Train derailment attracts curious lot of curious folk

The restoration of rail service through Crenshaw following Thursday morning’s derailment came so quickly that it surprised most of us outside observers. With no injuries and no toxic leaks or spills CN Railroad was able to begin repairs immediately.
Within two hours, heavy equipment from a railroad services contractor was arriving en masse. By midday, flatbeds carrying rail sections pre-attached to rail ties were arriving and were placed into position shortly afterwards. The first freight train passed slowly over the temporary replacement rails shortly before midnight that same day, CN Public Affairs spokesman Patrick Waldron stated in an email.
(An Amtrak official told me that the passenger train missed one cycle — one southbound and one northbound train. Passengers were bussed between Memphis and New Orleans.)
CN Railroad had much at stake on that corridor that carries all of its freight between Chicago, New Orleans and points between. Trains were backed up way north and way south waiting to get through.
All of which brings to mind whether Grenada Railroad can get its track and bridges restored sufficiently to attract CN freight trains. A viable alternate route on the Grenada line would certainly be attractive to CN during derailments and perhaps also during normal operations just to relieve congestion on its Valley line. None of this is lost on Grenada Railroad’s owner, Iowa Pacific, whose business model is to leave no stone un-turned.
On Thursday after returning from Crenshaw I spoke by phone to the two biggest rail enthusiasts I know. Stan Harrison was the first.
Harrison’s fascination with all things on rails predates his sixth grade year when he took a paddling from Mrs. Hamby rather than not get up and run to the window of the second story classroom in the old elementary building that offered an excellent view of passing trains.
“You know, there’s just something that fascinates me about a train wreck,” he said, wistfully, during his phone call to make sure that the newspaper knew about the derailment.
Then I called Larry Hart. Larry has had a successful career as Water Valley mayor, banker and business man, but before all that he was an engineer on the Illinois Central and remains a railroad man at heart (bad pun, I know). Larry is Chairman of the North Central Mississippi Railroad Authority which owns the railroad that Iowa Pacific operates.
Larry had already been to the wreck scene, he told me that morning. He didn’t say that he also was fascinated by train wrecks, but he seldom misses anything going on with railroads.
Finally on Friday we received one anecdotal report from our Crenshaw source who said that a foreman of the rail restoration effort had walked into Askew Grocery at mid-afternoon Thursday and ordered “125 hamburgers.” I failed to ask whether the man had 125 mouths to feed or fewer mouths with multiple-burger appetites whetted from having worked non-stop since sunup.