Greeting from NE Arkansas. I grew up watching the Cotton Belt trains near my elementary school. All those tracks have been long since removed. I get to watch BNSF now when I go downtown...
Welcome aboard! A lot of the history has disappeared, a lot of the variety and color. At least we still have our memories.
I've been retired about 9 years..about I started an HO layout about 1987..recently my train interests became rekindled beyond a spark. Dug out what all I had left, and going to get started again. Talking about history, the Cotton Belt tracks are all gone from this area. Jonesboro still has some. All we have is a main line BNSF through here. We have a new steel mill moving in, so there will be some tracks laid here soon. We are right on the Mississippi River, so barge traffic is fairly heavy. I hope to see more rail traffic soom..
Hi Marshall, welcome. On the flip-side, KCS has just upgraded the Gulfport (MS) Branch to 115# 49 mph CWR Class-IV from jointed 90# 10 mph rail that had been rolled in 1921, 95 years ago. The traffic has increased from six trains a week to two a day. Furthermore, after completion of the State Port expansion and upgrade in late 2016, KCS expects to pick up a lot of double-stack container traffic. The rail industry is expanding, though sadly the non-productive, yet nostalgic lines that you and I grew up with "in our backyards" have been shut down and ripped up...times are changing.
