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| I would give up motorcycles to be an engineer on a steam train. (sounds like one of those 'crossroads' deals). So now you know. This is what I found right off US 51 in downtown McComb. The pictures pretty much explain themselves. I would guess the engine to be a 1920's oil burner. I should have gotten a closer look. Unfortunately, the museum was not open. The station was perfect. It reminded me of the one that Ray Fagan and I had visited in Alabama. |
| The Illinois Central can take you here. Read the song in the right column, if you don't already know the words. |
| Now there is a magnificent machine. |
| Harley Riders like their bikes because they are like little steam locomotives. I am sure of this. |
| If you haven't ridden on one, you can't call me crazy. It is addictive. |
| Trying to control my heart palpitations, I rode back down Old 24 to MS 48 into Tylertown and then down to Lake Walthall. It had been closed on the visit the day before and I was promised it would be open today, it was, sort of. |
| I question names and this time the answer came back pretty interesting. It seems that it would be General Walthall Lake. The General and General Forest were associates it seems. Forrest and his presence at Brice's Crossroads will be featured soon. Click the link and get ready to Meet General Walthall and understand what "Galantry" means. |
| Fagan says there's a county, this one, a town, and many monuments in the General's honor. His post war years were spent in the US Senate where he would leave a legacy that is studied in Mississippi highschool history. |
| The Lake. |
| On the way home I had to check on the Sunnyville church. The storm blew the paint off, 'bout all. That's good. |
| That's about all the discoveries I can take for right now. Later Gators. |
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| Tylertown |
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| My cousin-in-law wrote me this mournful note after seeing the train pictures. "You can't comprehend the depths of my despair when I spent five years getting through engineering school only to find that I didn't get to drive a train". (I've heard that before but I'm not busting his creative bubble over it.) Then he said something about Steve Goodman and the song "City of New Orleans". I'd forgotten that until I reread the page and "Illinois Central" clicked (see the route picture). This line is the Illinois Central Line from New Orleans to Chicago. Wow. Here's the song, my favorite version is by Arlo Guthrie. Thanks Dell. |
| The City of New Orleans
by Steve Goodman Copied from here: http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/new- orleans.shtml Riding on the City of New Orleans, Illinois Central Monday morning rail Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders, Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail. All along the southbound odyssey The train pulls out at Kankakee Rolls along past houses, farms and fields. Passin' trains that have no names, Freight yards full of old black men And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles. CHORUS: Good morning America how are you? Don't you know me I'm your native son, I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans, I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done. Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car. Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score. Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor. And the sons of pullman porters And the sons of engineers Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel. Mothers with their babes asleep, Are rockin' to the gentle beat And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel. CHORUS Nighttime on The City of New Orleans, Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee. Half way home, we'll be there by morning Through the Mississippi darkness Rolling down to the sea. And all the towns and people seem To fade into a bad dream And the steel rails still ain't heard the news. The conductor sings his song again, The passengers will please refrain This train's got the disappearing railroad blues. Good night, America, how are you? Don't you know me I'm your native son, I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans, I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done. ©1970, 1971 EMI U Catalogue, Inc and Turnpike Tom Music (ASCAP) |
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| Ray F. sent this picture of the general. For those who know Dickey Betts, think they could be realated? |
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