Memphis Railroad Blog

National Train Day Details Announced

2011-05-02T08:14:00.000-05:00

National Train Day

Central Station Power House

45 G.E. Patterson Boulevard

(Next to Central Station)

Memphis, TN 38103

5/7/2011

9:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m.

The exact site has been selected for Memphis' National Train Day celebration. We are using the old power house at Central Station for the event. The power house is located just west of Central Station on G. E. Patterson. Activities planned include, trolley rides, Obie, the Canadian National Operation Lifesaver Safety Train. A slide show, 40 years of Amtrak in Memphis. Model railroad and prototype displays to highlight the new museum.

For National Train Day events across the country visit: http://www.nationaltrainday.com/

Homewood Railroad Heritage Weekend

2011-05-02T08:08:00.002-05:00

Homewood' s Eighth Annual Railroad Heritage Weekend will herald in the summer railfanning season in Chicagoland on Saturday, May 14th, and Sunday, May 15th, 2011--just two short weeks from now!!!

Here is our current (as of May 1st) program of events:

Saturday May 14th

11 AM-330 PM - NEW for this year - The Homewood Rail Committee is proud to present a series of FREE symposia on the History of the Illinois Central Railroad. This all-new feature will be held at the Homewood Public Library, right across Dixie Highway from our main venue at the Village Hall and just north of the St. Joseph's School site (where the evening multi-media show is). NRHS Blackhawk Chapter President Bill Molony, Retired IC Railroader and Author Alan Lind, and ICRHA Author and Historian David Hayes will present detailed historical programs on the heritage of Homewood's original hometown railroad:

11 AM - 1215 PM - Bill Molony, "The Illinois Central Railroad in the Civil War"
1245 PM - 2 PM - Alan Lind, "IC to ICG - the 1960's"
215 PM - 330 PM - David Hayes, "The IC Kentucky Lines"

This will give attendees a chance to go and have a nice relaxing supper and maybe do a bit of railfanning before the big multi-media show kicks off at 7 PM.

7-10 PM: Annual Multimedia Digital/Slide Show (St. Joseph's Church Gym)

This year we will again be at our venue at St. Joseph's Catholic Church Gymnasium, immediately across the street from our main Sunday Train Show venue at the Homewood Village Hall, located at the corner of Dixie Highway and Chestnut Road in downtown Homewood. The church complex is right across the street from the village hall, on the east side of Dixie Highway. LOOK FOR THE EVENT DIRECTION SIGNS IN TOWN! This venue was recently refurbished, has high ceilings, plenty of seating, and lots of free parking. As usual, we have a great lineup of exciting presenters for you, and in response to many requests, have expanded the evening to no less than NINE GREAT SHOWS:

Program:

1.) Paul Burgess: "Country Blossom--the Bloomer Line" The show's now traditional "short appetizer," a brief program this year features your host's favorite Central Illinois shortline.
2.) Robby Gragg: "The Railroad Scene in Joliet, IL" This show by one of our up & coming young guns is a must for EJ&E/IAIS fans!!!
3.) Chris Lastovich: "High Iron of the Iron Range" A look at the Ore Roads of the Upper Midwest by perennial show favorite Chris Lastovich.
4.) Joe Petric "The Milwaukee Road: America's Resourceful Railroad" Veteran shooter Joe Petric looks back at the legendary Milwaukee Road.
5.) Brian Carlson: "Hoosier Sojourn: The Railroads of Southern Indiana" Brian has incredible luck catching rare action, and tonight he will share some of it with us!

Intermission (Tee Shirts, goodies, and general fun & frolic)

5.) Chris Guss: ""From Dusk to Dawn...Railfanning After Hours" Chris shows us why he is one of the pre-eminent night shooters working today.
6.) Don Kalkman: "Sweet Home Chicago" One of Chicago's best looks at action in the USA's Railroad Capitol.
7.) Mark Llanuza: "In the Eye of the Storm" Heavy Weather Shooting by Chicago's Official Snow King. Has to be seen to be believed!!! I am NOT kidding!
8.) Lance Wales: Pride of Place as the Anchorman goes to one of the NWI NRHS Chapter's very best camera handlers. Lance has a multi-faceted program that will look at the CNIC Iowa Division, the beauty of Fall Foliage, and the fast-disappearing searchlight signals of the BNSF Mendota Subdivision. If you haven't seen a Lance Wales program, you are in for a treat tonight!

The recession-reducing cost of this year's show is STILL only a miserly two dollars! Yep, two bucks buys you three hours of some of the best rail photography action you'll see all summer. Come on out and and have a good time! We will have our unique and limited line of Homewood Rail Weekend T-Shirts for sale, as well as the usual suspects in terms of refreshments.

Sunday May 15th

6-9 AM at the Homewood Railfan Park (Harwood Avenue and the Metra Station Headhouse)

Hosted railfanning with FREE coffee and donuts. I will be on hand to answer questions, point out local opportunities, and otherwise make a nuisance of myself. The CN/IC/Metra 8-track mainline through downtown Homewood is usually very busy during these hours and you can expect any number of freight and passenger trains, including Amtrak's fabled "City of New Orleans" and the "Saluki" corridor service. Free parking right sits across the street.

All day - Rail Equipment Park open for touring (Park Avenue and the Metra/Amtrak Station)

Homewood's resident and carefully restored Illinois Central GP10 8408 (Hand-washed and waxed for the occasion!) and caboose IC 9426 await your inspection at the rail equipment portion of our park facility, located on the west side of the right-of way, just north of our vintage 1923 Illinois Central passenger train station. The caboose interior has been fully restored to its in-service condition and will be open for tours this year. You can access this site by taking a walk through our vintage 1911 pedestrian tunnel from the east to the west side of the right of way. Don't forget to take a look at the many railroad themed murals in the tunnel, created by students at Homewood-Flossmoor High School. This tunnel can also be used to access both the Metra and Amtrak passenger platforms. Please observe relevant Amtrak and Metra safety and access rules.

1PM-3PM Illinois Central Model and Railroadiana Display at the Village Hall Display Cases and at the Homewood Public Library, located just across the street from the main venue and just north of St.Joseph's School

9 AM - 3 PM Prototype Equipment Display

Homewood's hometown and headquarters railroad, Canadian National (ex-IC), will have an assortment of prototype equipment on display along the Metra parking lots on the east side of the right of way along Harwood Avenue north of the Railfan Park site.

9 AM - 3 PM - Train Show (Village Hall and Firehouse, corner of Dixie and Chestnut)

NEW for this year: "Best of Show" Model Contest - Bring your favorite locomotive, freight or passenger car, structure, or diorama and enter it in our "Best of Show" contest.

Looks like another busy, banner year for us! Layouts, historical societies, authors, vendors, industry displays, and yep, it's all still FREE admission! As of May 1st, our list of participants includes:

Canadian National Railways
Operation Lifesaver
Metra
Illinois Central Railroad Heritage Association (ICRHA)
National Railway Historical Society Blackhawk Chapter (with Locomotive Simulator)
National Railway Historical Society Chicago Chapter
Canadian National Lines Special Interest Group (CNSIG)
Conrail Historical Society
Park Lane Hobbies
Hoosier Hobbies
The Art of Motion Railroad Books and Artwork
Klos Heavy Rail Transport & Trucking
Homewood Historical Society
Homewood Rail Heritage Committee
Bolingbrook Model Railroaders
"Big Mo" - World's Largest portable model railroad!
N Trak, Modular N Gauge Layout

Dave Wilma, S Gauge Layout(s)

Note that this year, the ENTIRE fire station is also going to be used, and filled with model railroads!!!!

This list may expand as we draw down to the event itself, so watch for updates!

Plus--many individual vendors and other fun stuff. Come on out and enjoy this fun and growing Chicago tradition as the kickoff to your summer railfanning season! CN will also be operating "Lil' Obie," their ATV-drawn children's "safety train." Plenty of food and other goodies will be available as well. Additionally, many local Homewood merchants in our quaint downtown, mere steps away from the venue, will have special Sunday hours to welcome visitors to town.

Homewood, Illinois, a railroad community since 1853, is located in the south suburbs of Chicago, with easy access via Metra's Electric District commuter service, Amtrak long-distance train service, or via Interstates I-80, I-294, or I-57.

This annual event and the historical venues involved are sponsored and maintained by the Village of Homewood Railroad Heritage Committee, an all-volunteer, non-profit arm of the municipal government charged with preserving and promoting Homewood's rich railroad history and modern heritage.

We hope to see ALL of you in Homewood on May 14th and 15th! Thanks for reading, and please feel free to forward this message to any interested party or organization!

Paul Burgess
Homewood, Illinois
Rail Heritage Committee

Shelby Farms Greenline Trail

2010-11-02T15:15:00.002-05:00

ATCS Monitor

2010-08-02T17:04:00.002-05:00

A couple of months ago at the Memphis NRHS meeting I was asked if I knew anything about a program that was able to "plug into" railroad networks and display a live dispatcher's screen. A couple of members had done some railfanning over in Arkansas area and had seen such a system in Bald Knob. I searched the internet and found such a program, "ATCS Monitor"


ATCS Monitor display of the UP Memphis Sub

ATCS is an acronym for Advanced Train Control System, initiated in 1984 by the Association of American Railroads and the Railroad Association of Canada. The basic principle behind ATCS is to provide a cost efficient, safe, modular, train control system.

Much, if not most of the communication between elements of ATCS is via radio . Dave Houy, a computer/HAM radio/rail enthusiast created ATCS Monitor. The free PC based program, utilizes the data in ATCS radio transmissions to power his program.

In order for the program to function, it is necessary to intercept the radio transmissions, decode them and make them available on the internet. This done by dedicated individuals that establish radio equipped servers (computers) near locations where ATCS is operational. Unfortunately, this hasn't yet occurred in the Memphis area.

For more information, visit: http://wiki.atcsmon.com/ or join the ATCS Monitor Group at: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ATCS_Monitor/

More later.

The Moffat Road

2010-07-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

I came across this souvenir folder at an antique mall recently. The "Moffat Road" existed for only a few years in the early 1900's, later to become part of the Denver Rio Grande and Western and ultimately part of the Union Pacific. It held special interest for me as I had written an article about the road in the "Memphis Buff" the local NRHS newsletter. Here's a link to the newsletter:

http://issuu.com/memphisrails/docs/january-2008-memphis-buff

snopes.com: 2011 W-2 Tax Forms and HR3590

2010-07-08T14:16:00.000-05:00

snopes.com: 2011 W-2 Tax Forms and HR3590

An Era Ends As Passenger Train Service Is Halted

2010-07-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

I found this on the internet a long while back. It's from the Columbus, MS, Commercial Dispatch newspaper:

An Era Ends As Passenger Train Service Is Halted

By Douglas Bateman-Commercial Dispatch Features Editor

January 31, 1955

Ninety-five years ago—about a century—the first passenger train pulled into Columbus.

At 10:30 tonight, when the Frisco makes the final run, such service will end for Columbus, a sad touch to a romantic phase in the city’s history.

There’s no one alive who remembers it now, but records show it was a great day when the first iron horse chugged into town on a line built by the old Mobile and Ohio Railway Company.

Good Service Record

The First Columbus National Bank hailed the event as a “brighter era economically” in their minutes, and loaned the railroad company a sizeable sums of money to bring the line here.

It proved its worth down through the years and carries on auspicious record of service which includes transporting Confederate troops from Columbus.

Sadly enough, the company now called the G.M. & O. discontinued their passenger service here last March 20^th. It was a small but efficient train dubbed the “Doodle Bug.”

The second chapter of a dying passenger service ended here the night of June 28^th, 1948, when Columbus’ own railway company, the Columbus and Greenville line, terminated a long and colorful history in passenger transportation.

Many people vividly recall the days when the C & G train would be packed to capacity with riders heading to the Delta, and how their mouths would water for the hot chicken lunches served along the way. Four trains ran every day on the C & G, and there were several branch lines.

Service Cancelled

From the same Columbus terminal, the Southern train to Birmingham ran daily, but this service too gradually dwindled through the years until all that remained recently was a “mixed” train. Only last week the passenger coach was dropped.

And now the Frisco—the last to come and the last to leave—will halt passenger service to Columbus when the “Sunnyland Special” runs for the last time. The Frisco was also hailed as a big event when it first arrived in Columbus in 1927, and provided service from Pensacola to Amory.

Robert Stovall, president of the C & G, and a man “born to railroading”, aptly expressed the crux of the matter recently when asked to comment upon the last passenger service for Columbus: “The passenger train era is dying everywhere because of too many wheels without rails”, he declared.

George Gaines, now retired, but a railroad man since early youth, reflected sadly on the passing of the passenger train. Said Mr. Gaines: “The end of passenger service on the Frisco, which is the newest railroad entering Columbus, gives me a deep feeling of nostalgia. I can remember such good service to Columbus when I first came here in 1921—on the C & G, the Southern, and the old M & O, It is a very sad occasion.”

Never Replaced

W. E. Leech, another old-timer in the history of Columbus railroading, declared: “I regret the loss of the Frisco passenger train, for it now leaves Columbus without any rail service.” Trains, unlike other forms of transportation, have always run during all kinds of weather.

Other modes of transportation can boast of their romance and spectacular history, but to people who were born during the era of railroading, nothing will ever take the place of a train.

It will truly be a sad event tonight when the rear light of the “Sunnyland” fades into the darkness of the night—for the last time.

Will be home tonight! (GLW&TCDR)

2010-06-16T07:27:00.002-05:00

Just woke up in Council Bluffs and on the first cup of coffee. Got in late because we did go by Devil's Tower and the Badlands.

We had been to Devil's Tower twice before, so we didn't really need to go to the park itself. We wanted to get close enough to see it one more time and get some pictures. While heading back to the interstate, we had a CLOSE ENCOUNTER of the animal kind. A deer leaped a fence and almost jumped out in front of us. Glenda yelled, I stepped on the brakes, the deer stopped, stared at us and jumped back over the fence. All Glenda said was "I wish I had gotten a picture."

Our visit to the Badlands took little longer than anticipated because of some road construction in the park. Two sections of single lane road with flagmen probably added about a half hour to our trip.

I don't think we'll be doing much sight seeing today. We'll be making a bee line for home!

Gillette

2010-06-15T07:05:00.000-05:00

We decided to bypass Buffalo Wyoming and instead we stayed in Gillette. We ate at an Italian restaurant named "Bootlegger's". Food was really good. I take back all the bad things I said about Gillette.

Bootlegger's

Us at Bootlegger's

We saw plenty of mountains and deer on our way to Gillette

Trying to get an early start this morning. We're planning on taking a couple of side trips to get a glimpse of Devil's Tower and drive through the Badlands.

More Later

Back in MIssoula Again

2010-06-14T07:33:00.000-05:00

We're back in Missoula, just across the hall from the room we occupied just a few days ago. We again ate in our favorite Mexican restaurant in Montana. Daja vu all over again!

Saturday we visited the USS Turner Joy in downtown Bremerton. The ship was a lot larger than it appeared from the outside. Even so, it was hard to envision a crew of 350 men stuffed into its cramped interior.

Glenda and David in the Officer's dining room.

Below Deck on the Turner Joy

Looking aft from the bow.

The Bridge

We had been wanting to get a view of Mount Ranier while we in Seattle, but the weather hadn't co-operated until yesterday. We pulled off the road and got a few pictures on our way out of town.

About 150 miles east of Seattle, Interstate 90 crosses the Columbia River

Jose' and the Columbia River

Unfortunately before we made our way across the state line, we encountered a SPEED TRAP at a rest stop at the 162 mile marker. The unmarked car was parked on the entrance ramp of the rest stop and the chase cars were poised on the exit ramp like fighters on the deck of an air craft carrier. I was the last car in a string of about four cars and not really paying attention to my speed. They all shifted to the right lane at the entrance to the rest stop, leaving me in the cross hairs. They stopped four other cars while I was being processed.

Keep Washington green!

Just across the Montana line is the town of Saltese. We snapped a picture of the bar where we ate breakfast on our trip to Seattle in 1984.

More later.

2010-06-12T09:42:00.000-05:00

All plans are subject to change and ours plans for the day were no exception. We got started a little later than we intended and decided to take the ferry from Bremerton rather than Bainbridge Island. Ferrys from Bremerton are more frequent, about one each hour, so we decided to head to Bremerton and hang around down town until time for the ferry.

One of the attractions at Bremerton is the USS Turner Joy, a Vietnam era destroyer. We were particularly interested in seeing it because Glenda's cousin, Fred Jordan, served on the Turner Joy when it was first commissioned in1959. Glenda wanted to get a picture of it and send it to Freddy.

There are public tours of the Turner Joy on Saturdays and we are thinking about going back down there this afternoon and taking the tour.

Soon our ferry arrived and we headed for Seattle.

Better weather had been promised but had not yet been delivered as I snapped a few pictures from the ferry.

What had once been warehouses and pier on the Seattle waterfront have been converted into restaurants and shops (tourist traps) Our destination was Iver's, a seafood restaurant just a couple of slips down from the ferry dock.

After lunch at Iver's and checking out a few of the shops, we headed back to the ferry terminal for our trip back to Bremerton. By now the weather had cleared and the views from the ferry were a lot more impressive.

We arrived back at the hotel just in time for a quick change in clothes and make it to David's graduation.

More Later.

Silverdale,WA

2010-06-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

Just as was forecast, it was raining and 62 we arrived in Silverdale about five o'clock yesterday afternoon. Before we arrived at the hotel, Glenda gave Melissa a call to let her know we had arrived and to get things coordinated. She had just picked up her mother and Pete at the airport. They had gotten something to eat and were headed to pick up David's car which was in the shop. Melissa would call when they got back in the area.

After checking in, we decided that we would wait in the bar for Melissa's call. It didn't take long for me to decide what I would have.:

That's Glenda's wine in the background.

We talked to Melissa and decided that they would just meet us a the hotel. Knowing that they had already eaten, we ordered us a pizza while we waited. Before the pizza was ready, they arrived. As David was under age, we retired to the hotel restaurant where Melissa and Lynn ordered some sort of a lobster pasta dish while we ate our pizza from the bar. Oh,well.

The hotel is located on an inlet of the Puget sound and our room is on the ground floor with a view of the water and a small patio and a couple of chairs. Here is the view from our patio:

This morning we're going to get some breakfast and at 9:45 Melissa, Pete and Lynn are going to pick us up and we're taking the Bainbridge ferry over to Seattle for Lunch.

More later.

2009-04-26T20:40:00.000-05:00

2009-04-26T20:10:00.000-05:00

MSTS Memphis North Yard Illinois Central Railroad

2009-04-08T09:34:00.005-05:00

North Yard in Memphis was a bustling industrial yard of the Illinois Central in North Memphis, serving such industries as Firestone, International Harvester, Kimberly Clark, Humko as well as industries located in Woodstock, Tennessee, such as Dupont and W. R. Grace. Al lare gone now (except for Dupont) and only a couple of tracks remain. IC GP7 8963 was the engine assigned to the Woodstock Switcher. The top photo is North Yard now, the bottom three are my re-creation using MIcrosoft Train Simulator

Memphis' Central Station in MSTS

2009-04-07T15:24:00.004-05:00

I am a fan of MIcrosoft Train simulator and I am constructing a model of the Illinois Central Railroad from Memphis' Central Station northward to Dyersburg Tennessee. I have modeled Central Station in Memphis using Train Sim Modeler. here are some a screen shot of the results:

2008-12-28T20:07:00.004-06:00

2008-12-28T19:11:00.000-06:00

Another Letter to the Editor

2008-08-08T14:48:00.002-05:00

To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

While the City of Memphis is busy building a dock for steamboats that will never come (Beale Street Landing) and is trying to unload the Pyramid, another monument to this city's ineptness is rapidly gaining landmark status.

I speak of the Central Station Sinkhole, another tribute to Memphis' lack of leadership and shortsightedness. While the city fiddles, visitors get an up close and personal look at Memphis government in action and Amtrak is incurring expenses of about a million dollars due to this fiasco.

A bridge in Minnesota fell into the Mississippi last August. Its replacement will be open by the end of the year. In comparison, it will take Memphis over six months to fix a sewer.

Tom Parker

Letter to the Editor by Bill Strong

2008-08-08T14:32:00.003-05:00

To the Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal:

The Great Memphis Sinkhole is in Danger of Being Covered by Kudzu

Today, August 6, 2008, I visited the site of the Great Memphis Sinkhole and observed that it is quickly being covered by Kudzu. If the city ever gets around to repairing the sinkhole, they may first have to get an EPA or Wetlands permit to cut through the undergrowth?

It has now been three and a half months since the sinkhole was discovered April 21, 2008, severing Amtrak’s route through the City of Memphis. I have been in contact with all of the parties involved with this fiasco and am saddened by the lack of progress in resolving this simple problem.

The obvious culprits in this issue are the City of Memphis, the Memphis City Attorney, Elbert Jefferson, and Sprint Nextel.

After immediately recognizing that the sinkhole was caused by a failure in 125 year old storm water culvert 32 feet under the railroad tracks, the City realized that it was their responsibility to repair it. However, once the City realized that the cost of repair the sinkhole would approach one million dollars, they started looking for someone else to pay the cost of these repairs. Reluctantly, the Canadian National Railroad, (CN) a good corporate citizen, agreed to pay for a portion of the repairs. I feel that CN was an innocent bystander in this matter, since they no longer owned the land which was being swallowed by the sinkhole. (CN sold all of the Central Station property, land and buildings to the City in 1995 for $10.) Apparently this negotiation took up the better part of three months.

Only then did the City decide to negotiate with Sprint Nextel, who has a fiber optic cable buried along the railroad right of way. The City has known about this cable blocking access to the sinkhole site since a week after the sinkhole was discovered in April. This should have been a simple matter since Sprint’s cable was on the railroad right way by means of a lease contract with the Illinois Central Railroad (which was acquired by the Canadian National in the 1990’s.) This contract must have included a provision for Sprint having to move their cable if the railroad needed access to their right of way. Nonetheless, we understand that early on Sprint has not been cooperative at all in this matter. They have been intransigent demanding significant payment for moving their cable or any damages done to their cable.

We have been told by the Mayor’s special assistant, Pete Aviotti, that Sprint’s team is going to “look” at the site to see what they can do about moving their cable on August 9, 2008. No telling when they will get around to moving it. Memphians have nothing to be proud of in the way our leaders have drug out this matter.

This slow negotiation process by the City has caused undue suffering by the Am trak passengers, who have been severely inconvenienced in parking and by being bussed to a remote loading and unloading site with the train now operating on a detour freight line through Memphis. Amtrak is paying over $4000 per day to cover the special bussing and detour arrangements. This is approaching $400,000 to date and will likely run more than half of the cost of the sinkhole repairs by the time they can return to their regular route through Memphis. Hopefully Amtrak can bring some sort of law suit against the City to recover the expenses caused by the City’s delay in resolving their problem.

The City of Memphis should be ashamed of their handling of this matter. Instead of stepping up to the bar and doing what was right in repairing their crumbling infrastructure they have been obdurate in fulfilling their civic responsibility.

William B. Strong
VP, Tennessee Association of Railroad Passengers
Director, National Association of Rail road Passengers

Sinkhole de Mayo

2008-07-20T20:37:00.004-05:00

The first hint I had that something was amiss was when my wife and I stopped by Central Station the afternoon on April 22nd to pick up tickets for our upcoming trip to Seattle.

As we were leaving the parking lot, I noticed several vechicles and a number of people wearing hard hats congregated at the south end of the station property. Yellow “crime scene” tape had been strung across the tracks. Some of the hats and vehicles bore CN logos. I assumed there was some sort of track problem and didn't give it another thought.

It was only the next afternoon that I found out about the sinkhole. I read a message from the CN Dispatcher's office posted on the “City of New Orleans” Yahoo Group. that stated the “City” was being detoured via the “LA Belt”, due to a sinkhole south of Central Station, leaving the normal route at Woodstock, TN and rejoining it at the west end of Johnston Yard in South Memphis. The detour was expected to last “for the next several days”.

Investigation revealed that the sinkhole was caused by the collapse of an old storm drain which was constructed in 1897. It was about fifty feet below ground and estimates of six week to six months were given for the repair to be completed.

Plan A

Amtrak's initial plan was to handle the trains in a “push-pull” mode between Woodstock and Central Station. Amtrak P42Genesis locomotive numbers 96 & 196 were dispateched to Woodstock on April 21st to handle the operation. The locos were coupled to the rear of the trains when they arrived and were used to either pull the northbound train to Central Station or pull the southbound train back to Woodstock.

Plan B

“Plan A”did not prove to be a satisfactory solution as the trains were excessively delayed, so on April 24th “Plan B” was initiated. Busses were used to pick up passengers at Central Station at the usual train departure time and take them to either Woodstock, TN or Lakeview, MS to meet their respective northbound or southbound train. Passenger destined to Memphis would be carried to the station on the returning buses.

The Answer

Finally, someone came up with an answer so simple I'm sure Amtrak wondered why they hadn't thought of it earlier.

On May 5th, Amtrak began meeting both trains at the intersection of Rivergate and Riverport Roads where the new Johnston Yard bypass track meets the Y&MV. The east side of Rivergate road is Amtrak's new temporary open air station. Amtrak has even given it a station code, MEJ.

Southbound train #59 backs a few hundred yards north on the Y&MV to the grade level crossing.

Northbound # 58 runs directly up the Y&MV, stopping to load and unload passengers. It then backs up and switches over to the new Johnston Yard bypass and then heads north on the LA belt line.

Times have been adjusted changed somewhat to accommodate this new arrangement.
For southbound # 59 passengers depart Central Station by bus at 6:30am. The train then departs MEJ at 7:25am. For northbound # 58 passengers depart Central Station by bus at 9:15pm. The train then departs MEJ at 9:55pm.