Tribute to Railroad Retirees  Ironhorse Day at the Railroad Museum
The 2007 Ironhorse Festival, which drew a record crowd of 12,000 participants, featured a tribute to retired railroad employees by the City of McComb. Oldtimers remember the days when McComb operated by the sound of the whistle blowing at the railroad shops. Although those days are long ago, and the numbers of people who recall the sound of the noontime whistle are on the decline, the name given the Ironhorse Festival connotes the significance of the railroad to the City of McComb. It was fitting that for a brief time during the 2007 Festival, the attention of those present was turned in grateful appreciation to the service and contributions of the countless hundreds of railroad retirees who trooped to work daily in the roundhouse and up and down the tracks of the Illinois Central and other rail lines that crisscrossed this country. Railroad fans from surrounding states come to McComb during the Ironhorse Festival and gather at the Railroad Museum. The Who's Who of Southern Railroading is seen at the McComb Railroad Museum during special days such as the Ironhorse Festival, people such as Tom Davidson, who now lives in Louisiana, whose grandfather was a contractor who built the double track -- so he grew up around McComb; or John Fortner, also from Lousiana who is editor of the Crimson Flyer; Charles Akes, from Mandeville, a Board Member & Officer of the IC Historical Society. Akes refers to the McComb Railroad Museum as the "real thing" as opposed to "MacMuseums" that can be found in other locations. Then there is Gary Herring, from Picayune and formerly from McComb, who puts it better than most when he recalls the McComb of the Railroad Shop days: "McComb had a heartbeat from the shops that never ceased. Everybody worked for the railroad or was associated with it. The smell of diesel and smoke was just what every boy wanted!"