Ripley & New Albany Railroad

he Ripley & New Albany Railroad is a 27-mile shortline running between its namesake towns in northeastern Mississippi. Today, the line is owned and operated by Pioneer Lines, a shortline holding company with railroads around the country. Primary commodities hauled on RNA are lumber products and materials for the Oil-Dri corporation — producer of industrial absorbant materials. RNS locomotives and offices are maintained in New Albany, along with interchange with Burlington Northern Santa Fe (previously Burlington Northern < Frisco). As with most Pioneer Lines, RNA makes use of first generation EMD power from the PREX lease pool.

The 27 mile segment between New Albany and Ripley has known many owners and operators since rail was first laid in these counties in 1871, including:

• The Ripley Railroad (1871)
• Ship Island, Ripley & Kentucky Railroad (1874)
• Gulf & Chicago Railroad (1889)
• New Orleans, Mobile & Chicago Railroad (1909)
• Gulf, Mobile & Northern (1917)
• Gulf, Mobile & Ohio (1940)
• Illinois Central Gulf (1972)
• Gulf & Mississippi (1985)
• MidSouth Rail Corporation (1988)
• Kansas City Southern (1994)

The Ripley Railroad was chartered by the great-grandfather of Mississippi author William Faulkner. By the time of the Gulf, Mobile & Northern merger, the line was a segment in a north-south mainline connecting Gulf Coast passenger and freight traffic with important interchange points in Tennessee and northward. During GM&N and subsequent GM&O years, the various Rebel motorcar and passenger trains operated over the segment. With the GM&O merger into the new Illinois Central Gulf system in 1973, the route from Laurel to Jackson, Tennessee — including the New Albany section — proved a redundant route and fell to tertiary status in the system.

By the end of Illinois Central Gulf control, this portion of the former GM&N mainline was cut back on both ends: at Woodland to the south and at Middleton, Tennessee, to the north. Regional spinoff Gulf & Mississippi operated this post-ICG isolated portion via trackage rights over Burlington Northern at New Albany and Southern Railway at Middleton. MidSouth soon acquired G&M, followed by the KCS purchase of MidSouth and SouthRail. By the time of KCS control, freight traffic levels north and south of New Albany had diminished, and the aging segment was a prime candidate for a shortline spinoff. A series of shortline owner/operators followed:

• Mississippi Tennessee Railnet (1998)
• Mississippi Tennessee Railroad (2003)
• Ripley & New Albany Railroad (2011)

Under Mississippi Tennessee Railroad control, the former GM&N mainline from Woodward into Tennessee was again shortened on both ends to its present termini. The remaining right of way south of New Albany to Houston has been turned into the 43-mile Tanglefoot Trail. In summary, Pioneer Lines is the thirteenth company to operate the remaining 27 miles of this historic railroad district in two northern counties of Mississippi.