There was a time when the small-town station was a community focal point. Pretty much everything came by train, from the people, to the mail, to the packages, to the goods destined to be sold at the general store. While those days ended with the advent of the family car, the motor truck and the superhighway, the few towns that still have an active train station offers a glimpse at a bygone era.
Offered in evidence is the town of Greenwood, Mississippi.
Greenwood is a town of modest size situated in the Mississippi Delta region. The tracks of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley date from the dawn of the 20th Century, and have passed down through the control of the Illinois Central to today’s Canadian National. Passenger trains ceased stopping here well before the dawn of Amtrak, but returned in the 1990’s when the I.C. downgraded the old passenger route of Casey Jones notoriety.
On an early March evening in 2010, passengers have congregated outside the waiting room, waiting for the impending arrival of the northbound City Of New Orleans. One of the conductors taking over the train has talked with his waiting passengers, who have gathered trackside with luggage in hand. After a few moments, a distant horn is heard and shortly the northbound City pulls into town with a glare of headlights and blaring horn.
It’s train time at Greenwood.
Mary McPherson – Photograph and text Copyright 2022
Very nice! I take the train from Florida to NY and back each year and while doing this I look out the window in the middle of the night sometimes when I wake up and the train is stopped. And you see many small stations they are alive for a few minutes just like you described!
John, you were suffering from a condition once known as “Pullmanitis.” That’s when a passenger, whose train has stopped somewhere in the middle of the night, is awakened and cannot resist the temptation to part the curtains in their sleeping compartment to see where they are. The most memorable occasion of that striking me was a cold and snowy December night when the Lake Shore Limited stopped on an approach to Buffalo. When I peeked out my Roomette’s window all I could see was a heavy snow falling and several dozen small fires burning off into the darkness. In the morning I asked the Conductor what that was. It was the fires trackmen had created on the switches to prevent the frogs from freezing.
Thanks, Greenville is like 1000s of other towns. All have great stories and anticipation that comes from the tracks leading into and out of the town.
In early 2005, I took a group of college students by train to NOLA to do Katrina cleanup work. I fondly remember stopping in Greenwood on both directions and to this day, the thought of Bo’s Barbecue ribs make my mouth water. Here is my story:https://fromarockyhillside.com/2022/07/riding-on-the-city-of-new-orleans/
Wonderful work, Mary!
Greenwood was an important departure point for many of the African American’s who, between 1920 and 1970, fled their miserable and fraught existence as sharecroppers to find work in the industrial cities of the north. The railroads across the American south played an important role in that event — often accompanied by violence committed against them by white landowners once they learned what was happening. Not all of Greenwood’s memories are pleasant.
It’s good to be reminded that a slower pace can still be found. Thank you for your glimpse into Greenwood and a passenger train.