Here Comes Kansas City Southern #4771

After leaving my best friend, her husband and family for a Memorial Day cookout at their home, I headed towards the MS River to see if I could take a picture of a barge going up or down the river. The lookout circles were closed so I went over to the Mississippi Welcome Center instead.  I took a few pictures of the bridges and no barges were in site.  As I was leaving, I thought I saw a flicker of light from the Louisiana side and knew it was a train coming. I made my way back to the parking lot and positioned myself at the fence and waited for the train to come across the bridge.  I got several shots and as it got closer to me I waved and the engineer blew the train whistle.  It brought back fond memories of having grown up with family members working for the railroad.

When I was little we would get passes to ride the trains because my Grandfather was a telegraph operator for many years with the Illinois Central.  When he died we even rode the train to New Orleans for his burial. My Uncle Clyde was an engineer for the Frisco lines making the Memphis to St. Louis run and my sister also worked for the Illinois Central until she married.

What really makes this blog post special is that I put the picture of the train on my Facebook page and on the Kansas City Southern Railway Facebook page and Richard Gee Cook said it was HIM driving the train. He even made the picture his Facebook cover page. He said when he gets home he was going to print it out. I'm so happy that I took the picture for Richard and also to find out that I already know his sister-in-law/brother who lives here in Vicksburg. It's a small world after all!

I could see a flicker of light coming from Louisiana side on the bridge to the right.

The sun making the rails shine! 

Here comes KCS #4771. 

Getting closer!

Made this picture my Facebook cover page today.

Blowing the whistle!

Going under the Washington Street tunnel.