Journey Through Central Mississippi To Memphis – 27 December 2007

[Jimbaux is moving down the king’s highway, paper bag in his hand . . . . ]

Here’s something different for you; I think that you might really like this one!

I’ve Got To Travel That  . . .

The Duke and I embarked from bayouland on the morning of 27 December 2007, and we’d end up that night in Memphis, Tennessee.  On the way there, we got several pictures in central Mississippi, particularly along the east-west central corridor where the Kansas City Southern Railway’s east-west “Meridian Speedway” line is.  I wanted to see this action myself as well as show The Duke what I had found there the previous month.  We followed the track eastward from Jackson a little ways before we turned back to go north from Jackson to Memphis.  The first picture is from the town of Brandon with the obligatory Confederate States Of America statue.

Okay, and here are some storefronts before we get to the trains.

Okay, that’s enough of that.

Trains – KCS – Meridian Speedway

Reader Steve Laser commented that I had “really hit the bonanza” with my catches in this area on November 4, the first time that I had really come to this area.  Now, I’m here with someone whose primary interest is not trains, here for less time too, and I still think we hit a good bonanza here, even if we didn’t get F-units, SDP40s, and FNM two-tone blue locomotives.

Here we are at Rankin (between Brandon and Pelahatchie) where the eastbound Rankin Turn is arriving, and, look, it has yet another one of those yellow ex-UP Geeps on the front!

I was hoping that the train would come up to the curve on the mainline, but I do rather like the swoosh effect to this shot, don’t you?

Check out the crewmen riding the point in the above picture as the train enters the siding.  One of them would get off at the switch to the track just in front of where they are so that he could line the switch once the end passed.  Below, you can see in the background where some of these tank cars are going as the train now shoves back into the spur track the switch to which is seen above.

We had a rather cute little visitor as you can see.

Do you see the trainman in the background in the above picture?  After he tied the handbrake on the last tank car below, he walks to the front of the train in preparation for the power to break off and run around the train.

Then, we proceeded eastward a little ways, where we found what would become the eastern end of Rankin siding.  Remember my shot of the ATDA on November 4?  It’s the sixteenth picture from that post.  Well, it was taken at the same location as the below picture, and look at what is new here.

Yes, more capacity improvements were being made, and likely from the money from Norfolk Southern.

Pelahatchie, A Neat Place

BobE has called Pelahatchie one of the most interesting places on the KCS, mainly because of the pulpwood yard there, but neither of us have had success in incorporating the mainline and the pulpwood operation in one image.  Here’s the best that I could do, and I was happy to do it!

Where does that pulpwood go?  This train is the Forest Local, and it was picking up these loaded pulpwood cars, but, below, you see it back on the mainline getting ready to spot some empties.

This must have been an interesting operation to observe back in IC days when it was only local traffic.

Hmmmmmmm.   Mmmmmm.    Hmmmmmmm.

I think that Tucker told me that that was a frequently-visited establishment during his time as a KCS trainman.

Anyway, we were waiting for KCS train I-CLAT – that’s an Intermodal train from Clovis, New Mexico, to Atlanta, Georgia, off of the BNSF in the Dallas area – and got him at CP West Pelahatchie like so.

Let’s now return to the pulpwood yard where you can now not only see the spotted empties being loaded, but you can also see the identity of that yet-another yellow ex-UP locomotive.

The Forest Local had to stay there anyway to wait for two westbound trains, one of which was the I-ATDA, as seen here.

The Duke and I left town.  We had to go north, and we did, but he enjoyed his time in Pelahatchie as did I.

Memphis

Four hours and two minutes later, we got this shot on the NS trackage in Memphis, as we see an empty coal train bound for interchange with BNSF in town.

This was probably my first time in the Volunteer State since I was a little kid, but over the next four years, I’d visit it several times!  Let’s get a quick shot of traffic and of the retro McDonald’s, I believe on Poplar Avenue, before we call it a night.

Well, that was neat, and I got to visit and old friend that night.  What would tomorrow bring?  Plenty!  Stay tuned.

Jimbaux