Along the Line

Moving westward from Columbus along the railroad, the town of West Point was the first major community after the Tombigbee River and the first interchange point en route. Here the C&G met the Mobile & Ohio mainline (later GM&O) and an Illinois Central secondary route between Kosciusko and Aberdeen. Prior to 1980, C&G trains leaving Columbus approached West Point directly from the east. But the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway project put an end to the railroad's use of the bridge over the Tombigbee. After the bridge was decommissioned, C&G movements detoured through Artesia then northward to West Point on the old M&O main. The depot in West Point, built by the Southern Rwy in Mississippi, was demolished by the ICG in the early 1970s.

In the early years of the C&G, Mathiston, Mississippi was the Delta Route's only connection to the Gulf, Mobile & Northern railroad. The GM&N mainline stretched north-south from Mobile on the coast to Jackson, Tennessee and finally Paducah, Kentucky, crossing the C&G nearly 50 miles west of Columbus. The interchange featured an impressive wooden interlocking tower, but after the formation of the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio in 1940, the Mathiston crossing become redundant alongside former M&O junction at West Point. In the Illinois Central Gulf era, the former GM&O mainline was downgraded to a segmented branchline and the Mathiston interchange was removed.

Just one mile shy of being the halfway point on the C&G, the town of Winona, Mississippi, in Montgomery County, was for decades a major interchange point with the Illinois Central Railroad. The IC mainline from Jackson to Memphis crossed the Delta Route here, and in the early steam era the IC maintained a handsome wooden interlocking tower and a water plug. At 359' above sea level, Winona was the last town westward before the C&G made its moderate descent to the Mississippi Delta. Greenwood, the next community westbound of any size, sits at 127' in elevation. Winona was the site of summertime accident in 1946. Mixed train #109 and Mikado #506 picked a switch that had been left open in the small yard area. The train lurched down the spur at track speed, with the large Mike plowing off the end of the siding. The veteran engineer was killed in the wreckage.

Situated along the Big Sand Creek almost 100 miles from Columbus, the community of Carrollton, Mississippi boasted a handsome Southern Rwy in Mississippi station and freight house fashioned with bricks and morter -- in contrast to the numerous diminutive wooden depots that dotted the mainline. In 1912, in the Sou Rwy era, train #51 with two locomotives and numerous cars struck a gathering of cattle and left a pile of wreckage and three crewman deaths in its wake.

Situated near the Tallahatchie River, Greenwood, Mississippi was the location for the C&G's second primary interchange with the Illinois Central, this time crossing the more western (through Yazoo City) of the two Jackson-Memphis mainlines. In the passenger era, both railroads maintained a passenger station in town and both structures are still standing. The ex Illinois Central depot remains active today (although without an agent), a flag stop for Amtrak's City of New Orleans. Currently, Greenwood is the eastern terminus of the remaining C&G operations on the Delta end of the line, making it the major interchange point with the Canadian National. The line east of Greenwood has been mothballed due to decreased traffic and deteriorating track and bridge conditions.

The north-south line that crossed the C&G at Moorhead, Mississippi was originally constructed by the Yazoo Delta Railway, incorporated in 1895. Among turn-of-the-century Sunflower County locals, the little pike was referred to as the "Yellow Dog" -- a play on the "Y. D." initials on the Yazoo Delta equipment. Five years after incorporation, the Yellow Dog was purchased by the larger Yazoo & Mississippi Valley. Fifteen years later, having travelled through the Mississippi Delta, W. C. Handy published a song entitled "The Yellow Dog Rag," noting that "he's gone where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog." "Southern" here refers to the Southern Rwy in Mississippi, parent to the C&G. The depot at the Moorhead interchange lasted until 1957.