I've been a model railroader and railfan for well over 60 years now. My interests lie in the steam era and the early diesel era. My modeling has been in HO, but I do have a closet interest in Fn3 :-)
It's been a number of years since I've done any layout construction, and the new Louisiana Central pike under construction is by far my most ambitious effort. Follow along with me on this new adventure of the Louisiana Central.
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.
Continuing our story in McComb, Mississippi, Ron and I left the overpass after taking photographs from that vantage point. We then went below the bridge to focus our attention on the old coaling tower that sits immediately north of that location. This old, cast concrete coaling tower is from the steam locomotive era, and it still stands watch over the city. We moved in to document it.
My friend Ron Findley and I used to take an occasional day trip simply to check out different places, and to watch whatever trains happened to pass through the area. One of our favorite locations was McComb, Mississippi. We would generally start our trip trackside In Hammond, Louisiana, then head north on U.S. Hwy. 51. That highway largely parallels the former Illinois Central mainline, which runs between New Orleans and Chicago. One passes through a half dozen communities during this trip prior to reaching McComb, and we generally made sure to get trackside at each location just to check the “state of things”.
Then we’ve reached McComb. This was once a bustling railroad town, and right at the edge of the business district was a large locomotive servicing facility. It contained a major roundhouse and turntable, locomotive shops, and a large car building and repair facility. The mainline was double track through here, and the train load was pretty heavy.
But by 1988, things were different. The Illinois Central had merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, forming the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, and a very significant portion of this area in McComb had been scaled back.
One of our favorite vantage points was on a street overpass just north of the depot. Some years ago the bridge had been replaced with a new concrete structure with sidewalks, and it made for easy access to this birds-eye viewing point. Here are a couple photographs that Ron recorded during that day in early February of 1988.
As an historical note, just days after these images were taken, the ICG Industries divested themselves of their railroad interests, and a new railroad was created under its former name, the Illinois Central Railroad.
In recent months I’ve posted a number of caboose photographs. Today I was looking through copies of images taken by my friend Ron Findley, and I came across this shot of an old Rock Island Railroad caboose. I had forgotten about this old caboose, and decided to share it with you.
The backstory: In May of 1989 Ron and I were on a trip in south Arkansas, scouting out the various shortline railroads in the area. One of those happened to be the Warren and Saline River Railroad, whose current owner was the Potlatch Corporation. We located the plant and followed the back-roads around it looking for signs of railroad. We discovered these two cars on the plant property, just inside its fence. They were obviously in disuse, but still were largely intact. The caboose was recognizable as an old Rock Island cab, probably acquired by the W&SR along the way since they had a connection to the Rock.
While trying to get shots though the tall fencing, a car came down the road and stopped. The man inside asked if we were interested in railroads, and we assured him that we were there hoping to see the equipment for the W&SR. Well with that, the man introduced himself as the plant manager, and told us to follow him. He led us around to the entrance far away, then led us to different areas inside the plant to explain what all they had and did. And finally he said, “Well I suppose you’d like to see the railroad equipment also”. So we drove around to the backside of a building and there parked was the roster for the Warren & Saline River Railroad. After photographing the locomotives and facilities, he lead us back to the caboose and boxcar so we could get good shots of them from inside the plant without the fence. And here is my favorite view of the caboose.
In December of 2004 a friend and I traveled down to the Bonne Carré Spillway at Norco, Louisiana. Our purpose was to photograph the recently restored TN&O/SP steam locomotive #745. It was making a break-in and testing run, and it would be traveling over the Kansas City Southern trestle that crosses the spillway.
While waiting, we heard an air horn behind us and turning around, we saw a Canadian National train heading south on the CN’s (formerly Illinois Central) trestle which also crosses the spillway. I spied a large cargo ship just beyond in the Mississippi River, and captured both of these as they were passing each other. Looking closely, you can see the weir that is at the entrance to the spillway. It’s that dark colored “wall” behind the trestle, viewable between the trestle bents.
Wikipedia has a good description of the spillway: The Bonne Carré Spillway is a flood control operation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Located in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, about 12 miles west of New Orleans, it allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. The spillway was constructed between 1929 and 1931.
Adding to this: The control structure is a 1-1/2 mile long concrete and wooden weir parallel to the edge of the river. The concrete forms the support piers, and large wooden beams (needles) create a wall. The needles can be lifted out to allow water to flow into the spillway, removing as many as needed to control the flow. It’s quite interesting, and you can read more by following the link above.
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.
The Tremont & Gulf Railway was a shortline railroad located in the north-east corner of Louisiana. In 1917 the company ordered a new 2-8-2 steam locomotive from the Baldwin Locomotive Works, to be built to their design. Assigned the number 30, she was a coal burning locomotive, producing steam at 185 psi, which sent power to her 54″ drivers via a pair of 21″ x 26″ cylinders. She had a tractive effort of 36,097 lbs. Many years later the line dieselized, and in 1954 she was sold to the Magma Arizona Railroad as their #7. She was retired in 1968 and again changed hands a few times to private owners, finally coming to rest with the Texas State Railroad as their #400. She has operated there off and on since.
Early in 1994, the 400’s paint was refreshed, with her temporarily receiving the original lettering and number for the Tremont & Gulf. On the weekend of March 5/6 a special event was held. Organized by Louis Saillard and company, an “authentic” excursion train traveled the line. Several props had been prepared to set back the time perhaps 50 years. Station signs for the old T&G were installed in several locations, and there even appeared at a road crossing one of the old square grade crossing signs bearing the words “LOUISIANA LAW STOP” (older folks from Louisiana will certainly remember those). There were some great “run-bys” of the locomotive pulling a mixed freight train with period correct freight cars, and heavyweight passenger cars. It was a spectacular event which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The photo below is one of just a few that I have left, having survived the Great Flood of 2016. It was a last second “grab” shot taken just minutes before the train’s departure.
Back in the spring of 1996 a friend and I motored up into Mississippi to check out the various railroad facilities there. We got as far as Vicksburg, and while there we found a spot overlooking the big bridge spanning the Mississippi River. As luck would have it, a Kansas City Southern freight train appeared, and I recorded this view of the train as it was reaching land on the east bank of the river.
This bridge has both the rail line and the old US Highway 80 on it. That’s the roadway angling up at right from the bridge. A few years after this image was made, automobile traffic was halted, being transferred to the new I-20 bridge just downstream. There is some interesting history on this bridge, follow this link to read its story.
This slide is a rare flood survivor . . . glad to still have it.
In the South, pulpwood is commonly known as short wood to the people in the business, especially with railroaders. The pulpwood industry was significant and vibrant throughout the South until recent years. I used to see car after car of these loads on lines such as the Illinois Central, the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, and the Louisville and Nashville.
And very common, especially in small towns, were the trucks used to haul the short wood to the rail-side for loading. Virtually all were rather old and beat up, and no two were exactly alike. They were most often “home-made” adaptations, frequently on a truck that had it’s originally bed or box removed, and having been modified for the purpose of hauling wood.
In the spring of 1995, Ron Findley and I were making our way up north following the railroad tracks along Hwy. 51 from Hammond, Louisiana and up toward Mississippi. We spotted this hauler in Summit, Mississippi, just north of McComb. This tired and decrepit old machine is about the most pitiful of all I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen some pitiful examples!). These vehicles were almost always grossly overloaded with regard to weight. And this old fella appears to have a broken back.
Last week I posted a photograph taken during my trip to the Georgetown Loop Railroad, one of just a few slides that had been spared in the Great Flood of 2016. I was recalling that there were three of these 3-foot narrow gauge Shays operating on the line at that time. So I dug around a bit and found photographs of all three of these machines, each recorded by Brian Cazel. Unfortunately none of these locomotives are still operating on the line, their last service there occurring in 2004.
However, all of these Shays still exist. I’ve given a little information on each in the photo captions.
Back in the summer of the year 2000 I took a trip out to Colorado to ride a few of the narrow gauge railroads there. My first stop was at the Georgetown Loop operation, located adjacent to Interstate 70 near Georgetown, Colorado. At that time the railroad was operating with three of the former West Side Lumber Company Shay locomotives.
Shay #14 had the duty on the day I boarded the train, and she did a splendid job of hauling the equipment up the 4% grades on the line. Pictured below is the view of the train crossing over the famous trestle that is part of the Georgetown Loop itself. I wish I still had the images taken from further back that show the full height of this spindly trestle . . . it’s tall at 95 feet!
The story I was told was that an Illinois Central employee had become injured and was unable to continue working. Through a series of circumstances, he was allowed to use this old work car for his residence. Located in Hammond, Louisiana, the car was parked on the east side of the Chicago to New Orleans mainline on a short piece of unconnected track several hundred yards north of the depot. I remember approaching this car many years ago thinking it was abandoned. I was surprised that someone was still inside!
And many years later I assumed that the man had passed, as during some intensive track right-of-way work, the car was pushed further away from the track and was overturned on its side. Over the years the trees and underbrush have completely enveloped the car, and it is quite difficult to locate now. A few years ago Ron Findley and I did manage to find the car, and we took several photos of what little remains of it. Hardly anything is recognizable beyond the trucks.
The photograph below was taken by Ron in February of 1988 when the car was apparently still the residence of the old railroad worker. If any of you readers have more information about the car you’d like to share, please do so in the comments.