If you’ve ever been exploring in an overgrown area, you would have possibly come across some abandoned piece of equipment or large piece of machinery.

Something like what I describe can be found in a number of places around our own county. I can even point you to one that is right in the middle of town; it’s at the end of Goodyear Boulevard where a new fire station may soon be built.

Just off to the left as you face the old building that currently sits on the site, is an old train engine.

As many of you know, trains were a vital part of the creation of not just Pearl River County and Picayune, but a lot of places across this nation. Before large semi trucks, the only way to get goods from one place to another was via train. And these large powerful machines are still widely used today.

While it appears as though the train I describe was last used when I was still in grade school, if not decades before, it still has value. Maybe not in the same fashion of hauling goods from one end of the country to the other, but in other significant ways.

I’ve been told that I’m not the first person to come to this conclusion. There are people in this area who are already researching a way to not only restore this piece of our history, but find a place to prominently display it, sources say.

It may come at a great expense, not just in making the now rusted metal look new once again, rather more so in its relocation, but I hope their plans come to fruition.

There are several places in town where such a treasure could be displayed. My first suggestion would be near Picayune’s Intermodal Transportation Center, possibly right next to the old tung oil car that is there now.

But I’d wager, someone has already thought of that, and is already working on the details.