The Y&MV locomotive roster has been updated.  Previously the roster posted was the 1986 startup roster for my proto-freelanced Illinois Central regional spin-off railroad.  Someone has purchased a couple of Y&MV locomotive decal sets from me and will be modeling a few more modern examples from the roster, so it was time to update the roster!

I have added acquire/new date and retirement date columns to the roster.  This will make it easier to visualize the roster at any given point in time.  The button below will take you to the Y&MV locomotive roster page.

Chris

​Nick Huth and I spent this day on the Illinois Central in Mississippi. I think the mission was to photograph the paper mill at Ferguson, which we did.

The day ended with a visit to Brookhaven, MS which is where, once upon a time, the East-West Mississippi Central crossed the IC mainline. We were rewarded with some great IC action.

First up was train JANA switching in the yard with IC SD40A 6013, IC SD40 6052 (Ex GM&O 902), and IC SD40-2 6111. JANA was the Jackson to Natchez turn and is seen on the return leg of its trip back to Jackson. The train kept the same symbol in both directions. Of interest is a large block of modified pulpwood flats on this train.

Next we catch southbound intermodal train I-01 with IC GP40's 3119, 3106, and 3134 in charge. There is a large block of manifest fill traffic ahead of the intermodal traffic. I think it was pretty common for manifest to fillout tonnage capacity on this train.
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Finally train JAFE shows up with IC SD40-2s 6144, 6157, and 6121. This is a Jackson, MS to Ferguson, MS manifest train which pulls into the yard to make a pick up en-route. The final scenes of it switching are on the tight curve which connects with the former Mississippi Central.

Today's shipment was just two cars, ones that I have been excited about since they were announced.

Athearn Genesis has released an Illinois Central version in the latest run of their 50' PC&F exterior post box car.  This run is a unique Missouri Pacific patch-out.  It is interesting that Athearn Genesis choose to model three consecutive numbers: IC 151659, IC 151660, and IC 151661.

I chose to add the model of IC 151659 to the Meridian Speedway fleet.

I was only able to find two photographs of cars from this series on-line.  The picture above was taken by Alan Gaines and posted to rrpicturearchives.net.  The image is linked to that posting.  This image is of the IC 151659.  The model is very close to the original!

The image below of IC 151644 is also taken by Alan Gaines and is linked to his posting.  This is an example of this car type repainted into the IC grey scheme.  Perhaps this will be a future Athearn Genesis release...

Below is a picture of IC 151662 taken by Patrick Harris in New Orleans, LA at the West end of CSX Gentilly Yard in December of 1996:

The other car I received is an Atlas model of GGCX 1184.  This is an ACF 5800 cuft plastics hopper decorated for the Georgia Gulf Plaquemine Division.  Plaquemine, Louisiana is of course not far from where I grew up so I am please to have this car in the fleet!  The fine print on the car is very crisp.  

​Going over it with a magnifying glass, I was a little disappointed to see that "Plaquemine Division" does not appear anywhere on the car.  Either way, modeling this part of the country one cannot have too many plastics hoppers!

Chris