Queen & Crescent Chapter NRHS

History of local railroads

by: Mick Nussbaum

revised: August 5,2007

The first rail line constructed into Lauderdale County was the Mobile & Ohio Railroad in 1855. Its construction began in Mobile Alabama a couple of years earlier progressing northward toward the industrial centers of the upper Midwest. The Mobile & Ohio was one of the country's earliest land grant railroads with the federal government ceding the land along the proposed right of way to the railroad company who then sold it off to private individuals and corporations for the required capital to construct the actual rail lines themselves. At the time the grading and construction crews reached this part of Lauderdale County the City of Marion was their intended destination on their route north. The first scheduled train arrived at the point that is now Meridian on Oct. 1855, then known as the McLemore "Old Field" named for Richard McLemore who possessed most of the areas land and whose plantation home was the only notable residence in the vicinity.

About the time that the Mobile & Ohio was building in the area L.A. Ragsdale and John T. Ball bought out Richard McLemore's estate. Both parties immediately began to lay out town lots with one aligning his streets parallel to the railroad and the other choosing to use true compass headings, thusly explaining the odd arrangement of the streets that exist to this day. Mr. Ball at this time erected a plain plank station house at his own personal expense, constructing it from whatever material could be obtained as it became available. The Mobile & Ohio in turn named this station "Sowashee" which is Choctaw for "Mad River" after the creek that runs nearby. They agreeing as a special favor to grant depot privileges to the site provided the station was constructed according to their specifications and was furnished at the community's expense. But for nearly two years afterwards Sowashee was treated as a mere flag station, and denied ordinary station accommodations, while the expense of keeping up the station was borne by Mr. Ball.

When the Southern Railway of Mississippi was constructing the line that was progressing east out of Jackson Mississippi, their original intention was to cross the Mobile & Ohio at Enterprise, MS in Clarke County to the south of Sowashee. The railroad solicited the officials of that area for assistance in acquiring land for their right of way and a location to build a station within the town of Enterprise they only met a dead end. The ever eager businessmen in Lauderdale county saw the economic opportunity of the Southern Crossing the M&O and came to the rescue providing the railroad with the required land they desperately needed so that the main railroad crossroads would be in Sowashee. The Southern Railway of Mississippi finished constructing the line into this area in 1861. On May 29, 1861 the first train over the "Southern" arrived at Meridian at 6:45 p.m., drawn by a handsome little engine, the 'Mazzeppa". The bulk of the passengers arriving on this day were from the volunteer company of the Confederate Army known as the Vicksburg Southerners, 111 men strong. On June 3rd the first train to leave Meridian for Vicksburg departed at 8:45 a.m.. Hon. W.C. Smedes, the president and "father of the Southern Railroad," upon reaching here with his railroad adopted the name given by Mr. Ball and accepted by the citizens and suggested its adoption by the M&O Railroad, which they gracefully yielded to, and from that date, it has borne the name "Meridian".

After the initial two railroads created a crossing at what was now known as "Meridian" other lines began to see the area as a desired destination to build into. In 1853 another land grant had been secured by the North East & South West Alabama Railroad (NE&SW) for the purpose of connecting Meridian with Chattanooga, Tennessee. The company did not take possession of the land grant properties until 1860, at the outbreak of the civil war only 27 miles of the line from Meridian to York, Alabama had been completed. But most of the heavy grading had was completed between York and Tuscaloosa, and the war only brought a temporary delay to the completion of this important road.

As the war progressed the Confederate Government in Richmond became considerably aware of the gap in the rail lines at the Alabama - Mississippi border, and as a result on February 15, 1862 loaned the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad (A&MR) $150,000 to complete the line from Selma Alabama to Meridian. Difficulties ensued, however, because the A&MR only planned to build to Reagan Alabama where it would connect with the NE&SW. The NE&SW was to construct the remainder of the line into Meridian. The wartime shortage of iron caused critical delay in the construction of both lines. Work proceeded till December 10, 1862 when workers finally completed the line between Selma and Meridian, where all shipments were handed over to other railroads. At that time the Alabama line assumed the name of its terminal towns to become known as the Selma & Meridian Railroad (S&M).

The Selma & Meridian was to be no exception when the Federal troops ravaged the railroads of the south. The bridges over Valley Creek and the Cahaba River were burnt, essentially shutting down all operations on the railroad. The S&M was back in operation by May 18, 1865 and eventually due to the cost of the reconstruction was sold in bankruptcy and renamed the Alabama Central Railroad, still relying on the NE&SW for its connection to Meridian.

The NE&SW merged with the Wills Valley Railroad in 1868 and was renamed the Alabama & Chattanooga Railroad (A&C). Then in 1877 the A&C was again reorganized as the Alabama Great Southern Railroad, soon to also be purchased by the Erlanger Syndicate as part of the growing Queen & Crescent System.

In the 1880's there was a growing need for a connection from Meridian to the Port city of New Orleans Louisiana, William Harris Hardy, who had conceived the idea in 1868 surveyed the route for the construction of this line that was then constructed with the financial backing of the Erlanger Syndicate. On November 14, 1883, the last spike was driven connecting the line of the New Orleans & Northeastern Railroad between New Orleans and Meridian. This ceremony took place at a gravel pit at Derby, Miss. Completion of this line added yet another link to the famous Queen & Crescent Route. The gauge of the line was five feet wide and it was laid with new rail brought over from England. Having no steam shovels, the line was built with plows, scrapers, mule and manpower.

November 18, 1883 marked the passage of the first passenger train over the rails between Meridian and New Orleans. Engine #203 a baggage car, two coaches, and a sleeper, made up the train with Conductor Guiteau in charge and Engineer G.E. Reid at the controls. There was one trunk in the baggage car and a passenger in each coach. The trip was made in seven hours flat. The motive power and equipment for this new railroad were secured through transfer from the Cincinnati Southern, another Queen & Crescent property. Twenty- five engines were transferred, numbered 201 thru 225.

An interesting side note to the NO&NE construction is that the City of Hattiesburg was founded by William Harris Hardy while he was surveying the line from Meridian to New Orleans. It is named after his second wife Hattie Lott Hardy. After her passing in 1895 Mr. Hardy moved his law practice to Hattiesburg. Mr. Hardy is also credited with the founding of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad, in 1887. The "Southern" out of the west has had a colored history with many different owners up until the days of the Illinois Central Railroad, first the "Southern Railway of Mississippi" was reorganized out of bankruptcy due to the devastation from the Civil War as the Vicksburg & Meridian Railroad in 1867. The Alabama & Vicksburg Railroad succeeded the V&M in May 1889 again due to financial restructuring, under the control of the Erlanger Syndicate as part of the "Queen & Crescent System". In 1916 the Queen & Crescent System came under the control of the Southern Railway (not the same "Southern Railway" previously mentioned). In 1926 control of the Alabama & Vicksburg was passed to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, a subsidiary of the Illinois Central System.

In 1916 the Alabama Great Southern, and in 1917 the New Orleans & Northeastern were absorbed into the Southern Railway System.

In 1906 while Sam A. Neville was president of the board of trade of the City of Meridian he gave a great deal of study to the transportation situation in Mississippi and after discussing the matter with the different executives of the trunk line railroads in the state he saw that it was hopeless to interest them in any further rail development on account of the unfavorable attitude, as they saw it, of the law makers of the state. And while this was a situation to be regretted, at the same time it was useless as he saw it to sit idly by and let the state suffer on account of the attitude of either the law makers or the railway executives. He at once began to enlist local sentiment to provide for certain undeveloped areas in Mississippi's rail transportation.

On April 5, 1911 Mr. Neville was granted a charter for the Meridian & Deep Water Railway Company to "build a railroad from Meridian, Mississippi to some point at or near the Tombigbee River in the State of Alabama."

During the years 1911 and 1912 a considerable amount of work was done on clearing and grubbing right of way out of the City of Meridian, this route as surveyed was very near the city water works lakes (today's Bonita Lake Park), after much of this work was done the city decided that the railroad would be too near the water works lake and as a health precaution operations were abandoned at that time.

Still determined that Meridian should have another railroad, Mr. Neville obtained a charter for the Meridian & Memphis Railway in 1912 to "construct a railroad from Meridian Mississippi to Union Mississippi" and on June 25, 1912 construction was begun with the road completed and put in operation shortly thereafter to Union Mississippi. The M&M located their shops adjacent to the Alabama & Vicksburg tracks just west of town right where their right of way crossed that line, when they discussed the arrangements required for their trains to use the city's Union Station the other railroads in town refused to allow them trackage rights to reach it, therefore forcing the new line to construct a station of there own. Property was acquired at the corner of 22nd Avenue and "C" Street just four blocks south of the existing Station, in order for the M&M's trains to reach this new location they were forced to built an entirely new line into the city. The route chosen was south of the existing rail yards along what is now Interstate 20/59, crossing the A&V at their shops then crossing the NO&NE right below where that line turns south toward New Orleans, followed by the M&O at the bottom of their south yard then turning northward to the new station. When they surveyed this route into town they petitioned the three railroads mentioned above for permission to cross them at grade which each of them immediately denied, this forced the M&M to build over them. They built massive approaches to the bridges they would have to use in crossing these lines, even being forced to bridge the Sowashee creek twice in the process. Three of the piers for these bridges still stand today, the most visible one of these is adjacent to Highway 11 where it crosses under Interstate 20/59 along the Norfolk Southern mainline. The bulk of the fill that they were forced to construct was put to use many years later when the Interstates were constructed and is now the base for the westbound lane of Interstate 20/59 from 22nd Avenue to Highway 11.

To further this link to the West, the Jackson & Easter Railway was granted a charter in 1916 to "construct a railroad from Union, Mississippi, to Jackson, Mississippi", and shortly thereafter the first thirteen miles was constructed from Union to Sebastopol Mississippi. When the United States entered in World War One naturally all construction work of this nature was abandoned. Directly after the war control of the railroads were returned to their owners. The Transportation Act was passed in 1920 and after trials and tribulations under this new law and four years overcoming these difficulties, construction on this road was continued. Ten miles were constructed from Sebastopol to Walnut Grove, Mississippi. Then another ten miles from Walnut Grove to Lena, Mississippi, making a total of thirty-three miles from Union.

About 1926 the Meridian & Memphis and Jackson & Eastern Railroads were sold to the Gulf, Mobile & Northern Railroad (who financially was backing the construction of both) and the Jackson & Eastern was completed into Jackson, Mississippi. This having been done, Mr. Neville went back to his original plan to build a railroad from Meridian to the Tombigbee River, and the Meridian & Bigbee River Railway was granted a charter on January 23, 1917 to "construct a railroad from Meridian, Mississippi to the Tombigbee River". A contract was awarded on December 24, 1926 to construct this railroad. And on April 16, 1928 construction was completed and the road was put in operation from Meridian to Cromwell, Alabama, a distance of 29.87 miles to a connection with the Alabama, Tennessee & Northern Railroad. After many years of construction this road was finally completed from Cromwell to Myrtlewood, Alabama, crossing the Tombigbee River and connecting with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and put into full operation on October 15, 1935.

During all these years the citizens of Meridian were most helpful and co-operative in every way, financially especially; however all credit for the construction, operation and completion of these railroads is due to the dreams, courage and tenacity of Mr. Sam A. Neville. Years later just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1940 the Mobile & Ohio Railroad which was in receivership at the time was purchased by the Gulf Mobile & Northern Railroad and the two lines were merged to form the Gulf Mobile & Ohio now having three separate routes into Meridian. This merger eliminated the need for the separate station that the Gulf Mobile & Northern was operating off of 22nd Avenue since these trains could now use the Mobile & Ohio trackage rights into Union Station.

The Railroad scene in Meridian remained somewhat constant for the next three decades until the Gulf Mobile & Ohio and the Illinois Central merged in 1972 to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. This effectively combined the two largest competing north-south railroads in the state. Also at this time the nation's freight railroads had turned over their passenger operations to the newly formed Amtrak or National Passenger Rail Corporation (NPRC). This did not change passenger operations immediately in Meridian since the Southern Railroad held out and continued to operate the Crescent on its own for some time, however in 1979 even they finally passed control of their premier passenger train over to Amtrak.

In the early 1980's the biggest changes in decades occurred locally, First the Southern Railroad who had dominated the local scene for over 65 years merged with the Norfolk & Western forming the new Norfolk Southern Railroad, this change was part of a national trend of mergers among the nations railroads as every strong successful line was acquiring rival lines as fast as possible in attempts to dominate the markets they served.

Also at this time the other trend for the nation's railroads was to unload unprofitable or excessive trackage where possible, and Meridian was no exception to this. The first change in Meridian was when the Illinois Central Gulf abandoned the old Meridian & Memphis line to Union, since the IC/GM&O merger they had two routes from here to Jackson and the old GM&O route was the longer of the two. Then the old Mobile & Ohio lines north and south out of Meridian were sold to the Gulf & Mississippi Railroad a regional system that purchased about 713 miles of track throughout the area. Also at that time the Illinois Central Gulf decided that the east-west main line from Meridian to Shreveport Louisiana was not valuable enough for them to retain either, it was sold off to the newly formed Midsouth Rail Corporation. These transactions effectively ended the days of the Illinois Central Gulf in Meridian. A few years later the Gulf & Mississippi itself fell victim to financial troubles and was in turn also purchased by the Midsouth Railroad who now controlled all of the former Illinois Central Gulf trackage in and around Meridian. Midsouth tried to promote the Meridian to Shreveport line as the newest transcontinental rail link across the south, however the ICG had left it in such a state of disrepair that it took all available funding they could muster just to keep the trains moving, leaving nothing for capital improvements. In 1994 the veteran Kansas City Southern Railroad purchased the entire Midsouth Corporation with the main intention of acquiring the Meridian to Shreveport line and following though on the plan to promote it as an alternate east-west route for transcontinental rail traffic. The KCS invested heavily into this old ICG mainline, promoting it as the "Meridian Speedway", improving track conditions for faster trains, adding and lengthening sidings as much as they could, thusly increasing the traffic to the point where they attracted lucrative contracts for double stack container trains with the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF) as well as Union Pacific (UP) for trains from the west coast ports to the metropolitan Atlanta area.

On April 1, 2000 the Kansas City Southern sold off the line from Meridian to Waynesboro (54.5 miles) to the newly formed Meridian Southern Railway, this is the former Mobile & Ohio line that was in fact the first line built into the area in back in 1855, it no longer reached Mobile, Alabama by this time since the ICG had abandoned the lower portion of it just prior to selling it to the Gulf & Mississippi in the 1980's. The Meridian Southern began operation utilizing former Midsouth GP-10 Locomotives that they leased from a third party. After a few years with these engines they purchased some former Conrail B23-7's from the Norfolk Southern.

The Meridian & Bigbee Railroad that for decades had been a 50.9 mile long line to the mill on the Tombigbee River in Myrtlewood Alabama was purchased by Rail Management Corporation (RMC) around the turn of this century, just shortly later on November 16, 2003 they acquired the former CSX trackage from the east side of the Tombigbee River to just outside of Montgomery, AL. bringing the railroad to a new total of 158.6 miles in length. On June 1, 2005 RMC was purchased by the Genessee & Wyoming Inc.

The Kansas City Southern in further efforts to improve the "Meridian Speedway" entered into a joint venture with the Norfolk Southern in 2005 whereas the NS provided three hundred million dollars for capital improvements cross the entire line to Shreveport. In return the Norfolk Southern received 1/3 ownership in the line. The newly formed operating company for this venture is known as the Meridian Speedway LLC. At this time the lines improvements are still underway, there have been a considerable number of new sidings added as well as other lengthened, some sections of double track have been installed and almost all of the Centralized Train Control (CTC) signaling has been installed with some sections of it already in use.

We expect the future of Meridian's railroads to remain strong we have seen a resurgence of rail traffic throughout the entire country and locally has been no exception. The volume of containerized "Double Stacks" through the city is increasing every day with more predicted in the near future, our short line railroads are doing better that ever, and we still have our daily passenger train service between New Orleans to Washington D.C..

The future of Meridian's railroads looks better than ever.