Isaac C. Enochs of Crystal
Springs was one of Mississippi's
pioneer lumber men. In
the late 19th Century he along with his brothers erected at Fernwood
what was to
become one of South Mississippi's large lumber mills. A steam
locomotive operating
over wooden rails to transport logs from cutting areas to the mill
became the first
railroad operated by the Fernwood Lumber Company. A 30"
narrow-gauge
line with
steel rails replaced the wood-rail tram road. I.C.
Enochs
was to become a leader in
the vast lumbering enterprise in Mississippi. By 1910 the
Fernwood saw mill had
reached a production capacity of 100,000 board feet daily.
A standard gauge logging
railroad with 45 pound rails and sixteen miles in length had
replaced
the narrow gauge
line. The company in 1910 rostered nine steam
locomotives,
seventy-five cars and
two American log loaders. By 1917 the mill had been increased
in capacity to 175,000
board feet daily.
2-8-0 #11 receives attention at the FC&G shops,
Fernwood, Mississippi, September, 1940. C. W. Witbeck
photo.
Original negative in the collection of David S. Price
Like many lumber companies in
the South, the Fernwood Lumber
Company found it
their advantage to organize their main line logging railroad as
a technically separate
common carrier. Thus, the Fernwood & Gulf Railroad was
incorporated as a common
carrier under Mississippi law on March 31, 1906. The railroad
was actually formed to
take over the Fernwood Lumber Company's main line trackage which
was then in
operation eastward out of Fernwood, Mississippi where the
lumber company's large
sawmill plant was located and interchange was made with the Illinois
Central's
mainline. The common carrier initially extended to Tylertown,
Mississippi, 20.3 miles
east of Fernwood. Branches and extensions were operated as
part of the Fernwood
Lumber Company. In 1907 the New Orleans Great Northern's Bogue
Chitto branch
was completed into Tylertown from the NOGN main line at Rio,
Louisiana
(a short
distance south of Bogulusa) and made connection with the F&G.
The Fernwood Lumber Company
extended it's main line in an
eastward direction
from Tylertown. This line was completed to Kokomo, 11.59 miles
from Tylertown in
December 1910 where a headquarters lumber camp was
established.
The extension
was turned over to the Fernwood & Gulf Railroad.
The Fernwood & Gulf
undertook a final eastward extension
under its own corporate
identity to reach the New Orleans Great Northern main line at
Foxworth
in the fall of
1919, a distance of 9.55 miles from Kokomo. This completed
the main line of 41.44
miles essentially as it was to be operated for the next fifty plus
years.
On May 1, 1920, the Fernwood
& Gulf Railroad became the
Fernwood, Columbia &
Gulf Railroad. At the same time trackage rights were obtained
from the New Orleans
Great Northern using that road's 2.68 mile branch to enter Columbia,
Mississippi. This
involved use of the NOGN bridge across the Pearl River at
Columbia.
The FC&G
constructed a station and .36 miles of terminal trackage in
Columbia.
Over the next
decades the FC&G discussed the prospect of a further extension
eastward to
Hattiesburg. This was especially so after the Enochs family
who owned both Fernwood
Lumber Company and the FC&G purchased the Bonhomie &
Hattiesburg
Southern
operating out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi for 27 miles to connect
with the Gulf, Mobile &
Ohio at Beaumont. Nothing ever came of the proposed
Columbia-Hattiesburg
extension.
Engine #12 prepares to leave the Illinois Central
R.R. interchange at Fernwood, Mississippi with the daily FC&G
freight
in the late 1930's or early 1940's.
Original negative in the
collection
of David S. Price
Over the course of its history
the F&G/FC&G utilized
a variety of steam locomotives.
Most of them were typical of the Moguls, Ten Wheelers and
Consolidations
used by
shortlines the country over. Early locomotives came from the
Fernwood Lumber
Company and the numbering system was intermingled. Several
were used locomotives
purchased second-hand. Numbers 9 and 10 were 2-6-0's purchased
new from Baldwin
by the Fernwood Lumber Company. Numbers 11 and 12 were Baldwin
2-8-0's also
built for FLCo. Number 15 acquired by the F&G in 1919
was most unusual in that it
was a 4-4-2 originally built as Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh
#161. One wonders just
how a high-drivered passenger locomotive could have been much use
on a shortline
with limited passenger traffic and necessarily slow speed
operation.
Number 15 was
gone by 1936.
FC&G rail bus M-3 at the Fernwood, Mississippi
depot on September 28, 1937.
C. W. Witbeck photo from the David
S.
Price collection
In 1930 the
FC&G acquired a new Brill Model
30 rail bus. This became FC&G
Number M-1. The economy of such a small, internal combustion
machine over steam
trains for mail and passenger service let to the addition of Ford
V-8 powered Number
M-3 built by Kalamazoo in 1936. M-4 soon followed. The
gasoline rail busses became
a common sight and is one of the most remembered features of
FC&G
operation by the
many people who lived along the line and took advantage of the
transportation
they
provided. Wood combine passenger car Number 6, no longer
needed,
was set out on
a siding at Fernwood and allowed to deteriorate. This was
a "Jim Crow" car with a
baggage compartment in the center allowing passenger compartments
at each end for
segregation of the races in true Old South style.
