Mississippi Delta Railroad

he Mississippi Delta Railroad is a 60 mile shortline located in northwestern Mississippi. The trackage and infrastructure are owned by Coahoma County, Mississippi, and are currently leased to Rock Island Rail for maintenance and operation. Rock Island has common carrier status on the southermost section of the line, near a connection at Swan Lake, Mississippi, with the Canadian National. The balance of the line is classified non-common carrier, for contract switching service. Rock Island Rail primarily uses the railroad for empty and loaded contract car storage, but some local freight customers are also served. Offices and locomotives are based in Sumner, Mississippi — county seat for Tallahatchie County and famous for the Emmett Till lynching trial in 1955.

Most of the 60 miles of trackage was built by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, and therefore later a part of the huge Illinois Central system covering the Mississippi Delta. The Swan Lake to Clarksdate segment was a branchline connected to the IC's mainline from Greenville to Memphis, while the Clarksdale to Lula segment was a section of the Yazoo's secondary line between Redwood in the south and Memphis in the north. This rail had been laid by the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway, connecting New Orleans and Memphis. The final MSDR segment — Lula to Jonestown, out of service — was originally the Mobile & North-Western Railroad: a 3' gauge operation later acquired by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley and standard-gauged. Prior to Rock Island Rail, previous operators of these three post-Illinois Central Gulf segments included Gulf & Ohio Railways and the C&J Railroad. The latter briefly attempted tourist trains over the Clarksdale end of the line.