Mississippi

Illinois Central's Jackson station holds a special place in my memories. Whenever we visited my paternal grandmother in Jackson, dad and I would always take a break from the family festivities to drive down to Capital Yard to see what the ICG was doing that day. We'd drive up and down the yard length several times, and then we'd park the car at the IC station and go in and up to take a look. This was in an Amtrak era when you could still walk the platforms before or after train time. We were rarely in Jackson at the right time to catch either direction of the daily City of New Orleans, but it was still fun to see the 2-level station and image I was headed south to NOLA or north to Chicago. Later, I would myself ride the City more than once to visit my grandmother on my own. This was long before the double decker Superliner days: it was worn-out Heritage equipment and a pair of spirited FP40-2's on the point. The ride north from Hammond, La, meant an evening arrival at the IC station with my grandmother always dutifully waiting on the platform. Thanks for the memories, Main Line.