Eastern Railroad Discussion > Oil Can in Meridian, MS

10/4/2020

Every Saturday and Sunday morning I get up and go out and grab a biscuit from Hardee's and "Make a Loop" as I call it. I almost always keep my camera with me, just in case I see something to shoot before heading back home. On this particular morning, I found one of the CN oil can's from Canada tied down at 27th Avenue with the crew arriving to take it north to Artesia, MS. While they settled into the engine, I grabbed a shot of the train tied down. i didn't even realize the moon was in the shot until I got home. Pretty neat...

After the crew got their track authority to leave Meridian and go north, I set up by the yard office to get the train navigating through the KCS/NS crossovers and through the yard. Kind of neat to watch since it is where the Meridian Sub ends, and the Artesia sub begins. Not to mention these oil cans look like snakes following behind the units. 

Up until recently, these trains had CN power. They come from Saskatchewan via CN and travel all the way to Jackson, MS. There the train is handed over to the KCS for the trip to Artesia, MS. Lastly, the train gets handed over to Watco's Alabama Southern for the trip to Tuscaloosa, AL to Hunt Oil's refinery, and the process repeats itself back and forth a couple of times per week. The only logical reason for removing the CN power at Jackson is to avoid horse power hours, or at least that's all I can come up with. Either way, still cool trains to see.

Enjoy!

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Nice catch of that yellow locomotive in the middle.
John

jmbreitigan Wrote:
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> Nice catch of that yellow locomotive in the
> middle.
> John

Thanks, John. These are pretty common here. KCS has a few on longterm lease. 

Outstanding images, Dylan. Well done.

Posted from Android

Very nice.
JB

That refinery was founded in 1946 by H. L. Hunt, the oil man who was one of the wealthiest people in the world at that time. Tuscaloosa might seem like an odd place to put an oil refinery, but it was served by three railroads (Southern, L&N, and GM&O). More importantly at the time, it was located on the Black Warrior River which is navigable for barge traffic to the Gulf of Mexico. Later, the Colonial Pipeline was built between Texas and New Jersey, passing near Tuscaloosa, and the Hunt refinery was tied in. 

But I doubt that Hunt and the GM&O ever imagined refining Canadian crude in Tuscaloosa.