These are the two main sources I use:
• Google Earth...
http://www.google.com/earth/ ...when downloaded will give you access to their aerial photographic imagery and also Google Maps - much like a road map from the gas station. It also has overlays or layers of different kinds of information you can choose to put on your view from above: roads; borders & labels; places; photos, and several more. In addition to all that stuff it has a "Street View" feature which allows you to (in effect) get out of your airplane and hop in a car and look around 360° at images from ground level taken from most highways, roads and seven country lanes. This is even available for the road crossing the tracks at Hillsdale.
Following the scheduled route of an Amtrak train is usually pretty straightforward using Google earth. Just type in , say, "Amtrak New Orleans LA" and hit the search button and it'll fly you right there above the station and hover at an altitude of about 3,000 feet. The mouse wheel lets you change altitude for a close view or broader view and then you follow the tracks out of town. I should have said
"try to follow the tracks out of town" because doing that is complicated by the variety of different routes to follow after leaving the station. When there are too many choices I back track on Google Earth from the next station shown on the Amtrak for the route - for the Crescent it's Slidell LA. It can be a real challenge sometimes, especially in urban areas with lots of industry, but I find it sort of fun - like a puzzle. Then there's the occasional difficulty using Google Earth following along in sparsely populated areas where the quality of the aerial imagery or terrain make seeing the tracks and following the route difficult. Here's where I switch over to using the topo maps. The best ones are published by the United States Geological Survey and are available online through them, but they are available elsewhere. The ones I use the most are from...
• MyTopo...
http://www.mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm ...although there are several others. This is where all the "interesting" named places along the tracks can be found. The track symbols on the map make it easy to follow along the route in places where Google Earth causes too much eye strain. And this is where I found Hillsdale MS because it doesn't appear on Google Earth unless you enter it in its search box - and if you don't know it exists, you can't enter it.
Be advised that doing these kinds of searches may not be everyone's cup of tea. If you're not familiar with using Google Earth it can take some time to get familiar with it and learn how to use all its available feature. Using MyTopo is a little easier: like Google Earth, just enter a start point and it'll take you there. After doing a fair number of these route surveys, I open up both so I can switch back & forth - and fritter away the hours taking a virtual train ride. But I have lots of time to fritter away.