The Mississippi & Skuna Valley Railroad (MSV) was a 22-mile a

shortline railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

that operated in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

from 1925 to 2008.

History

The railroad was on incorporated on June 1, 1925 primarily to serve the E.L. Bruce Company hardwood mill in

Bruce, Mississippi Bruce is a town situated along the Skuna River in Calhoun County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 1,939. History The town was named for E. L. Bruce, founder of the E. L. Bruce Company, a sawmill operat ...

. It ran from a connection with the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also co ...

(later

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

) south of

Coffeeville, Mississippi Coffeeville is a town in and one of two county seats of Yalobusha County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 905 at the 2010 census. It is named after John Coffee (1772 – 1833), a planter and military leader. The minor American Ci ...

to Bruce. Lumber products made up the majority of its traffic. Operations on the MSV were forced to cease in 2008 due to a bridge being damaged on its connecting railroad, which was now owned by Canadian National. In August 2010 the

Patriot Rail Corporation Patriot Rail Company LLC (Patriot Rail) is a holding company for a number of shortline railroads across the United States. In June 2012, Patriot Rail was acquired by SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners (SteelRiver). On August 8, 2022 Patriot Rai ...

purchased the line but was unable to operate it due to the damaged bridge on its connecting railroad.

Abandonment

In November 2011, Patriot Rail filed a petition to abandon the track, and in 2012 donated the right of way to

Calhoun John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) was the 7th vice president of the United States. Calhoun can also refer to: Surname * Calhoun (surname) Inhabited places in the United States *Calhoun, Georgia *Calhoun, Illinois * Calhoun, Kansas * Calhoun, Kentuc ...

and Yalobusha counties to become a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

References

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External links

Hawkins Rails Page for MSV
Mississippi railroads {{US-rail-transport-stub