I thought I’d provide a little explanation about the artwork in the masthead of this Louisiana Central blog. This beautiful painting is by railroader and artist Tony Howe. It is my favorite piece by this gentleman, and a cropped version of it is used here by permission of the artist.

Tony calls this “Wausau Southern Lumber Co. Log Train”, and describes it thusly “A Wausau Southern Lumber Co. log train heads for the company’s sawmill at Laurel, Mississippi, in the 1920’s”. In answer to a recent question by Everett Lueck, Tony explained the “true” identity of the train: “It was based on the W H B Jones photo of RR&G (Red River & Gulf) #106, but I changed it a bit to match the Wausau Southern Lumber Co. Baldwin 2-6-0. Wausau Southern’s log cars were the same basic design as Crowell’s (the Crowell & Spencer Lumber Company based at Long Leaf, Louisiana). The parts in parenthesis are added by me to further the explanation.

And featured below is the full painting . . .

Thanks Tony!