Does anybody have any insight into why MidSouth failed? The only time I ever saw them was when I visited Silvis, IL and spotted a few of their old engines on the property (then I was politely refused permission to get close enough to them to snap a picture). What was the reason for their demise? I only know they operated some ex-IC trackage way south of the Mason-Dixon line, and they didn’t last long.
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Didn’t they actually get absorbed into another railroad to become part of a thru route? I’m thinking KCS for some reason.
Yes they were bought by someone else it was KCS that bought them in 1994
KCS bought them in the early 90s (94 I believe). They upgraded MidSouth’s east-west line (they also had a north-south line, making a big + sign) and turned it into the “Meridian Gateway” (or is that Speedway…?). Anyway, they use this route to conduct run-throughs between BNSF in Dallas and NS in the southeast. KCS obviously had some foresight in buying this line, but I also suppose they must have been doing well enough that Haverty didn’t think he’d be losing a ton of money on a bad road.
Illinois Central Gulf sold off several hundred miles of trackage to what became the Gulf & Mississippi. ICG followed that by selling 400 more miles to what became MidSouth. After that sale, the Gulf & Mississippi went under, and it was purchased by MidSouth. Illinois Central then tried to buy back MidSouth, and the former G&M, but MidSouth rejected IC’s offer. KCS then purchased MidSouth, and then IC and KCS talked about merging, but that fell through.
Adding to what has been posted previously, the MidSouth came into being in 1986 and consisted of nearly 400 miles of former ICG Mississippi Div lines. Its main line ran almost due east - west 313 miles clear across Mississippi and Louisiana from Meridian through Jackson, Vicksburg and Monroe to Shreveport. Other routes ran to Gulfport and Counce, TN. The MidSouth didn’t completely fail and its routes are operated today by the KCS.
Beginning in the 1960’s the ICG reduced maintenance of these lines to a bare minimum as it did with so many of its other secondaries and branches. The ICG was paring itself down to just a north - south road and spun off its east - west Mississipi Div lines along with the Iowa Div (which it later reacquired) and the Indianapolis line. What the MidSouth got from the ICG was a worn out railroad with worn out ex-ICG engines. It lacked the money to rehab its lines and was headed for abandonment with traffic down to a single train daily in each direction on its mainline. Train speeds were down to 30mph max due to the poor condition of its trackage. Because the MidSouth was the only east - west railroad with a Mississippi River crossing (at Vicksburg) between Memphis and New Orleans, its real potential was as a bridge route between the southern and western railroads. It failed only in the sense that it lacked the financial resources to recondition its lines to realize that potential.
With the resurgence of rail traffic in the