Bay St. Louis potter commemorating Amtrak inaugural run

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (WLOX) - More than 300 guests will ride the inaugural Amtrak train this weekend for its Mardi Gras Service from Mobile to New Orleans, with plenty of stops along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

“Excitement is an understatement,” Steve Barney told WLOX News. “We’ve been waiting years for this.”

Barney is the director of Bay St. Louis Creative Arts Center. Making ceramics for special and historic events is his niche. So, he called the Southern Rail Commission with a proposition.

“I worked quite a while with a 3D printer to make these stamps,” Barney explained. “I’m very interested in creating cultural artifacts of special, historical events.”

The final design features seven different colors, including Amtrak’s signature shade of blue. In honor of the services’ name, the tiles also feature the iconic green, purple and gold colors of Mardi Gras.

It’s a labor-intensive process, Barney said, and he’s put more than 200 hours into the project with his potter partner Becky Rotunda.

“We’ve literally been working on this project for months,” he added. “I’m so honored to be a part of it.”

The 350 guests with a ticket to ride on the inaugural run will be gifted with this special tile marking the return of passenger rail service to the Gulf Coast.

“My studio is just one block from where that train stops, so people from New Orleans are going to be slowing down right as they pass by,” he said. “Bay St. Louis is booming, and this is just going to take everything to the next level in terms of the tourism.”

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