The largest town on the line between Monterey and Willis is Oneida.  Oneida is pronounced wah-nee-duh, an unusual pronunciation for sure, but typical of naming habits in Louisiana and Mississippi.  J.D. Spencer (founder of the Spencer Lumber Company) named the town after his oldest daughter when he built his sawmill complex on this ground back in the early 20s.

The Louisiana Central trackage here was recently completed.  The switch motors have been installed and the electrical feeders for all trackage are terminated at their respective terminal blocks.  The only work remaining is to connect feeds from the power bus to those connection points.  Here are a couple photos:

Above is the view from the east end of town.  The (future) bridge across the Little River will be at the lower right above the plywood river bottom.  The first switch is the Spencer Lumber Company mainline heading to the mill complex.  If you recall from an earlier post, the Spencer has obtained trackage rights across the LCRR bridge.  Once over the bridge, the lumber road splits away to their own mainline.  The next switch is the passing siding, and the track coming off the pass and heading back toward the camera is the spur for the sand and gravel pit.  Off in the distance, we see the spur for the Wildcat Petroleum Company, and way down at the far end, the spur for the Spencer loading track can (barely) be seen.

Here we see the view from the west end of town.  The mainline (on the cork roadbed) presently ends here at the switch; extension westward to Monterey will be in the near future.  The passing siding branches off to the left.  The first switch is the Spencer loading track, and the next two switches lead to the Wildcat Petroleum Company and the sand and gravel pit, respectively.

I’ll probably get started on the Spencer trackage for the sawmill complex next.  You can see the Spencer mainline heading this way toward the mill (the distant track at center that currently ends at a switch).  The Spencer track will curve to the far side of the mill pond (that depressed area at left), where there will be a log dump, and a couple servicing tracks for the steam locos and rolling stock.

I still need to get started though on those bridge abutments over near Whitcomb.  It would be hard to get over the line without that bridge!

-Jack