A couple weeks ago I posted a view of a Kansas City Southern train as it was descending the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That view of the bridge was its east side, which is in the City of Baton Rouge. Not many photographs are taken over on the west bank of the river as there isn’t the interesting combination of bridge over bridge over roadway. Nevertheless, the western side is much more serene, and fortunately photographer Tom Blackwell documented that side as well.

This image was taken in July of 1982, and KCS train #84 is slowly descending the bridge. So typical of the KCS, motive power is all EMD power and consists of F3A #4052, F7B #73B, GP7 #4150 and an unidentified SW1500. If you look closely, you can see a bit of the river levee just behind the road that crosses beneath the bridge. The levees prevent flooding in the spring when the river is surging.

Photo by Tom Blackwell, from the collection of Michael Palmieri