Delta Southern Railroad

The Delta Southern Railroad began operations in January of 1989 to acquire and operate 103 miles of former Missouri Pacific trackage from Tullulah, Louisiana, northward to McGehee, Arkansas. The line was opened in 1903 by the Memphis, Helena & Louisiana, which later joined MP and then Union Pacific. A previous attempt to operate portions of this route as a shortline was made in 1987 by the Dixie River Railroad, which assembled locomotives but never commenced operation. Traffic on the McGehee line originally included cotton, grain, agricultural products, coal, and chemicals. Interchange was with Kansas City Southern in Tullulah and Union Pacific in McGehee. Today the Tullulah line is cut back to Lake Providence, Louisiana -- 37 miles.

In 1991, the Delta Southern acquired a second route from Monroe, Louisiana, to Huttig, Arkansas -- also a former Missouri Pacific route. The northern portion of this line was abandoned two years later, but service continues from Sterlington to Monroe -- 14 miles. The road was first affiliated with National Railway Equipment Company, but since 2015 it is owned by Continental Rail. Today commodities moved include grain, aggregate materials, agricultural products, cotton, coal, chemicals, fertilizer, forest products, sand clay, and soda ash.