Riding on the Gloster Southern

The Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the NRHS arranged for an excursion on the Gloster Southern Railroad back in November of 1988. The Gloster Southern was a railroad created by the Georgia-Pacific Corporation to service its plywood mill in Gloster, Mississippi. The line ran 35 miles south from there on former Illinois Central Gulf trackage to Slaughter, Louisiana where it connected to the ICG.

The power for the road was a pair of ex-Santa Fe CF7 locomotives, which had been re-built and painted for service on the Ashley, Drew & Northern (another G-P road). The excursion on this day saw these two units handling a pair of passenger coaches. The trip started in Gloster and ran down to Slaughter. There the locos ran around the train for the return trip to Gloster. It was a great journey on “rare mileage” trackage.

SELA Railfan Trip - GLSR - 1988 — A pair of Gloster Southern CF7s head the train on its way south. Ron Findley captured this image during a photo “run-by” of the train. The diamond herald above the pilot is that of the Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the NRHS.

At the Throttle - GLSR #1502 — Ron recorded this scene of your author at the controls. Note the smug look on this fellows face as he dreams that he’s in control of this massive train (and a dream was all it was!).

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