At daybreak, I arrived at the KCS rail-yard in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The morning was clear and cold. I met a railroad worker coming to work with a styrofoam cup of coffee steaming in his hands and we chatted for a few minutes. The yard foreman, he said, was not in yet, but he thought it would be alright if I walked around and took some photographs. It was Christmas Eve, 2007.
About an hour later, the yard foreman came over to where I was shooting and asked if I would come to the office with him and sign a release form. From the windows of the elevated office, I could look down over the entire yard. One diesel locomotive was starting to switch some cars, but otherwise the yard was quiet.
Many years ago my wife's grandfather worked for the Illinois Central Railroad in this same yard. Although I never knew him, I thought about all the Christmas Eves that he reported to work here, steam rising from the waiting locomotives and the smell of coal smoke in the clear morning air.
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