Meridian Speedway

At the end of March I set off to pick up a friend from the UK at DFW, so we could have a look at KCS's Meridian Speedway, it having been almost 15 years since I was last there. His plane, remarkably, was early, and on the drive from DFW to Shreveport, Louisiana, we encountered some of the heaviest rain I've ever been out in. We spent the night in a motel near Shreveport airport that was, to be charitable, average. Finding good reviews for a pub on a phone app, we went downtown, only be asked for ID, which Graham didn't have with him. We're both 60 something and don't remotely look like a 20 year old, but no ID, no entry. So we went to a steakhouse in a nearby casino, which was good, but hugely expensive! In the morning we had a look at Deramus yard, and shot 4 trains in the downtown(-ish) Shreveport area, which were the only trains we saw all day, except for the Louisiana Midland, which somehow escaped us after 1 shot. KCS was not nearly as busy as I expected, or even remembered. On a couple of days we saw only two trains, one day we saw 5, 3 UP, 1 NS and 1 KCS. The L&NW F units were (long) gone, as were the famous stop signs. A couple of diamonds, Tallulah and Newton were gone, and a number of grade crossings had gone with the upgrade of the speedway. The whole trip was a major culture shock for my friend, who had never been in the south before. We spent an interesting couple of hours in Edwards, east of Vicksburg. The weatherman promised us tornados by the dozen, nasty weather  all round and bucket loads of rain. It didn't look bad, we knew the NS pig train was behind us, Edwards looked good, so we sat and waited. and watched the black move in from the west. then the rain started, it got dark, the town lights came on, then the sirens started. We didn't really know what to do, so we sat in the car, and watched the west. Lightning and thunder all around, the city lights went out, and we sat and watched. Eventually the rain calmed down, it got lighter, and our train showed up. Fortunately, I'd put a big umbrella in the car. Interesting trip, I remembered very little from the 1995 trip, but we saw enough for me to get enough footage for a program.