McComb, MS (MCB)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2011

$419,534

Station Ridership

FY 2011

6,979

Note: Fiscal year is from
October through September.

The current McComb station was built by the Illinois Central Railroad (IC) in 1901. It was renovated in 1998 by the Mississippi Department of Transportation Enhancement Program with funding from an ISTEA grant. The shelter was financed with a Mississippi Department of Transportation local service transportation grant. The station currently houses the Pike County Chamber of Commerce, the Industrial Development Foundation, the McComb Railroad Museum, and a waiting room for Amtrak passengers.

The museum has more than 900 railroad artifacts. It also owns several pieces of railroad equipment on display outside the station, including Illinois Central 2542, a 200-ton Mountain-type steam locomotive with eight drive-wheels and built by IC in its Paducah, Ken., shops. These locomotives were constructed from the boilers of another class of locomotives with ten drive-wheels. Seventy-four locomotives of this type were built, of which only two now survive. Behind the locomotive is Illinois Central 51000, a one-of-a-kind refrigerated aluminum refrigerator car built by ICRR it is McComb Shops, across the tracks from the station. The 51000 is followed by a 1966 cupola-style caboose, Illinois Central 9384, built IC’s Centralia Shops in Illinois. This was the largest class of caboose used by any railroad in the country. The museum also recently acquired Illinois Central 100417, a crane capable of lifting 250 tons, and its accompanying tool car.

Amtrak passengers can see the display equipment as they look to the west when the City of New Orleans train makes its way to and from the station. They can also see the Illinois Central’s famous “green diamond” emblem, etched in colored masonry, next to the station. . The McComb Shops remained a major component of the IC rail network until their closure in 1987. In 1998, IC was purchased by the Canadian National Railway (now CN), the current operators of the track through McComb.

McComb was chartered on April 5, 1872, by Colonel H. S. McComb, president of the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern Railroad (NOJ &GN). McComb, for moral reasons, desired that his company’s locomotive and car shops be located outside of New Orleans and thus away from the negative influence of New Orleans saloons. McComb purchased what is now the city of McComb, erecting shops and offering discounted lots to employees with families. In the McComb charter, it was stipulated that no alcoholic beverages be sold within city limits. It has since been repealed.

In 1877, Illinois Central purchased controlling interest in the New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern and the Mississippi Central. However, these lines could not immediately be integrated into IC, because unlike the standard gauge (4’ 8.5”) Illinois Central, the NOJ&GN and Mississippi Central were built on a 5’ gauge. This difference required that cars interchanging between the lines at Cairo be jacked up and have their 5’ gauge wheelsets replaced with a standard gauge set before they could proceed north. This process cost the railroad time and money, and so almost immediately the railroad set about rectifying this problem. On July 29, 1881, 3,000 men under the direction of General Manager James Clarke converted the 548 miles of 5’ gauge track to standard gauge in a single day. On January 1, 1883, a 400-year lease of these companies was initiated by IC, linking Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico with one unified railroad company.

By 1905, McComb also boasted of the 120,000-square-foot McComb cotton mill and the McColgan Brothers Icing Plant, the first such plant in the south. The icing plant was used to ice refrigerated boxcars, allowing the shipment north of perishable food items by rail. In 1958, the largest oil discovery of the year was made in McComb. Extraction of the oil remains ongoing, and the landscape around McComb is spotted with derricks.

McComb is also the birthplace of Sim Webb, John Luther (Casey) Jones’ fireman. On April 30, 1900, the “New Orleans Special” struck a freight train at Vaughn, Miss. killing engineer Jones. The wreck was later immortalized by the ballad “Casey Jones”, composed by Illinois Central roundhouse worker Wallace Saunders.
Other tragedies have struck in and around McComb. In June 1904, a coal-oil lamp overturned in a laundry and flames spread to a nearby livery stable on North Front Street. Two-thirds of the city’s business area burned to the ground and sixteen horses died in the flames. In October, 1977, a chartered flight carrying 26 individuals crashed near McComb in Gillsburg, Miss. Among the dead were Lynyrd Skynyrd members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines.

McComb has been the birthplace of many notable figures throughout the years including blues musician Bo Diddley, actor Jimmy Boyd, baseball player Adrian Brown, and pop sensation Britney Spears.

McComb is the largest city in Pike County, with 13,337 residents. McComb has been voted the “Hospitality City” of the “Hospitality State” for three years running, and is considered by walletpop.com to be the 9th most desirable location to retire to in the United States. It is also known as “the Camellia City of America”, and is home to more varieties than can be found in any other location in the United States.

Amtrak does not offer ticketing or baggage services at this facility.

McComb is served by two daily trains.