Category Archives: General

Control and Operation

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Fellow modeler Bill Williams and I have discussed these topics, but I’ve not said much about them with others.  So I thought I would share some of my plans and ideas with the rest of you folks.

The Louisiana Central will be a somewhat laid-back type of operation.  There won’t be a parade of fast-running passenger trains or long freights running up and down the mainline such as Lou Schultz has on his C&O layout.  Rather, our operation will be closer to what you see on the Greenbrier subdivision at Lou’s.  There will be more trains than on the Greenbrier, but the atmosphere will be similar.

In overall length, the LCRR will be about the same as the Greenbrier branch, but there will only be half as many towns (five towns actually modeled), and there will be the Spencer logging operation, which will be much more involved than the Mower operation at Cass on Lou’s pike.

The railroad is designed for a rather small crew, two to -maybe- five folks at best.

I’ll be using a Lenz DCC system for train control and all track switches will be powered by Tortoise switch motors.  The Tortoises will be controlled via toggles located on the fascia (nope, I’m not interested in controlling them with my throttle).

The line will be dark territory; the only signals will be near the Little River bridge.  Here the Spencer Lumber Company has trackage rights on the Louisiana Central for just enough distance to get across the river.  The signals will be tied to the mainline switches at either side of the river where the Spencer line joins and leaves the LC main.

Primary operating authority will be by timetable and train orders.  Actually, we’ll be using a “simplified” version of this, with a minimal amount of paperwork.

I plan to generate traffic with a home-brew software program that I’ve been working on over the years.  The program is based on industries needing cars to move product and will generate waybills for each car at the start of each session.  Each waybill will contain only the information pertinent to the car’s movement for that particular session, so it should be easy using them.

My general philosophy is to keep things relatively simple.  I’m not adverse to computers connected to railroad functions and operations, but don’t feel compelled to use the computer for everything possible.

There is so much more to all this than what I’ve put forth here.  If anyone is interested in more detail than what I’ve written or wants to discuss other aspects, just post a comment and I’ll be glad to expand on it.

-Jack

An Historic Event

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An Historic Event occurred this day on the Louisiana Central Railroad when the first trains rolled across the line.

The first train to traverse the rails was powered by engine number 5582, an ALCO RSD-5  recently purchased from the C&O Railroad.  She hauled a short train of assorted box cars over the line.  She was later followed by the railroad’s number 83, an ancient 4-4-0,  hauling the road’s ex-commuter day coach.  The car was packed with the “brass”, many railroad employees and a few railfans that managed to finagle a ride.  All went well during the festivities with nary an incident.  You can witness the event via these photos.

Full disclosure:  well, they rolled through the staging area for the railroad which is as far as the line has gotten at this point.  However, this staging area represents the line between Willis and Bude, Mississippi, and that’s a long way!  But the important thing is that trains rolled under their own power.

-Jack

The Next Chapter

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I’m taking a bit of a breather from railroad construction this week.  The benchwork supporting structure is complete except for the section that will cross past the room doorway.  Sub-roadbed and trackage are next up.

Last week I was fortunately spared any significant damage wrought by the storm Isaac.  Winds in my neck of the woods were not as severe as in the earlier hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.  But the rains . . . I don’t recall such a slow moving storm and the sheer quantity of constant rain!  My biggest fear was from ground saturation and the resultant tree toppling in the wind.  But no trees came down by me, and I only had to concern myself with a massive clean-up of leaves and branches.

But back to the railroad: now that I’ve reached the roadbed stage, I thought I should slow down a bit and think through what I’ll be doing, and where to start.  I have a ton of old material and pieces-parts from old layouts that I’ve saved and I’ve been digging out those boxes and caches of material.  Obviously I want to use as much of this existing stuff as possible before heading out to the lumber yard.

Yards and other flat areas containing industry will be built using plywood topped by Homasote.  This has worked well for me in the past, so I see no reason to do otherwise.  I’m still teetering with regard to the mainline.  I’m strongly tempted to try Masonite spline construction for the sub-roadbed, something I’ve never used before.  My biggest concern using this method though is with the layout of the track.  I want the track very precisely placed in accordance with my plan and I’m still scratching my head over just how to precisely plot track centerlines when you have nothing to work on except a bunch of skinny joists spanning the L-girders.  I’ve read several articles on spline sub-roadbed and they all were very terse on that aspect of the task.  I suspect from what I’ve read that spline users tend to be satisfied as long as the track runs approximately where they want it to go.  But I come from an engineering background and I have this hang-up about wanting everything precise (which I find quite difficult in many of the things to do with layout construction).

I’ll likely start with the roadbed and track that will be hidden along the walls of the room.  That seems to make sense since it will be the most difficult to access later.  It will also give me a chance to “practice” my construction technique with risers, sub-roadbed and track laying.  With most every task I’ve done in the room construction, and lately the benchwork construction, I’ve eventually worked out a method that produces an acceptable result while at the same time cutting construction time and effort.  I trust this will also happen during this next phase.  I’ve not done any of this construction since back in the early nineties , so it’s really like learning all over again.

Once some track is down, I’ll post photos on the website for those of you following the construction.  I should have something to see later in this month.

-Jack

Some Thoughts About Roadbed

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As the basic frame of the benchwork progresses, my thoughts are turning to the next step which is the track structure: sub-roadbed and support risers, and the roadbed itself.  For the sub-roadbed, I plan to use a mixture of flat plywood (some of which will be installed “cookie cutter” fashion) and Masonite splines.  All will be topped by Homasote roadbed.  I’ve used Homasote for many years and I’ve always had good results with it.  I have a single sheet and also plenty of scraps from my old layout that will get used, but plenty more will be needed.  A friend has several sheets that didn’t get used on his present layout that he’s willing to let go, and the last time I checked, there was a lumber yard about 60 miles from me that stocked it.  Hopefully they still do.

The two major complaints that I’ve read about Homasote over the years are expansion/contraction from the humidity, and the dust generated when cutting it.  I’ve never had significant problems with it in the former even though I don’t bother to seal it.  As for the latter, I have never let the dust deter me.  I just vacuum the area immediately after cutting to minimize the mess.  I’ll try to do major cutting outdoors and I’m also going to try using the knife type sabre saw blades if I can ever find them.  I’m told that they greatly reduce the dust produced, although they cut a good bit slower.

On my former layout, after the track was down, I had gone back with a router and cut bevels on each side, creating the ballast shoulders.  I did the cuts freehand and they came out rather well, but the process was slow and tedious.  I’ve read an article from a fellow that makes his own Homabed (a commercial Homasote roadbed that has been planed down for consistent thickness, and has beveled edges) and I’ve thought about trying to produce some small amount of that to see if it’s worth the effort.  The commercial Homabed is quite expensive and frankly, is out of my budget.

For the yard areas, I’ll just laminate sheets of Homasote to the plywood sub base and the track will not have the ballast slopes.  I want the yard and industrial trackage set in a mixture of ballast and dirt, really buried into the ground.  I can cut some shallow ballast slopes or small ditches along the perimeter of the yard area using my router as I’ve done before.

I’ll post more comments when I get to that step in the work.

-Jack

Changes in the Model Railroad Press

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An Opinion by Jack Shall

Those of you that have been in the hobby for a number of years have no doubt noticed changes in the model railroad magazine industry.  It’s obvious that the printed magazines are struggling.  The number of pages per issue has been reducing for a number of years in spite of the hefty cover price increases over the same period.

But the content has changed significantly over these years as well.  Most of the popular magazines have tried to have a balance of content to appeal to the different skill levels and interests of their readers and for the most part, they did a good job at that.  That is, until recent years.

While I don’t consider myself anywhere close to being a fine craftsman, I do enjoy (in fact prefer) to read articles on scratch building, and advanced methods and techniques.  I’ve noticed less and less of this content.  Indeed, many of the magazines that catered to the higher level modeler (such as Mainline Modeler, for one) have long ago met their demise.  Sure, there are still good articles being printed, but they are becoming scarcer by the year.  Some have lamented that it’s a sign of the times, where one doesn’t need to spend hours and hours scratch building or kit bashing when there are so many exquisite models available that are either ready built or easy-to-assemble kits.

At any rate, I’ve dropped subscription after subscription, the most recent being Model Railroader.  I had been buying that magazine monthly since 1962, but the last two editors of the rag have taken it in an entirely different direction . . . one that simply doesn’t interest me.  I would dare make the statement that the magazine died when Andy Sperandeo stepped down from the editor’s helm.

That leaves me with one sole print subscription, that being Railroad Model Craftsman.  I’ve also been buying their publication since the early 60s, and yes, it has slipped somewhat as well.  However it still usually has something each month that interests me, hence I’ll continue buying it for the time being.

The new kid on the block is Model Railroad Hobbyist.  If you’ve not heard of these guys, you should take a little time to check them out.  It’s an online publication that’s been around for 3 or 4 years now.  It has grown into a monthly issue, and the content is getting better all the time.  They’re still experiencing growing pains, and they have a limited number of resources and contributors at this time, but that is steadily improving with each issue as well.  But what I really like about their magazine is the resurgence of the craftsman type articles.  I may not be up to that skill level, but the articles do tend to inspire me anyway.

I’m somewhat excited by this magazine simply because it is fresh and growing, and it seems headed in a direction that I like (quite refreshing considering what I’ve said above about their competition).  I hope their “subscription” base continues to grow because that will ultimately benefit all of us that read the magazine.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s free?  Yes, that’s right . . . free.  It is ad supported, and while advertisements usually aggravate me, in this case they don’t.  After all, the ads are all about trains.  To be fair, I read the ads in all model railroad magazines, not just MRH.  Also associated with the magazine is an online forum, which I’ve enjoyed reading for the past year.

Check them out and see for yourself:  Model Railroad Hobbyist.

You can read the magazine online, or download it to your computer as a PDF file.  The price is right, and the worse you’ll lose is a bit of your time reading it.

-Jack

Navigating the Roadblocks

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I haven’t posted anything since April so I thought perhaps I should report about what’s going on.  Unfortunately I’ve made very little progress since my last post.  If you recall, I was going to paint some scrap Masonite panels Sky Blue, then use that to practice some techniques for painting clouds.  Not long after my last post, I procured the paint and rolled it on the Masonite practice panels.  Now I was ready to start painting clouds.  Well, not quite.  I discovered that my old airbrush hose had dry rotted and was leaking, so I ordered a new hose.  I went ahead and ordered a 10 footer so I would be able to move around better.

In the interim, I had to get into truck buying mode as my old 1998 F-150 was definitely showing its age and I decided it was time for some new wheels.  I spent the next three weekends checking out the local car dealerships offerings.  I couldn’t find a single vehicle that even came close to being what I wanted, but fortunately my local Ford dealer was able to locate a new F-150 at an out-of-town dealership that was almost the perfect match for what I wanted.  A week later, I had my new ride.

I had arranged to be off work for four days during Memorial Day weekend, and I had planned to do my practice clouds that weekend.  Right before my vacation time, the next roadblock occurred . . . my back went out!  And it went out without any warning or provocation on my part.  I had a similar back “outage” back in late December through early January.  I had scheduled two weeks of vacation for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday and that happened on the second day I was home.  I was unable to do anything in the train room the entire time I was off . . . a real bummer.  To have this problem again during this, my very next vacation was extremely disappointing and aggravating to say the least.

But there is a little positive news to report.  I wanted to establish a baseline elevation around the train room to aid construction of the layout, so I built a water level to accomplish the task.  I picked up a 20’ coil of 3/8” clear vinyl tubing and found an old small plastic trash can out in the garage.  I drilled a hole in the side of the can near the bottom, then stuck the end of the tubing in the hole.  A liberal coating of GE silicone caulk around the joint on both sides produced a water-tight seal.  I set the can on a stool in the middle of the room, filled it with water, poured a bit of food coloring and a few drops of dishwashing detergent into the water, and I was in business.  The coloring made the water easy to see, both to verify there weren’t any bubbles in the line, and to see where the water level was when the tube was held up against the wall.  The detergent helped break the surface tension of the water so it stayed level in the tube (didn’t creep up the sides).  It worked great!  I made marks on the walls about every 8 feet.  Then at one mark, I measured 47” up from the floor (that was to be my benchmark elevation).  I measured the distance between the water level mark and the 47” mark.  Finally, I went around the room measuring this same distance above all the other water level marks to get my 47” benchmark all around the room.  The whole project went quickly and smoothly.  Yes!

And there’s more…

I had ordered some cloud stencils back in early May and after examining them, I determined that the cardstock from which they were made was just too flimsy to hold at the wall while spraying.  So I ripped some ¼”x1-½” strips from a 2×4 scrap, then stapled a strip to the top of each stencil.  That added the needed rigidity so the stencil could easily be held up near, but not touching the wall.

This past weekend I got a little cloud practice in.  I didn’t feel up to making-up the spray gun, hose, regulator and big, ole’ air compressor.  But I did have an old rattle can of white paint sitting in the garage, so I thought “I’ll just shoot some of that for the heck of it”.  And I did.  The first panel I shot came out so-so.  I studied it for awhile and decided on a few corrections I should make.  I shot the second panel with much better results.  A few things I learned from this:

  • Keep the spray moving.  Don’t hesitate even for a second, or you’ll get a “blob” of paint that will destroy the translucent look you’ll get from the moving can.
  • Don’t use the same stencil a second time anywhere close to where you first use it.  Don’t even use a little piece of it close by.  It’s amazing how quickly your eye will pick up on the repeating pattern, even if ever so slight.  Keep rotating through the stencils for each and every shot.
  • Don’t let the stencil touch the backdrop even in one place.  The resultant cloud will have a very sharply defined border at that point.
  • Don’t paint long rows of clouds, then move higher and paint another row, etc.  When you step back, you’ll see that you now have long parallel rows of clouds . . . not at all realistic.  This is something I’ll really have to work on when I do my next set of panels.  Even my second panel shows distinct “layering” of the clouds.  Much more randomness of cloud elevation will be needed.
  • If the spray can “spits” or sputters, even for a second, that section of backdrop is doomed.  Trying to spray paint over the specs just doesn’t work.  Maybe you could use blue and white paints with a  small artist brush and disguise them, but I didn’t try that (not much point since it was just a practice panel anyway).  I hope that my spray gun won’t have that problem.

Overall though, I’m relatively pleased at what I’ve done.  But I want to get in significantly more practice before I tackle the real backdrop.

As I write this, my back problem is still significant, but I hope I can at least take short and easy steps to keep things moving.  I have simply GOT to see benchwork and track this summer!

-Jack

The Era

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The Louisiana Central will usually be running in the year 1964.  I say usually because the software that I’m developing for car routing will have the flexibility to “run” in any year that you choose.

The year 1964 was selected for a number of reasons.  I was a teenager back then, and I had been interested in trains long enough that I was beginning to pay closer attention to the railroad infrastructure, and I liked what I saw.  I could find a spot near trackside in a “railroady” area and spend hours there.  Even without the benefit of a bunch of trains running by, I could be perfectly content just studying the infrastructure around me.  While finding spots like this has become much more difficult, when I do come across one of these places, I’m still perfectly content.

1964 saw almost all railroads fully dieselized with large fleets of EMDs, ALCOs, Baldwins, etc., and these first generation diesels had lots of character.  I especially liked the ALCO and Baldwin brands because of the way they sounded and the way they were built.  It doesn’t take a trained eye to recognize that the techniques used to build them were an outgrowth of building a steam locomotive.  In fact, in many ways it handicapped their efforts to build a competitive product.  But to study an early ALCO…that was the way to build a diesel like a steam locomotive…literally!

In 1964, the freight cars still tended to be smaller, seldom more than 50′ in length.  And much of the railroad infrastructure was still intact, even if some of it was no longer used.  Turntables and roundhouses, towers, track speeders and sheds, and steam cranes were commonplace.  Depots, offices, shops and sheds were built of either brick or wood…metal buildings were not a common site (except for the original corrugated metal ones).  And there were so many buildings, facilities and details!  There seemed to be a lot more activity around rail facilities, not surprising since the railroads were much larger employers than they are nowadays.  I loved being around all of this.  I even loved the smell of it all; diesel exhaust fumes, brake odors, kerosene (from caboose heaters)…even the smell of creosote is pleasant to me.  In short, 1964 to me is just like being in the late steam era, sans the steam locomotives.

Initially I will be running with diesel power because, for me, it is much easier to get a large fleet of diesels running smoothly than a fleet of steamers (or at least the fleet of steamers that I have).

Eventually, the Louisiana Central will roster some steam locomotives.  I already have a steam fleet (roster) of about 9 or 10 locomotives, but even though they all run, none are truly operational in that they have been in storage for many years, and must be cleaned and lubed and have decoders installed.  A few are already painted for the Louisiana Central, but most have to be stripped and repainted.  And the older brass engines will probably have to be re-motored to bring them into the modern age.  Since I’ve been bitten by the sound bug, the decoder installations also include the mods required to install speakers.  Going back to the previous paragraph, this is why I chose to run diesels initially.

When the steam does finally appear, I may keep the year at 1964 as it wouldn’t be too unlikely that a little shortline would be still running steam then.  But I also can easily backdate the operation to 1958 or so if I feel it is important to do so.  I’ve even considered the possibility of changing eras periodically much as my friend Lou Schultz does on his C&O railroad.  In backdating, a few freight cars would have to be pulled, and I’d remove any vehicles from the roads that were too new and add a few older ones.  Billboards would have to change and maybe a few industry signs.  But as I build and detail the layout, I’ll keep anything that dates the layout “portable” to facilitate this change.

I doubt that I’ll ever move the railroad era forward though.  I just enjoy the older scene so much more than the present one.  There is plenty of modern stuff to get excited about, but not enough to tempt me to update the layout.

-Jack

Planning the Louisiana Central Right-of-Way

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The Louisiana Central is a fictional railroad, but I will be attempting to model a railroad that “could have been”.  The route was established quite a few years ago after I dismantled a smaller bedroom layout.  Using Louisiana and Mississippi road maps, I tentatively sketched out a route, while simultaneously working on the rationale for the railroad.  My friend, Wayne Robichaux and I headed out one Saturday morning, maps in hand, and drove to the bank of the Mississippi River up above the town of St. Francisville, Louisiana.  We located some relatively straight high ground near the river and determined that this would be a great place to locate the western end of the line.  I decided that I would create an interchange with the Texas and Pacific Railway at this location.  The T&P would arrive here via a car ferry operation.  Of course, the T&P never had a ferry in this location, but the Missouri Pacific system did have other ferry operations both upstream and downstream from where we were, so it didn’t seem too far fetched that we could have one here also.

With this point established and appropriate notes entered on the map, we headed generally northeast.  While the towns featured along the Louisiana Central are fictional places, most are located very close to actual towns along the proposed right-of-way.  For example, the town of Monterey is a bit north of St. Francisville, Whitcomb is above Woodville, Mississippi and Willis is just north of Gloster, Miss.  Two intermediate towns, Oneida and Maynard, aren’t stand-ins for real places, but they are located along highways following the railroad route.  The only actual place on the Louisiana Central is Bude, Miss.  However this won’t be modeled on the Louisiana Central; it instead will be represented by hidden staging track.

We will interchange at Willis with the Illinois Central (an expansion of the line that actually served Gloster), and at Bude with the Mississippi Central (an actual railroad in Bude during the modeled era).

Returning to our travel, after leaving Monterey, we just headed to each place, in order, as best we could.  Along the way, we made short detours at minor roads as were available so as to get close to the Louisiana Central “track”.  It all worked out rather nicely, with few adjustments having to be made to the original sketched out right-of-way on the road maps.

We’ve since repeated this trip a couple times, checking out the terrain, scenery and structures along the way, and I’ve taken quite a few photos.  No doubt, another trip or two will be in order as the scenery stage for the model railroad comes into play.

One of the reasons for the initial selection of this route was because of the terrain.  The west end of the line is in the heart of the Tunica Hills.  Most folks don’t equate Louisiana with hilly terrain, but this area is not only hilly, in places it is downright treacherous!  There are several narrow two lane roads running through this area, and where possible they tend to run along ridge lines.  During the summer with all the heavy, lush growth, it is difficult to see much past the edge of the road.  But in the late winter when the growth has died back somewhat, it isn’t uncommon to observe the ground steeply plummeting down at the edge of the road for a hundred or so feet.  Near this location is the Louisiana State Prison (Angola).  It is generally considered escape proof as it is bound on one side by the Mississippi River, and surrounded on the other sides by the Tunica Hills.  On the rare escape attempt, the convict doesn’t usually get very far due to the extremely harsh terrain he has to traverse.

As the rail line moves to the northeast and into the State of Mississippi, the hills get much larger, though generally more gentle in their nature.  This is gorgeous country, and seeing a train working its way through this landscape just thrills me.  The forests also turn into predominantly Southern Pine, and that is precisely the reason the Spencer Lumber Company will exist.  This region was a huge timber producer in its day, and had a number of companies working these forests.  One of the biggest was the Crosby operation, and Spencer will be in direct competition with this giant.  The Spencer mill will be located in Oneida (named after Mr. Spencer’s oldest daughter, and whose very existence is due to Spencer).

I hope this little treatise has helped explain the rail line a bit better.  There is much more that can be written, and I may share other tidbits with y’all from time to time.  Feel free to comment or ask any questions, or even to offer suggestions for the line.

-Jack

The Cost of Model Railroading

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I’ve been in the model railroad hobby for over 50 years now.  The first piece of equipment that I actually purchased myself was a rubber band drive Athearn GP9.  I don’t recall what I paid for that engine, but to a 13 year old kid, it was a small fortune.  I do remember buying Athearn “blue box” and Roundhouse freight cars for as little as $1.19.  My first brass locomotive was a PFM/United model of a U.P. 0-6-0 switcher.  Cost then was $34.50.  Jerry at Hub Hobby Shop in New Orleans allowed me to put that engine on layaway until the fortune was amassed.  By then I was working part-time jobs, and a mere year later I sprung for my second brass engine, another United model of a U.P. 2-8-0.  This baby set me back $44.50.  I still have those engines, and they are in running order (though neither has set driver to rail in over 15 years).

Over the years I’ve watched as prices increased on equipment and supplies, and even though I was dismayed to see things go up, when I put it into perspective of the overall marketplace for things, I realized that the prices for the most part weren’t really out of line.

Back in the early 2000’s, I made the decision to go with the Lenz brand for my DCC power and control system.  That decision was based in part on the knowledge that Lenz was developing a new radio control throttle utilizing a knob (which I prefer) for the speed control.  That throttle did not come to fruition, as Lenz abandoned the project quoting the difficulty and expense in making an international throttle that could meet all the various requirements of broadcasting both in Europe and the U.S.  Major disappointment!  But anyway, I had already purchased their Set01 which uses the LH100 tethered throttle, and decided to stick with their system.

Over the years I have added components to the system: a couple of the LH90 throttles with the big knob for speed control, a computer interface component so I could use DecoderPro with the system, and a few other odds and ends.  During these years, I had noted that the prices of the Lenz equipment essentially remained steady…so steady in fact, that I had wondered how they were able to do it.  Recently that all came to an end.  The U.S. distributor for Lenz products (Debbie Ames of Tried and True Trains) announced her retirement from the business.  Later it was announced that American Hobby Distributors (the wholesale arm of Tony’s Train Exchange) would become the new Lenz distributor.  In reading all this news, I suddenly became aware that the prices had taken a dramatic increase, with street prices rising between 40 and 50 percent!  Now I don’t fault AHD for this, and it’s hard to get angry even at the Lenz folks.  I’d bet that between the ridiculously long time that Lenz prices held the line and the instability in the financial markets, they really had no choice but to implement the increases.

This has caused a sudden shift in my financial priorities for the new layout.  I’ve started a search for the remaining components that I will eventually need, and luckily, I’ve found several vendors who are still selling at the older prices.  The most significant find was a new Set90, which gave me a new command station, 5 amp booster, and knob throttle.  I will use my old command station at the workbench now for programming (and it will also serve as a backup should the new CS fail).  I’m still hoping to get another throttle, one more booster, and a passel of the throttle plug-ins to go around the layout benchwork.

While it is painful delaying the layout construction for a brief period due to this diversion of funds, ultimately I think it will be a wiser use of my limited hobby dollars.

I hadn’t intended to get into such a long-winded dissertation about my DCC system purchases, but it kind of punched me in the face when I saw the huge price increase with Lenz.  As I look at the other equipment out there, pretty much all of it has dramatically increased in price.  Most of the prices have followed the traditional model of small, but steady increases over the years, so they don’t carry the “shock value” of the Lenz increase.  But even companies such as Athearn are no longer “cheap”.  It amazes me that so many huge layouts are being built these days; the costs have to be staggering!  But the upside to all this is that IMHO, the hobby industry is bigger and better than ever.  It is amazing to see the sheer dearth of products available now.  Despite the ever-rising prices, we’ve never had it this good.

For what it’s worth, I still think trains are cheaper than boats 🙂

Regards, Jack

Welcome to the Louisiana Central Blog

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I’ve decided to try using a blogging format for posting minor updates and various tidbits relating to the railroad and its construction.  I’m new at this blogging thing, so feel free to guide me in the right direction if need be.

I’ll continue to post significant events, construction milestones and web site changes and additions in the “What’s New” tab on the Louisiana Central web site, and I’ll keep a running commentary of my trials and tribulations here.

So…let’s get this started … Jack Shall