As to teh Crescent-Star: At the time it was proposed the Meridian Shreveport line was not in very good shape. I do not have an old ICRR schedule at hand, but I think the last passenger schedule was about 10 hours for 313 miles. Add about 4 more hours on the UP from Shereport to Dallas, and you have 14 hours from Meridian to Dallas. The ex ICRR line was unsignaled and never fast, despite having a fairly good alignment.
Thanks to the major upgrades by KCS, including signals, the Crescent Star would make more sense now than it did at the time it was proposed. most likely KCS would (justifiably) was some additional sidings installed so as to not increase train delay beyond that occuring with the current all freight operation.
I grabbed a 1954 Southern timetable. Due to the Washington to Shreveport sleeper handled by the Pelican from WAS to Meridian and IC beyond that.
It shows the southwest bound leaving Meridian 2.50 a.m., arr Shrvpor 1.30 p.m.
The other dircetion it left Shreveport 4.30 pm, ar Meridian 2 a.m.
Thanks, Bill. I see that my memory was not too far off. I would love to get my hands on a recent KCS ETT to see what the speed limits are now. I do know that west of Vicksburg, at least, the railroad is near dead straight for long sections, so a 79 mph speed would be practical.
I think about that pullman off and on George. I must have seen it come backing around the corner into Chattanooga Terminal Station (today's Choo Choo)about one million times, northbound and southbound. I wish I had ridden it.
So far as I remember the car was always pullman green. I do not recall seeing brown and orange IC colors.
Guess it was later in life that I learned what a stickler Wayne Johnson, IC President, was for color uniformity.
Guess that car was not too important in the big picture. Or maybe Wayne Johnson was not president yet or I was just too young to know or notice.
Do you recall if brown and orange IC was ever in the pool for that line? Of course the Southern handling from Washington to Meridian was longer than the IC handling between Meridian and Shreveport.