Railroad Retirees Club
Where do they get the energy?

Where are they going? The second Tuesday of every month, without fail, traffic picks up at the train depot in McComb. If you are curious, just pass by and you can see for yourself. Suddenly maybe twenty, thirty or more people will show up at the depot -- but they don't carry any suitcases. What kind of journey could they possibly be taking? They are on a sentimental journey, heading back to a time when life in McComb revolved around the Illinois Central Railroad.

These folks are members of the Railroad Retirees Club, and they are reporting once again for duty in downtown McComb. Oh, time was when they would hear the whistle and report to the roundhouse or the train yard with lunch boxes in hand, but those days are long ago. Now they heed a different call. Club President Donald Chase reckons that tehre may be as many as 300-350 railroad retirees in Pike County. This day about 30 members came to be entertained by Mrs. Jessie Coker, a favorite of the club.
 
The group was begun in the railroad transportation department by a small group of men including Worth Wardlaw, Earl Whittington and Paul DeCoux, before they retired around 1982. They first met at the American Legion Hut on the IC Lake. Later the meetings were moved to the Railroad Depot and by that time all railroad retirees were included in the Club.
 
A natural question one might ask is why form a railroad retirees club? The railroad was more than a job for most of its employees -- it was a way of life for entire families, sometimes for multiple generations. So it stands to reason that just because the time had come for one to leave the railroad, the railroad might not have left the person. 
McComb and the surrounding area has benefited from the lingering ties between these people and their past -- without them and their love of railroad memorabilia McComb would not have the Railroad Museum and collection of memorabilia that it now has.
 
Besides reliving old times, these retirees have proven a vital asset to the preservation and restoration of railroad history in McComb. THe projects they have undertaken include: reflooring the caboose; prepping the locomotive for painting; repainting windows in the locomotive and caboose; laying the bricks for the Brick Memorial; restoration of the Wrecker Derrick and laying new track to bring the wrecker to its new home alongside the other cars outside the Museum.
 
One of the most inspirational volunteers continues to be Edwin Etheridge, last Superintendent of the railroad shop in McComb. Despite frail health, he continues to rally and come to the railyard to lead the men and women who volunteer their time and effort to make the Railroad Museum a vital part of McComb's future. So the next time you are in town around Noon on the second Tuesday of the month, drop by the Train Depot and take a sentimental journey.