Columbus & Greenville Railway

Greenville, Mississippi

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greenville_seal What brought us here and made us what we are is the Mighty Mississippi. We are the land of cotton and the Delta Blues, where the stories are bigger than catfish and as powerful as the waters of Ole Man River. We have been shelled, invaded, burned, flooded and plagued. And still we capture imaginations and treat our visitors warmly like long-lost friends. On the banks of this colossal river is Greenville, a wellspring of music, literature, adventure, imagination, history and plain old fun. Greenville has inspired greatness from Native Americans to cotton barons, Pulitzer-Prize winners, Civil Rights leaders, Bluesmen, poets and inventors. We’re proud to share Greenville and Washington County with all; discover for yourself that there’s more than meets the eye in this land of rich customs and folklore, creativity and physical beauty that make up one of America’s most unique destinations.

Greenville - Washington County, Mississippi

greenville_inset egyptian ituated in the banks of the mighty Mississippi River and the border of Arkansas, the city of Greenville, Mississippi, has a railroad transportation legacy dating back to 1870 and the formation of the tiny Greenville, Deer Creek & Rolling Fork Railroad. By 1881, successor Greenville, Columbus & Birmingham had built from Greenville as far east as Indianola. Originally spanned with narrow gauge trackage, the lines from Greenville would eventually be standard-gauged with its connection to the Georgia Pacific Railroad as its expansion from Alabama westward to the River. Neither the Georgia Pacific nor successor Southern Railway ever attempted to ferry or span across the Mississippi with any success, making Greenville the western terminus of the east-west mainline that would eventually become the Columbus & Greenville. Until the ICG merger era, the C&G entered Greenville on the original Greenville, Columbus & Birmingham right of way (orange on map below) through the communities of Buckner and Greenville. In the 1980s, the reorganized C&G diverted at Stoneville over the former Yazoo & Mississippi Valley trackage to Metcalf, then southeast into Greenville (green on map). This remains the route today in the Genesee & Wyoming era. The middle portion of the original mainline is out of service and overgrown, with car storage on the east end and one remaining industry on the west end.

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collection

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1878 Official Guide ad / collection

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GCB route map / Mississippi Rails

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adapted from SPV Comprehensive Railroad Atlas / collection

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For 68 years there has been a railroad stretching from the hill-and-dale country of east Mississippi across the state to the flat and fertile Delta and to Greenville (thus it is called the Delta Route). The dream was to cross the river at Greenville. That was many years ago, and it has not yet been fulfilled. So the Columbus & Greenville terminates at its western namesake but looks across the wide and unpredictable Father of Waters — both a blessing and a threat to all who live and work in the rich alluvial plain called the Mississippi Delta.

Dibrell L. Du Val - 1958

Stations

The Columbus & Greenville inhabited two different stations in Greenville over the decades, one in the passenger era and another in the post-Illinois Central Gulf merger era. Greenville being the terminus of the Southern Rwy in Mississippi, there was naturally a small terminal passenger depot in town to service westbound trains having completed their run. Use of the station as a terminus ended with the demise of passenger service in the late 1940s. In the mid 1970s, the C&G inhabited the small ex Illinois Central depot in Greenville for use as a yard office. That building has since been vacated by the shortline in the Genesee & Wyoming era.

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1955 Official Guide ad / collection

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Jul 1989

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Click to see the former Columbus & Greenville yard office plotted on a Google Maps page

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Jun 2020 / RWH

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Jun 2020 / RWH

Yard areas

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notes on yard area / 1972 / JCH

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Click to see the riverside yard area plotted on a Google Maps page

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Greenville, Ms — July 1989 — Found CAGY GP7 #608 (Sep 1952, EMD #17345, ex Florida East Coast) working cuts of cars in the yard adjacent to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

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Click to see this yard area plotted on a Google Maps page

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Jul 1989

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In the summer of 1989, dad and I crawled all over the city of Greenville--our final spot on a multi-day trek across the Delta Route from east to west. We photographed switching action in the yard, the engine servicing area, and the ex Illinois Central depot in town. Dad had covered the same ground in the early 1970s, so he was anxious to get around and see what had changed in 15 years. While poking around some industrial sites, we stumbled upon Baldwin #606 shoved down a grass-covered spur. Weeds and trees were growing up all around her, but closer inspection revealed that — cosmetically, at least — she was not in too bad a shape. The prime mover had been scavenged, and some ragged holes had been torched into her long hood. The blue and white paint scheme of the post-ICG Columbus & Greenville was still in decent shape, and still stenciled on her cab was the name "City of Moorhead." Below the engine number, the cab still read "Where the Southern crossed the Yellow Dog."

greenville_notes1989c It was a less than glorious retirement for a workhorse of a road switcher, one of only twenty-one AS-416 models built by the forces in Philadelphia and the last of a small stable of 6-axle Baldwins that helped to secure a place for the little C&G in the pantheon of great Deep South shortlines. Thirty-eight years had passed since her arrival in Columbus, but the torch marks and the trees growing up under the walkways made it clear that her days of shuffling cars in the Delta and building trains #51 and 52 had come to close.

We spent that entire morning in Greenville under cloudy gray skies.
Upon discovering 606 shoved in the weeds, I knew why.

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See also Ralph's journal entry on #606 in our CAGY Baldwin scrapbook


Old Main

srm_greenville The remains of the original Greenville, Columbus & Birmingham right of way that was until the 1980s the Columbus & Greenville mainline into Greenville are now an extended industrial spur. The track leaves the current mainline east of Theobald Street, running northeast along Railroad Avenue until Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, where is turns almost due east through the Greenville neighborhood ... until it plays out, west of the community of Buckner. As of 2020, it serves one customer: Loveland Products, producer of agricultural chemicals. Located at Raceway Road, the old C&G main is out of service east of their facility. Rails are still in place at the next grade crossing east, at Seven Oaks Road, but the line is overgrown.

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Click to see the Old Main switch area plotted on a Google Maps page

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Click to see the Nelson Street crossing area plotted on a Google Maps page

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Click to see this area along Railroad Avenue plotted on a Google Maps page

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Click to see the Mississippi Route 1 crossing plotted on a Google Maps page

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See also our Great River Railroad shortline scrapbook for more Mississippi Route 1 locations

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Click to see the Raceway Road crossing plotted on a Google Maps page

tag_spot Loveland Products

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loveland_logo At Loveland Products, Inc. we offer a complete line of high performance input products. Our portfolio of seed treatment, plant nutrition, fertilizer, adjuvant and crop protection products are second to none. We are constantly striving to bring new, unique chemistries to the marketplace to provide innovative solutions to problems across the agricultural and professional non-crop industries. The combination of high performance, high quality, competitively priced products, with the knowledge and service from the Nutrien Ag Solutions team that supports them, makes Loveland Products a good value for any operation.

Loveland Products

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See also our CAGY Switching Jobs scrapbook for more Loveland Products action


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Click to see the Seven Oaks Road crossing plotted on a Google Maps page


Levee Line

port_inset For many years the Columbus & Greenville has serviced a riverside levee line that runs southwest from the original C&G yard and parallels Levee Road, adjacent to US Highway 82. The line has sidings to a number of industrial facilities, including the Port of Greenville, running as far downriver as the Producers Rice Mill and the Gerald Andrus generating station.

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from CAGY company newsletter - Mar 1978 / collection

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1988 Official Guide clipping / collection

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Greenville, Ms - Jun 2020 - While tracing the levee line south of the old Columbus & Greenville riverside yard, found CAGY #8720 (Paducah GP11, blt Jun 1963, EMD #28286) parked on the Harbor Front Road industrial spur.

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Click to see the start of the levee line at Walthall Street plotted on a Google Maps page

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Jun 2020 / RWH


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This page was updated on 2021-10-01