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Here's where it
all
begins, at the mighty Mississippi River. The Texas and
Pacific Railway has a car ferry operation just down stream, and
interchanges with the Louisiana Central at Monterey. The
T&P also switches a couple riverfront industries, picking up
loads heading westward. Traffic has increased lately, as the
T&P is delivering cars to the LC for forwarding on to the
Illinois Central. The IC interchange is at Willis, and this
provides a nice little shortcut around New Orleans, saving several days
off the transit times of cars moving east-west and north. |
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Panning a bit to
the
right (looking north), it is evident that there is no levee here.
This bank will flood during the spring thaw up north when the
river level rises with the runoff. The railroad is located
just a
bit to the east where the ground rises dramatically, though not nearly
as flat as it is along the river bank. |
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The countryside
in
this area of the world is lush and thick, with much rain, and many
rivers, streams and bayous. This is typical of the many
wooden
bridges in the area crossing a small riverbed. |
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Standing down in
the
riverbed, one can see the simple construction of the bridge.
This photo is taken in the early fall, and the water levels
are down everywhere. However, during a hard rain, this
riverbed can become a raging torrent. |
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The north side
of the
bridge reveals the sandy riverbed. There is a tremendous
amount of sand and gravel in this region, and the Road serves a sand
and gravel operation near Whittier. |
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This is the
Little
River. The Louisiana Central spans this waterway with a 150'
long Pratt truss bridge. The Spencer Lumber Company has
negotiated trackage rights across the bridge to reach its timber
holdings to the southeast of the mill. Spencer is one of the
larger customers on the line, shipping rough sawn lumber to finishing
mills in the region. The large growth is nearly gone, so it
remains to be seen how much time the Spencer operation has left. |
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Another view of
the
Little River. This is the largest river the Road crosses.
The water is low during the fall, and the river is
not navigable except by small boat. Parts of the
river yield vast quantities of sand and gravel. |
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This is one of
the
main roads in the area. In recent years, there has been much
road improvement, including widening and resurfacing. In
1964, the roads were much more treacherous. This road is
approaching the summit of a hill, cutting through those last few feet
of elevation. |
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The terrain in
this
region is quite rugged. Many people associate Louisiana with
flat, coastal areas, and swamps. However, this is the heart
of the Tunica Hills, and threading a rail line through this terrain is
no easy task. To make matters more difficult, the soils are
very unstable, and washouts are quite common. |
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The many
waterways
threading throughout the hills require a good number of bridges.
Many of the roads wind along the ridgelines, then plunge down
a valley to cross a river or bayou, then climb back up to the next
group of hills. One can motor along these ridgelines
oblivious to the fact that the terrain can plunge a hundred feet or
more, right at the edge of the road, as the lush growth obscures the
treacherous nature of the terrain. |
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Another typical
creek
bottom, mostly sand. Despite the abundance of sand and
gravel, most of it is not economically recoverable due to the rugged
terrain and lack of access. We are in Mississippi now, though
one would find it difficult to tell while in the middle of the woods.
The Mississippi terrain is less rugged (though even higher in
elevation), and the soils are more stable. Eventually, the
forests will become dominated by varieties of pine as one heads north
and east. |
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The biggest
attraction
to this region is the hunting. It is teeming with deer, and
the train crews have had some harrowing experiences with hot lead
flying about. |
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The terrain elevation
is getting progressively higher as we advance to the northeast.
The hills generally aren't as treacherous on the east side of
US Highway 61, but they are bigger. |
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This is the City Hall
in Woodville, Miss., just a few miles south of our railroad
town of Whittier, Miss.
|
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Here is the view in
the opposite direction from above. The courthouse is barely
in view at the left, and small retail businesses wrap around the sides
and rear of the courthouse block. This arrangement is
extremely common in small towns across the south. While
downtown Whittier won't be modeled, I included these images here so as
to convey the feel of the area. |
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The Louisiana
Central
crosses dozens of rivers and bayous in its ramble through Louisiana and
Mississippi, both large... |
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...and small. |
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We're in Mississippi
here. As in Louisiana, the
roads in this area often follow the ridgelines. It is
difficult to see in the two dimensional image, but the terrain plummets
over 150 feet down just beyond the flat area at the bottom of the
picture. It does the same on the other side of the road. |
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Even though the road
seems like a roller coaster, we are steadily moving higher in
elevation. Notice also that the woods are
becoming dominated by pine. |
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...and more pine. |
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Here we're approaching
the summit of one of the largest hills on the route. |
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A view across the
valley from the summit. |
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The road plunges down
again, but will rise abruptly just a few curves away. |
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Here is one of
the
Road's trestles. Actually, this one is abandoned, but it is
similar to many along the line. As weights generally become
higher, it has become necessary to upgrade the trestles and bridges
along the line. |
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A view along a
stretch
of ROW. You do see the tracks there, don't you? |
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This particular
crossing has been abandoned twice. The original trestle is
marked by a few low piles, the second one still has the deck in place.
The current trestle is just around the bend. |
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The rail line has just
come into Willis, Miss., the midpoint of the line.
In reality, this scene
is in the actual town of Gloster, Miss., just a few miles south of the
railroad Willis. That is the edge of the G-P plywood mill on
the left. |
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We've moved a block to
the east. This trackage was originally the Illinois Central,
and was sold to Georgia-Pacific Corp., and became the Gloster Southern.
The model town of Willis will emulate this scenario. |
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This is the portion of
the building complex at G-P where the plywood is finished.
The track enters the overhead door opening in the front, and
boxcars are loaded with the plywood. At the side of the
building is another track and a loader for wood chips into hoppers.
There will be a similar plant at Willis, only backdated to
1964. It will form the west end of an empties in-loads out
scenario for the wood chip cars. |
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A few miles the other
side of railroad Willis, is the actual town of Crosby, Miss.
This trestle was once used by the Illinois Central on it's
line through here. On the 1964 Louisiana Central, it's still
in daily use. |
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Here is the abandoned
IC roadbed leading up to that trestle. The track still is in
good shape and used daily in 1964. |
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This is all that
remains of the giant Crosby Lumber Company in Crosby, Miss.
Obviously, these aren't the original buildings.
However, check out the stack and the water tank.
Lumber operations were a major industry in Louisiana and Mississippi
during the first half of the 20th century, many supporting their own
logging railroads (including this one). The Louisiana Central
supports one such operation southwest of here; the Spencer
Lumber Company. |
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A closer view of the
mill buildings. The Spencer operation will look somewhat
different, as it will be depicted as an older facility. |
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We're at the end of
the line in Bude, Miss. Here, the Louisiana Central
interchanges with the Mississippi Central Railroad, at a point just
beyond the curve in this picture. We are looking south, and
the LC comes in from the right. This portion of the line will
not be modeled, but will be simulated by hidden staging tracks at the
east end of Willis.
The Illinois Central eventually absorbed the Mississippi Central, and
today Bude is served by the Canadian National. |
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This is the
Mississippi Central Depot in Bude. The Louisiana Central also
shares this depot over trackage rights extending here from the
interchange. There is a run around track on the other side of
the depot. |
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Panning to the left,
we see downtown Bude. |
