I’m interested in donating a framed antique photo of a Mississippi Central steam engine-powered train to a railroad museum (in Mississippi). It’s been on my wall for quite some time and I need the space. I picked it up at an antique shop years ago.
It shows a single Mississippi Central steam engine pulling a “unit train” of wood-framed box cars, each with a large placard on the side saying two Oakland automobiles are inside. There’s a hand-printed notation on the lower-left corner indicating the train originated in Detroit and its routing all the way to the west gulf coast, dated 1931.
If anyone knows of a good railroad museum in Mississippi that might be interested in such an item, I’d appreciate it.
It seems like a curious routing that box cars originating in Detroit and destined for the west coast would go anywhere near the Mississippi Central’s territory, but perhaps there was some promotional reason for going that way.
i believe that there is a museum at Vaughn or Water Valley MS ( I can’t remeber which).
My mistake - I updated my post. I meant to enter “gulf coast” - the train’s routing mentioned Shreveport as the final destination.
I visited these places for the 100th anniversary of Casey Jones’ wreck. I went back past Vaughn in about 2005 and found that station/museum apparently abandoned and boarded up. The little museum in Water Valley was very well organized when I visited there in 2000, and they are still in existance.
www.watervalley.net/users/caseyjones
Bill
This might be a slightly more illuminating link to the Water Valley (Ms.) Railroad museum.
http://www.watervalley.net/users/caseyjones/depot.htm
Water Valley was a division point on the Illinois Central until it was abandoned in early 1982…