The day after Christmas in 1988, Ron Findley and I took a journey west from our homes to check out the Louisiana and Delta Railroad (the L&D) at their headquarters in New Iberia, Louisiana. The railroad was quiet that day, and we found a couple of ex-Santa Fe CF7 locomotives resting quietly at the service area near the depot. Ron recorded this view of locomotive #1501, the City of New Iberia, late in the afternoon.

The L&D railroad had been created just the year before. Initially they had a few EMD GP9 locomotives, but soon received several of these CF7s. The Santa Fe had done a massive rebuilding program back in the 70s of tired, old EMD “F” units, producing these “Geep styled” units, of which some are still operating today on shortlines around the country.

Note the CF7 numbered 1503 just behind the 1501. Still in Santa Fe paint, she would soon receive the L&D colors, and would be named Bayou Sale.

On a hot Saturday afternoon in August of 1990, Tom Blackwell was exploring the Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri Railroad facility in Bastrop, Louisiana. He found locomotive #11, an EMD SW7, resting near the scale house. To the left is the road’s Bastrop office and freight house (and often referred to as the depot). That structure is curious and interesting, and folks I’ve spoken with each claim it serves as one, some, or all of these functions.

It’s near the end of time for the A&LM. The road will soon be purchased by the Georgia-Pacific Corporation and renamed as the Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi.

Back in the early 1970s the Illinois Central Railroad merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, becoming the Illinois Central Gulf. Over the years the road began spinning off much of the old GM&O trackage, especially the east-west lines. In 1988 the parent IC Industries spun off the railroad operations altogether and the road renamed itself back to its roots, the Illinois Central. The road eventually put together a new business train which reflected their new image.

In the spring of 1996, photographer Edgar Dayries was able to record this view of the train as it passed him by on a heavily overcast day. The location is in the southernmost part of the Baton Rouge area, on the rail line paralleling the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

While many were surprised that the road didn’t paint the train in the original orange and chocolate livery (and it was a beautiful color scheme), I think management was attempting to present the “new” image of the railroad with the gray and black coloring. Note that it follows the pattern of the original orange and chocolate, with the road’s new “global” herald on the nose in lieu of the original green diamond. That new herald (a logo in present terminology) was created at the time of the roads renaming as the green diamond was no longer available for the road to use. A side note: some in the railfan community named this new herald as the Death Star.

The Mississippi Railway steam locomotive #203 had received work in Mobile, Alabama sometime back in the latter part of the 1980s. Charlie Ake captured this view of the steamer and its train as it was crossing the Bay St. Louis Bridge in Mississippi on the way back to its home in Port Bienville. The rather ragtag train consists of an auxiliary tender, an Illinois Central baggage car, the Southern Railway coach Leaf River, and a private car The Survivor.

At this time the little railroad was hosting weekend steam excursions, running between an industrial park (Port Bienville) and its connection to the nearby CSX Railroad (formerly The Family Lines / L&N). Eventually forced out of the port, the operation moved over to Meridian, Mississippi where the equipment was essentially stored (I don’t think anything turned a wheel while there). Then an agreement was struck with the Columbia and Silver Creek Railroad and the railroad moved to their trackage. While a small bit of trackage work was done on a very small portion of the line, I don’t recall the railroad ever getting into operation while there. In 1995 the steamer was purchased by the Gulf and Ohio Railway and she was rebuilt for service on the Three Rivers Rambler, an excursion train line running out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

A bit more of her history can be seen on Three Rivers Rambler website.

In March of 1994 I spied this southbound train slowly moving through Ponchatoula, Louisiana. I decided to quickly head further south on U.S. Hwy. 51 to Manchac to catch him again as he was crossing the South Pass on the long trestle there. I managed to get positioned on the south bank just in time to record his passage. The three gondolas behind the pair of SD40-2 locomotives have an interesting cargo: per-fabricated track switch sections that contain the switch frog.

The boxcars are passing through the Bascule drawbridge. The bridge is normally kept raised for boat traffic, and is closed when needed for a passing train. The abandoned piers at left supported the original U.S. Hwy. 51. After the new “high” bridge was built to its west, the old bridge had its moveable bridge section removed for boat traffic, but the remaining roadway was left in place for fishermen and sight-seers. I believe it eventually caught fire and the remains were removed leaving only the pilings.

The South Pass is a waterway that connects Lake Maurepas (to the left of this view) to Lake Pontchartrain (a short distance to the east), which has New Orleans located along it’s southern edge.

McComb, Mississippi was once a significant railroad town, with the mighty Illinois Central Railroad having a strong presence in the city. While the turntable, roundhouse and various shop buildings are long gone, the depot still remains, and housed within one of its rooms is a small railroad museum.

On the south side of the building Illinois Central locomotive #2542 is on display. In tow behind the 4-8-2 Mountain is a string of cars from the railroad’s past. In October of 2015 Ron Findley and I visited the facility to check out the progress there. Under the recently extended shelter we found some of the early samples of the museum’s collection: the I.C.’s experimental aluminum reefer (refrigerated car), an old passenger coach, an RPO (Railway Post Office) car, and a caboose. Down beyond the shelter is one of the railroad’s wrecking derricks and its attendant boom/tool car.

Things are a bit weathered in this view, but over the next several years all would be freshened up with repairs and new paint. In addition, more cars and items have been added including an “ancient” business/inspection car that has been cosmetically restored. The entire display and surrounding area keeps expanding, and looks in much better shape than what is seen in this image.

As a kid, I spent a fair amount of time in the small city of Ponchatoula, Louisiana back in the 50s and 60s. My maternal grandparents lived in that community, and their home was in viewing distance of the Illinois Central’s double track mainline. The north-south railroad divides the city in half, with streets having West and East prefixes. At the center of town is the train station, located between NW Railroad Avenue and NE Railroad Avenue, and bordered on the south by East Pine Street (West Pine Street after crossing the tracks).

This initial view of the depot was photographed ca.1940. Most of the Illinois Central passenger trains stopped here (depending on the “class” of the train).

And here is another view of the depot recorded in September of 1979. We’re in the Amtrak era now, and the “new” City of New Orleans doesn’t stop in Ponchatoula, with the city of Hammond receiving that honor just a few miles north of here. The structure now serves as the “Country Market”. And it’s still in pretty good shape.

The depot is still there today, and still serves this same purpose. Indeed, it still looks essentially like this view some 45 years later!

This is one of my favorite Jack Delano photographs. I had posted it over seven years ago, and again two years later during discussions about wooden floors sometimes seen in roundhouses. And yet again the topic came up at our weekly railfan breakfast recently, so here we are.

We’re at the Chicago and North Western’s yard in Chicago, and it’s December of 1942. The roundhouse could be a rather chilly environment, and these workers helped combat the situation by burning coal in open steel “drums” to provide a bit of warmth. I suspect that these heaters were fabricated right there in-house, and I’m sure that they are contributing to the haze inside. Also note the tool carts and acetylene bottle. One can barely discern the silhouette of a worker in the distance just above the pilot of the steamer at center (click on the photo to see a much larger view).

If you look carefully you’ll notice the wooden floor in this roundhouse. It’s a series of wooden blocks set on end to create the floor. Such floors were fairly common in industrial facilities many years ago. They provided a surface that was resilient and “kind” to the heavy, metal components that would be placed (or dropped) on them.

In October of 1940 photographer Bill Witbeck recorded this view of a small crane as it filled the tender of Gulf, Mobile and Ohio steamer #261 with coal. The crane still carries the reporting marks of its former owner, the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad. The GM&O itself was the result of the recent merger of the GM&N and the Mobile & Ohio railroads.

David Price tells me that the location is the Capitol Yard in Jackson, Mississippi. He speculates that the sign under the locomotive’s cab window reads “Save Coal” (an appropriate policy I think for the time).

I really love this scene . . . indeed, I’m considering adding such a “facility” to the model railroad that I have under construction. And I think I’ve located the perfect spot for it.

In its latest incarnation, the East Broad Top Railroad has resumed its excursion trains running out of the Orbisonia Station near Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania. The train runs out a distance of 4.5 miles, then turns on a “wye” and returns. In October of 2023 photographer Matthew Malkiewicz recorded this scene of locomotive #16 heading into a wooded area with its train.

The East Broad Top Railroad was created as a 3-foot narrow-gauge line. Operating from 1871 to 1956, it is one of the United States’ oldest and best preserved narrow-gauge railroads. It was a common carrier, but made its living as a coal-hauling line. When coal traffic diminished to the point of non-profitability, the road was sold to a scrapper. Fortunately the new owner chose not to scrap the entire railroad, but instead ended up creating a tourist line over a portion of the road, operating from 1960 until 2011. The line was maintained by the Friends of the East Broad Top (FEBT) volunteers, who eventually bought a couple segments of the road in 2013. In 2020 it was announced that the EBT Foundation had purchased the railroad and they planned to restart excursions. The East Broad Top reopened for limited operations in May of 2021, and officially reopened for its first full season in May, 2022. EBT locomotive #16 returned to steam in early February, 2023. Wikipedia has a nice summary of the road’s history that you can read here.

Early this year #16 was discovered to have cracks near the center of one of its drivers, so was pulled from service for repairs. Unfortunately after a single trip she was sidelined again for a bearing problem. Hopefully she’ll be back in service before the winter. As of this writing there are plans to start the restoration of locomotive #15 soon, which will help to always have steam available for service during the operating season.

The Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 “Allegheny” was one impressive machine, being one of the most powerful steam locomotives ever to be conceived and built. At 40 MPH they could generate 7,500 HP. They were built by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio between 1941 and 1948 for a total of 60 locomotives.

While used in several locations and services on the the C&O, their intended service was hauling the coal trains between Hinton, West Virginia and Clifton Forge, Virginia. Leaving Hinton, the train would have an H-8 on the head end of a train of 140 loaded cars, with another H-8 serving as a pusher on the rear. That pusher locomotive was needed for the 13-mile, 0.57% eastward climb over the Allegheny mountains from just east of Ronceverte, West Virginia to Alleghany, Virginia (yes, the spelling is correct). At the summit the pusher would be cut off, and the train then headed down the mountain and on to Clifton Forge.

For many years I was an operator on the model railroad layout of the late Lou Schultz. Lou modeled the C&O railroad, running between Hinton and Clifton Forge. The layout was in a huge 2nd story room built just for it, and was more than adequate to experience the long run between those two points. One of my favorite jobs was running those loaded coal trains, doing so just as is described above. Even in HO scale, those Alleghenys are BIG!

A lot of the “old-timers” (myself included) bemoan the sterility of modern railroading, yearning for the “good old days” when the railroads had character. Well that character can still be found on some of today’s short-line railroads. The late photographer Shawn Levy illustrates that with this image of an Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi freight in Monroe, Louisiana as it was making its way back from the nearby KCS yard. Shawn always had a good eye, framing the train with the barren trees in this December, 2008 composition.

The locomotives are GP28s, a relatively rare model from EMD with only 16 built for the U.S. market. Produced in years 1964-65, it is an 1800 HP engine, essentially a non-turbocharged version of their GP35 model. The number 1815 heading the train started life with the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway as their #700. It eventually went to several other roads: the Texas & Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Ashley, Drew & Northern, and finally transferred to the Arkansas, Louisiana & Mississippi.