Queen and Crescent Route

As of 1909,[1] the line consisted of five segments: Investor Emile Erlanger & Co. gained control of the newly-constructed New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad in 1881.

Vintage marketing advertises the Queen & Crescent Route as "Established Nov. 18, 1883",[2] which refers to the date of first scheduled passenger service on the NO&NE.

In 1895 the Q&C route, along with the entire Erlanger consortium, was acquired by Southern Railway, one relatively small merger in the vast consolidation engineered by Samuel Spencer.

Eventually the main line to New Orleans was retained by the Southern Railway, and is still part of the Norfolk Southern Railway system, while the Illinois Central Railroad acquired the two segments west of Meridian to Shreveport through its subsidiary Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad.

Southern Railway inaugurated a named passenger train for the route, the Queen and Crescent Limited, in 1926.