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It was clear and cool early Monday August 20th in Brinkley, Arkansas, and after checking out of the motel we embarked on the last day of our trip home to Benbrook.  I had never visited the depot museum in Brinkley, so a quick side trip was in order.  A headlight was visible on the line coming in from Memphis to the east, so we parked at the grade crossing just south of the depot at BR Junction.

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Judy used to live in Nashville many years ago, and so we got off I40 and drove through some of the old neighborhoods she was familiar with.  We passed a huge CSX yard, but there was not time to explore its boundaries on this trip.  We drove through the vast Percy Warner Park on the southwest side of the city, and around one bend in the narrow winding road a flock of wild turkeys crossed in front of us.  They paused in the brush a few yards down the hill from us, and I was able to squeeze off a head shot–with the camera of course!

Watching Nashville disappear in the rear view mirror, along I40 we started to see billboards every few miles for Casey Jones Village ahead in Jackson, Tennessee.  Two hours and many more signs later when the exit appeared we felt like we had no choice but to check it out.  There was a huge restaurant and many small shops selling every piece of tourist-trap merchandise in existance on earth, and they were all doing a brisk business.  Next to the museum building was this house that belonged to Casey and his family.

In the museum itself I was surprised to find several items worth buying, including a CD or railroad songs and a DVD of a 30-minute episode of the early 1960’s TV show that starred Alan Hale Jr. (remember the Skipper from Gilligan’s Island?) as the brave engineer.  Outside was ex-IC 4-6-0 #382, the engine that Casey was running at the time of his death on April 30, 1900 in Vaughan, Mississippi when he slid into the rear of a stopped train ahead.

It was getting late enough in the afternoon now that we ran non-stop through Memphis and on to Brinkley, AR for the night.

I had researched the new “Music City Star” commuter rail for Nashville on the web before the start of our trip, and naturally when we passed through the area on the way home the feature article in Railfan & Railroad on this service was still a week or so away from being released.  I guessed the equipment would probably be tied down in the eastern terminus of Lebanon, TN on a Sunday morning since they do not operate on weekends.  We exited Interstate 40 on the west side of town and drove north towards the tracks on the GPS display until we happened upon the commuter rail platform.  There was a nice map showing all the stations on the route into Nashville.

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Today October 20th is Railroad Illustrated’s “Day in North America” for 2007, so it is a reasonable bet I’ll be out taking pictures at some point as I have in the years gone by.  Back on Sunday, August 19th Judy and Molly and I left the motel in Cookeville, TN with the intention of spending the night in Brinkley, Arkansas.  On the way out of town we stopped by the city’s railroad museum in and around the old Tennessee Central Railroad depot.

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