Back in February of 2009 Wayne Robichaux and I took a little field trip through southern Mississippi. We looped through several towns, and at railroad locations in between, ending the day in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. And there we stopped at the former Illinois Central depot in the center of town. A roadway overpass just south of the depot provided an excellent location to capture the structure along with its surroundings.

The depot now serves as the Mississippi Music Museum, with photos and memorabilia of the many artists that the state was home to. Amtrak’s City of New Orleans still runs through here, and passengers are served by a tiny glassed in enclosure seen a bit further down from the depot. Almost unnoticeable, that’s it near the caboose on display. The entire area is nicely kept, and also has a pavilion and a small children’s playground just beyond the caboose.

This image was recorded at dusk ( 5:44 PM according to camera EXIF data). The lights are turning on, and all seems still. I noticed when zooming in on the photograph that two people are waiting in that tiny Amtrak “depot” (good that it was there, as there had been a small rain shower recently). Apparently the northbound train #58 is running a bit late on this Saturday evening.