(The following story by Fred Messina appeared on the Vicksburg Post website on November 6.)
VICKSBURG, Miss. — A 123-year-old downtown company will move so a sharp curve in train tracks can be reduced.
Mississippi Lumber Co., operating in downtown Vicksburg since 1880 and at 1900 Mulberry St. since 1922, has sold its site to Kansas City Southern Railway.
A KCS spokesman said the railroad will use about 2.2 acres at the Oak Street crossing to place new tracks.
Derailments are common at the curve where tracks shift from east-west to north-south. One freight car rolled into the side of the lumber company warehouse in recent years.
The railroad intends to take possession of the property on or before May 31 and proceed with the work despite longstanding discussions about shifting the whole rail route south of the city.
Mississippi Lumber was founded by R.M. Trumbull, A. Cross and A. Johnstone in 1880. It was bought out in September 1913 by Robert F. Evans and John C. McDermott. In 1917, that company bought out Spengler Lumber Co. It moved to an adjacent lot when it bought the Vicksburg Compress and Warehouse which became the present location in 1922.
Evans bought McDermott?s share after his death in 1939. Since that time, the company has been owned and operated by various members of the Evans family. Today Greg Evans is president and general manager and John T. “Jay” Evans is the secretary-treasurer.
“The land has been sold as of Friday to the Kansas City Southern Railway,” Greg Evans confirmed this week. The price was not disclosed, but Evans said the rail company paid a fair price. Evans said he is already looking for a place to which to move the company. Until the move, Mississippi Lumber will lease its location from KCS. At the same time, he said, “We are looking at a different way of doing business.”
It is difficult for a single business to carry every product used to build a home, he said, and the company product lines may change.
“We are trying to move into some specific areas and build a business where we can do a better job and offer the customer a lot more,” Evans said. He termed what the company is looking at as a niche market.
The opening of The Home Depot in May had nothing to do with the decision to sell the land, look for a new location for Mississippi Lumber and explore niche marketing, Evans said. Home Depot has its own market and Mississippi Lumber has had its own, serving more professional builders, he said.
“The contractors go where they are catered to,” he said.
Problems at the curve need to be addressed because, while there have been no injuries or dangerous spills, KCS has said derailments stop their flow, which has increased and is expected to increase more. The original tracks were laid in the early 1800s when box cars were shorter and lighter.
“KCS has studied the main line curve at this location for some time,” said Doniele Kane, a KCS spokesman. “Design work is under way, and KCS intends to begin construction by mid-second quarter 2004.”
The work by KCS will accomplish something that Mayor Laurence Leyens had proposed to solve the curve problem.
Leyens said the city was approached by the railroad proposing to build a new bridge across the tracks at Fairground Street, which would give access to Dorsey Street and the south end of Levee Street. The city closed the 108-year-old iron bridge in 1993 after an inspection showed it had deteriorated to the point it was unsafe. The proposal was made in exchange for the city?s allowing the railroad to close crossings at Oak, Speed and Klein streets.
The mayor said the city does not want to close Oak Street, which changes to Mulberry Street at the rail crossing, and offered city help in building a new crossing there that meets newer safety standards. The city has received no response to its offer.
Just south of Fairground Street, a line branches off the main track and heads to the railroad switching yards located between Fairground and Depot streets. A continuation of that line heads north and serves industries on and near the E.W. Haining Industrial Center and the International Paper Co. plant, north of Redwood.