After about 40 years of “just sitting,” four antique rail cars are about to receive new life.

After Patrick Vinzant purchased the cars, he saw a sign of their former life, a stamp that said, “Do not use this car on rails. Due for retirement.'”

“They’ve already run their course,” he said.

In their former life, however, they were U.S. Mail cars on what appears to be a steam locomotive, Vinzant said. Since, they have sat on property on U.S. 61 North and have been used for storage.

But, Vinzant saw them as an opportunity.

Using his own equipment, he and employees moved the cars to his business, Vinco Inc., on Mississippi 27, where he will use the cars for office space.

“I like old, antique stuff. I’m planning on restoring them,” he said. “I’m going to clean them up, and I think they’ll last forever.”

Vinzant, who has run his construction business on 27 for 20 years, purchased the cars for a small fee from Jeff Palmer of Palmer Mechanical. Palmer recently purchased the property, formerly McCool’s Woodyard, where the cars have been since they were decommissioned.

“Now that he has (the property) cleaned up, the city’s telling him to move them,” Vinzant said. “So, I’m going to take them out to the county.”

The rail cars were originally put on the land when W.J. Runyan, a former contractor, operated his business there.

“He used to have his asphalt business there and he got (the rail cars) from Illinois Central Gulf after the cars were retired,” Vinzant said. “They were used for storage 40 years ago and have been sitting there ever since.”

Before his decision to restore the old cars, Vinzant offered them to Lamar Roberts, who is a main promoter of the Vicksburg Transportation Museum, which will be housed at the old Levee Street Depot at City Front. The museum, on the drawing board since 2005, remains in a waiting pattern and is not yet able to store large artifacts.

“I would love to be able to take them, but we have no place to put them. We’re waiting to get all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed. It’s moving kind of slow,” Roberts said. “Because of the way things are moving, we can’t place anything down there because there’s no security.”

Organizers of the museum plan to have railroad and riverboat displays, as well as the Central Mississippi Aviation Museum, model train cars and engines for an HO-scale model railroad display.

Although the antique cars will not be a part of the museum display, Vinzant feels they will have a good second life at his shop.

“I’m going to build something unique with them,” he said.