FL9

Sunday was planned to be a shorter day as we only wanted to cover about 250 miles to Vicksburg, MS where we had spent the night a week earlier.  This turned out to be a good plan as we drove through heavy rain for most of the way.  We checked into the motel around 3:00pm, and Judy decided to rest while I wanted to explore since this was my first daylight visit here.  I really wanted a picture of a KCS train on the Mississippi River bridge in spite of the overcast, but the radio indicated otherwise as a maintenance window had the line to the west shut down until 6:00pm.  I drove to the bluff overlooking the bridge at the tourist center anyway, and took this shot of one of the Civil War cannons on display.

It was not hard to imagine a team of men loading this cannon in preparation to fire on boats passing below.  I determined the tracks passed through a tunnel below me before curving back north along the shore, and heading in that direction I quickly found the KCS Vicksburg yard.  It was deserted except for this old ALCO switcher that was not marked well enough for me to identify its owner.

Driving further north I found CP East Vicksburg where the line started up the curving 3% grade away from the river and towards Jackson.  The big Kudzu-lined cut I had seen so many pictures of was a dirty grey color, and I could not tell if it was just dead for the winter or if it had been sprayed with weed killer.  Following a track north along the shore and away from the mainline led down to the old Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railway depot.  It looked like it was undergoing a restoration project, along with this unidentified caboose at the south end.

Right behind the red caboose was a more readily identifiable MidSouth extended-vision model.

A city street heading back uphill towards the entertainment district provided a good overall view.

It was starting to get too dark for photos now, and so I took one more shot of two westbound freights stopped at CP West Vicksburg just in advance of the tunnel and the Mississippi River bridge beyond.

Maybe better luck in the morning?