Gulf & Mississippi Railroad / SouthRail

The Gulf & Mississippi Railroad was a short-lived regional railroad, utilizing over 700 miles of mostly former Gulf, Mobile & Ohio trackage purchased from the Illinois Central Gulf in 1985. The passage of the federal Staggers Act in 1980 allowed Class 1 systems like the ICG to spin off massive quantities of secondary and tertiary trackage for handling forest, paper, and chemical products. The Gulf & Mississippi was the first to take advantage of this new arrangement, building a regional system from three historic secondary lines in Mississippi divested by the ICG:

Mobile, Alabama north to Corinth, Mississippi -- the former mainline of the Mobile & Ohio (later Gulf, Mobile & Ohio)
Laurel, Mississippi north to Middleton, Tennessee, broken between Ackerman and Woodland -- the former mainline of the Gulf, Mobile & Northern (later GM&O)
Artesia, Mississippi east to Tuscaloosa, Alabama -- former GM&O secondary connector

1948 GM&O map of Mississippi routes / collection

1998 SouthRail Official Guide map / collection

The creation of the Gulf & Mississippi was a bold venture, but the Deep South regional was plagued by problems almost from the start. The Illinois Central Gulf had performed minimal upkeep on its secondary and tertiary lines in Mississippi, thus the cash-strapped GMSR could never make adequate headway on restoring deteriorating roadbeds and replacing worn-out and under-weight GM&O-era rail. Furthermore, unlike its eventual purchaser MidSouth, the GMSR was a north-south regional in an profitable east-west territory. By 1988, less than five years into its existence, the road was facing bankruptcy.

The adjacent MidSouth, another Staggers-era ICG spinoff (yet much more profitable), acquired the struggling system in April of 1988 through a new subsidiary SouthRail Corporation. Most GMSR lines survive today in the Kansas City Southern system, which purchased MidSouth (and thus SouthRail) in 1994.

Motive Power

With the purchase of the ex-GM&O trackage from the Illinois Central Gulf, the Gulf & Mississippi also acquired from the ICG 30 of its Paducah-rebuilt GP10 locomotives. The regional planned to repaint this fleet in its attractive GM&O-inspired red and white paint scheme, but ongoing financial challenges meant that only a handful of units ever received the classy treatment. The struggling GMSR later supplemented its well-worn Paducah fleet with a small fleet of ex-Conrail GP38 road switchers. Additionally, a batch of ex-Burlington Northern SD45 units were secured for use as larger road power, but the big C-C movers proved far too heavy for the aging rail of the cash-strapped GMSR system and thus were soon spun off elsewhere. When the MidSouth formed SouthRail, the Paducah GP10s were absorbed into the MidSouth roster and the GP38s soon found homes in the growing second-hand locomotive and lease pool markets.

Gulf & Mississippi #8025

Tuscaloosa, Al / Jan 1986 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #8025

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP10 "Paducah rebuild"
type:B-B road switcher
built:May 1954, EMD #18822
engine:EMD 567C (16 cyl, rebuilt 1968)
notes:
blt Illinois Central #9025, later #8025
to Gulf & Mississippi #8025
to MidSouth #1079
to Great Western, later Hudson Bay #1079
scrapped, 2001

Laurel, Ms / Sep 1986 / JCH

Gulf & Mississippi #8069

collection

Gulf & Mississippi #8069

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP10 "Paducah rebuild"
type:B-B road switcher
built:Jan 1955, EMD #20148
engine:EMD 567 (16 cyl, rebuilt 1969)
notes:
blt Illinois Central #9069, later #8069
to Gulf & Mississippi #8069
to MidSouth #1069
to Kansas City Southern #1869 (rebuilt)

Mobile, Al / Oct 1986 / JCH

Gulf & Mississippi #8082

Artesia, Ms / Dec 1985 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #8082

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP10 "Paducah rebuild"
type:B-B road switcher
built:Feb 1955, EMD #20161
engine:EMD 567 (16 cyl, rebuilt 1967)
notes:
blt Illinois Central #9082, later #8082
to Gulf & Mississippi #8082
to MidSouth #1052
to RailService #1052

Gulf & Mississippi #8106

Artesia, Ms / Apr 1986 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #8106

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP10 "Paducah rebuild"
type:B-B road switcher
built:Mar 1955, EMD #20285
engine:EMD 567C (16 cyl, rebuilt 1971)
notes:
blt Illinois Central #9106, later #8106
to Gulf & Mississippi #8106
to MidSouth #1051
to RailService #1051

Artesia, Ms / Apr 1986 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #8187

Artesia, Ms / Dec 1985 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #8187

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP10 "Paducah rebuild"
type:B-B road switcher
built:EMD #20825
engine:EMD 567 (16 cyl, rebuilt 1971)
notes:
blt Illinois Central #9187, later #8187
to Gulf & Mississippi #8187
to MidSouth #1068
to Panama Canal #1855

West Point, Ms / Jul 1989 / RWH

Gulf & Mississippi #8222

Laurel, Ms / Sep 1986 / JCH

Gulf & Mississippi #8222

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP10 "Paducah rebuild"
built:Jan 1957, EMD #22287
engine:EMD 567 (16 cyl, rebuilt 1970)
notes:
blt Illinois Central #9222, later #8222
to Gulf & Mississippi #8222
to MidSouth #1083
to Quest Communications #704
to Ohio Central #704
to Bloomer Line #7504

Union, Ms / Jul 1989 / RWH

July 1989 / RWH

Gulf & Mississippi #7811

Marion, Ms / Oct 1986 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #7811

builder:Electro Motive Division
model:GP38
type:B-B road switcher
built:Nov 1969, EMD #35440
series:466 produced 1966-71
engine:EMD 645E (16 cyl, 2000 hp)
notes:
blt Penn Central #7811, Conrail #7811
to Gulf & Mississippi #7811
to Bay Line #506

Rolling Stock

Gulf & Mississippi #1

caboose / Tuscaloosa, Al / Mar 1988 / collection

Gulf & Mississippi #2018

all-door boxcar / Laurel, Ms / Sep 1986 / JCH

Gulf & Mississippi #40430

boxcar / Artesia, Ms / Jul 1989 / RWH

Gulf & Mississippi #82699

woodchip hopper / RWH

Gulf & Mississippi #501590

woodchip hopper / Meridian, Ms / Sep 1988 / RWH

Locations

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio "Rebel"

collection

In the summer of 1989, my dad and I enjoyed a week of railfanning all over the Magnolia State. Our primary destination was Columbus and the Delta Route west to the Mississippi River, but in order to get there we chased a section of the Gulf & Mississippi. The regional had been purchased by the MidSouth a year earlier. Although the named had changed to SouthRail, and handsome MidSouth units dotted the lines we chased, little else had changed on the GMSR. Dad always had a place in his railfan heart for the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio, so the opportunity to explore at a leisurely pace a section of the old GM&O mainline was a real treat. The "Rebel Route," it was dubbed, back in the day -- named for the famed streamlined motorcar sets (above) that plied the north-south mainline as "Rebels."

We picked up the GM&O (originally Gulf, Mobile & Northern) mainline at Bay Springs, Mississippi (see map, right). Riding into town in the morning, we were lucky to catch a southbound SouthRail local coming into the depot area with a high-nose Gulf & Mississippi power on the point. This unit was a delight, because the cash-strapped G&M only got around to painting a handful of units in their GM&O-inspired maroon-and-white look. Below Bay Springs, the crew placed their power in a siding and then gravity-rolled their empties downhill past the turnout. The power was placed back on the train, and the consist was backed southbound to service a Georgia Pacific mill at the end of the line. Over the course of the day, we moved northward through Newton (where the GM&O crossed the Illinois Central), Union, Philadelphia, Louisville (big names for little towns), and Ackerman. In each town, we enjoyed exploring the remaining GM&O-era wooden stations (the Bay Springs depot, half of its former self!). We saw a number of trains along the way: evidence that the MidSouth was keeping the rough under-weight trackage and the well-worn Paducah rebuilds of the short-lived G&M moving along and making money. The following day: Artesia, West Point, and more SouthRail action on the eastern ex-GM&O line that comprised the G&M regional.