O wasn’t created until the early days of diesel power and it was gone by the early 1970s. However, during its roughly 40 years of operation it was a fierce competitor and although always surrounded by giants it held its own in many of the markets it served, which is not surprising as the railroad is also known as The Rebel Route.

The Gulf Mobile and Ohio was actually created to take control of the Gulf, Mobile & Northern and Mobile & Ohio railroads. The GM&N dates back to the mid-1910s when the New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago was reorganized, a railroad which connected Mobile, Alabama with Middleton, Tennessee. The M&O on the other hand was constructed in the late 19th century to connect the Gulf Coast with points north, in this case being St. Louis, Illinois and the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois.

By the 1970s merger was in the air and in 1972 the IC merged with the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio forming the Illinois Central Gulf. The successes of the ICG have often been questioned and by the 1980s the railroad was showing the result of a marriage that probably should never have happened. The parent company of the railroad, IC Industries, began looking for interested buyers during this time and while no interest was shown in the railroad, the ICG’s management knew something had to be done to turn the railroad’s fortunes around. In an effort to stabilize the company the railroad sold or abandoned large sections of the system to shrink down to a railroad of around 2,800 miles.

Throughout the 1990s the new Illinois Central, upon dropping the “Gulf,” remained strong and profitable and not surprisingly because of its new success other larger railroads became interested in the IC. This railroad was the Canadian National and after negotiations were completed the CN took control of the IC in 1998.

Interestingly, today Mississippi railroading features nearly as many Class Is as during any time in its history which include CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian National, BNSF Railway and Kansas City Southern. While these Class Is constitute much of the trackage operated in Mississippi a few shortlines also do business there which include the Meridian & Bigbee Railroad, Mississippi Export Railroad, and Tishomingo Railroad.

Together, these railroads operate roughly 2,500 miles of track in Mississippi although at one time the state was home to about twice that amount. For information about Mississippi railroading in terms of route mileage over the decades please have a look at the chart below.

While Mississippi railroading no longer features celebrated passenger trains of the South like the Abraham Lincoln, Crescent, City of New Orleans and Pan American Amtrak continues to operate the Crescent and City of New Orleans over Norfolk Southern and Canadian National trackage in the Magnolia State (the Sunset Limited used to stretch as far as western Florida and included four stops in Mississippi but has yet to resume service that far east since the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe).

In any event, if you tire of live freight railroading or just aren’t interested in that sort of thing Mississippi railroading also includes several railroad museums. These include the Booneville Rails & Trails Museum, Gulfport Union Depot, Canton Train Museum, McComb Depot, the Walter Valley Casey Jones Railroad Museum, Corinth Union Station, Meridian Freight House, and West Point Transportation Museum.

While Mississippi railroading may not offer the excitement of challenging mountainous grades it does feature a colorful mix of most of North America’s Class I systems, Amtrak operations and local shortline service which should make for an enjoyable trip to the Magnolia State.