McComb | The Town the Railroad Built

Produced by Jim Albritton | McComb, Mississippi was founded in 1872 after Col. Henry S. McComb of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad, a predecessor of the Illinois Central Railroad (now part of the Canadian National Railway), decided to move the railroad's maintenance shops away from New Orleans and the negative influence of the city's saloons. The railroad purchased land in Pike County, and three nearby communities, Elizabeth town, Burglund, and Harveytown, agreed to consolidate. In the new town, almost every family was involved with the railroad in some way. In the 1980s, the shop whistle blew for the last time. Today, 14 trains, ferrying passengers or freight between New Orleans and Chicago, pass through the city daily and the McComb Railroad Museum in downtown serves as a constant reminder of the city's historic role in the development of one of America's great railroads.  

 

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