Final Piece Of Railroad History Could Vanish by Jack Gurner copied from the North Mississippi Herald - Sept. 28, 2011

[Joy Marter Tippit]

By Jack Gurner
Reporter

VAUGHAN – When the rails are taken up along the old Water Valley District, it will be the final farewell for one stretch of track held sacred by railroad men from all over the world.

Grenada Railway LLC has filed notice with the National Surface Transportation Board that they plan to abandon an 83-mile section from Grenada to Canton that includes the mile-long site of the April 1900 Casey Jones wreck at Vaughan.

Jones became the most famous railroader in American history after a song about the wreck was published in 1909. In the 1950s a museum to honor his memory was created at the site in the Vaughan depot.

Since the wreck tens of thousands of railroad cars have rolled passed the site and the steel rail has been upgraded to accommodate newer, faster trains and heavier engines.

In 1999, less than a year from the 100th anniversary of the famous wreck, the Canadian National Railroad bought the Illinois Central Railroad. Ten years later, in 2009, the CN sold what had been the Water Valley District and the Grenada District to Grenada Railway, LLC, who agreed to operate the railroad for a minimum of two years in the purchase agreement.

The two years have passed and the Grenada to Canton section is up for abandonment so the rail can be salvaged.

Between the sale of the ICRR and today, the museum at Vaughan was closed and the site abandoned. There is nothing left at Vaughan that hints of its famous past.


The Future

State political leaders haven’t completely given up. Central District Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall told the Associated Press that the abandonment would be opposed.

Others like Representative Tommy Reynolds and Water Valley Mayor Larry Hart want to make sure the public understands that the entire railroad is not shutting down.

They emphasize that the railroad will still be active from Memphis to Grenada and they are not giving up hope on the south part of the railroad that runs from Grenada to Canton.

Mayor Hart, who chairs the county coalition working to keep the railroad open, contacted company officials at Grenada Railroad, LLC, after a legal notice from the Illinois Central Railroad of intent to discontinue trackage rights between the Tennessee line and Grenada appeared in the Herald.

The notice was in regard to use of the tracks and not about abandoning the section and Mayor Hart reported it is business as usual from Grenada north.

 “They are actually buying bridge timbers to perform repairs on two bridges, one on the Coldwater River and the second on the Yalobusha River,” Mayor Hart noted.

Rep. Reynolds said he wants to make sure the line survives. “We want it the whole way, but we certainly need it in the northern part.”

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