Digest: Official says many displays at Mississippi station museum can be saved

Mississippi station museum director vows to rebuild following fire

The executive director of the McComb (Miss.) Railroad Depot Museum says he is “encouraged” by what he has seen after viewing the interior of the station and museum, which was badly damaged by an arson fire on Sunday. WVUE-TV reports that executive director Ralph Price said in a social media post that “most, if not all, of the artifacts on the southern end of the building, which is where our museum originated, are intact and can be used again.” Price has vowed to rebuild. Markez Belmont Smith, 20, of McComb has been charged in the fire, with the Enterprise-Journal newspaper reporting he confessed and said he set the fire out of anger after his mother kicked him out of the house.

Start pushed back, costs rise for Caltrain electrification

Electrified operation on the San Francisco-San Jose portion of Caltrain’s route is now expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 — six months later than the previous estimate — and the cost has risen from $1.9 billion to $2.3 billion, Caltrain officials said at a Thursday board meeting. Much of the delay is because of signal and communications work, which involves 41 grade crossings and the ability to eventually work with California’s high speed rail system. The work is behind schedule, and talks are underway to replace the current contractor. Work is also behind on Stadler’s electrified multiple-unit trainsets because of a high number COVID-19 cases at the builder’s plants in Salt Lake City and Switzlerland. Currently, 70 car shells are complete, and 55 have been shipped from Switzerland to Utah. — Dan Zukowski

Duluth tourist railroad shut down again, this time by Superfund cleanup

The Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad in Duluth, Minn., will be shut down for a second consecutive year, this time because of cleanup at a former U.S. Steel plant, an EPA Superfund site along the tourist railroad’s route. WDIO-TV reports the cleanup work would have left only about 20% of the non-profit operation’s normal 6-mile route. President Joel Manns said the railroad is disappointed not to run for the second straight year — it was shut down in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Financially, this situation is not as bleak this year, he said, because the railroad is receiving some compensation from the EPA. The railroad plans to return in 2022.