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Old hotels on the beach	■
were enlarged and mod-	I
ernized. Boarding houses	E
added a second story and a	I
new wing and became ho-	I
tels. More boarding houses	I
were built. An important	I
development of this era	I
was the livery stable	|
which provided transportation from the depots to the hotels in surries and in an odd vehicle called the tally-ho. They also did heavy, hauling and sold stove wood.
The arrival of the excursion train, often in three sections, was the big Sunday morning event in the Coast towns. Many of the j visitors rode all the way to Ocean Springs to get their dollar's worth. Some took hacks down to the hotels where they enjoyed a copious meal for a half dollar. Others carried lunch boxes and walked to the beach and out to a bath house to take a swim.
Mississippi Coast history
train come in. Headline news sometimes leaked out from the chattering telegraph and was passed down the main street. Some operators would give out the latest score on a world series baseball game.
Soon a commuter train was operating between Ocean Springs and New Orleans every day but Sunday. The Coast Train as it was called left about 6 a.m. and arrived at the New Orleans terminal near the foot of Canal St. about 9 o’clock. In the afternoon about 3 o’clock it returned to the Coast. With the advent of this service, Orleanians began to build summer homes on the Coast and Coast dwellers began to do their heavy i shopping on Canal St.
There were daily trains from Mobile and Montgomery to New Orleans. Through trains had mail and express cars, and also sleeping cars designated for Chicago and New York and points between. These j were the fast trains that roared through small towns at top speed. Later as they became faster and fancier they acquired names like Pan American, Piedmont and the Humming Bird. All this was the human interest side of railroading; the company made most of its money by hauling freight.
An old photograph of the Canal St. terminal showed a large sign which read: Louisville & Nashville R.R.
EXCURSIONS To the Gulf Coast Every Sunday and Wednesday Bathing, Boating & Fishing
Tickets, Round Trip $1.00


Hancock County History General Newspaper Clippings Railroad-Feb-1976-(2)
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