Ron Findley and I made yet another trip to the Crowell mill property in October of 1999. By then the entire mill complex, including the railroad, had been donated by the family and turned into a museum. The third locomotive there is the #106. She is in the best shape because she is under the roof of the car knocker shed. The only photograph that Ron recorded that day of the 106 was this one. I rather like this image, so decided I’d use it today to wrap up the introduction of the RR&G steam fleet.

This summary is based on information on the RR&G website: Engine #106 is a class 10-32-D #1303 4-6-0. She was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in September of 1923 for the Red River & Gulf Railroad Company at a cost of $29,520. She is similar to the #400 and was the last engine bought for the company. #106 hauled freight trains from Long Leaf to Kurthwood for 22 years. In September of 1945 it switched to the line from Long Leaf to Lecompte. During this time she was sometimes used by Crowell Long Leaf Lumber to haul log trains from Meridian (Evangeline Parish) to Long Leaf. The #106’s last run, and also the last train to be used by the Red River & Gulf before its liquidation, was on March 31, 1953. It was officially retired on April 1, 1953. It has been (cosmetically) restored to its former glory, and is still located in the car knocker shed on the property. If you’re itching to see some photographs of the entire locomotive, you can see them along with additional specs on the RR&G website.

A side-note: If you check those photos on the RR&G website, you’ll notice at bottom left the photograph that Tony Howe used as his inspiration for the wonderful painting that graces the masthead of this blog.

In March of 1988, with our discovery in Long Leaf, the first locomotive that Ron and I came across was the locomotive #400. She was in the woods sitting behind a Clyde double-ended log skidder, surrounded by bushes and trees. And a bit behind her was the engine house (a bit of its roof is seen at the far right of the photo below).

The #400 is of a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement, built by Baldwin for the Crowell & Spencer operation in 1919. She was originally a wood burner, but was later changed to an oil fired locomotive. Apparently at that time they removed the original Rushton cabbage stack and replaced it with the cannon stack she still wears. She’s fairly robust, with an electric headlight, dual 9-inch air pumps, air brakes, and 48-inch driving wheels. She was parked here and retired in 1953.

The locomotive is much easier to view these days. The trees and undergrowth have been cleared out, and I understand that there are plans to eventually get her moved to a more suitable and protected spot. There are some nice photos of the old girl on the Red River & Gulf website. By the way, I highly recommend a visit to the mill and it’s railroad in Long Leaf, Louisiana . . . well worth the visit.

Back in March of 1988 Ron Findley and I were on another of our exploration journeys. We had been following old Texas & Pacific and Missouri Pacific trackage. We started at the railroad bridge crossing the Atchafalaya River in Melville, Louisiana. From there we followed the trackage through Palmetto, Bunkie, Cheneyville and Lecompte. While in Lecompte we had our lunch at Lea’s, where one can get a tasty home-cooked meal, topped off with an excellent slice of home-made pie.

From there we decided to follow another railroad line heading back south, so we took Hwy. 112 West to Forest Hill, then turned Southwest on Hwy. 165. We hadn’t proceeded very far when we noticed what appeared to be some spur trackage coming from the mainline, so we parked and started following the (obviously abandoned) trackage through the woods. After a pretty good hike, we came across an area having a scattering of old steam locomotive pieces-parts where it was obvious that locomotives had been scrapped. Venturing further we came across a large clearing, with a couple buildings that appeared to be a crude engine house and shop, and beyond that were buildings that looked like an abandoned sawmill. It was an amazing find, so we set about photographing everything in sight by the engine house.

We hadn’t been there long when we heard a shout, and turning around a man was hurrying to where we were. He demanded to know what we were doing there, and we told him we were following some abandoned railroad tracks through the woods and had just walked into the site. He informed us we were trespassing on private property and demanded that we leave immediately! So we, of course, complied, and we turned back toward the woods. But the man told us to leave by the road coming into the mill site. We balked, explaining that we had to retrace our steps through the woods so that we could find our car! He pondered that a bit, then agreed that perhaps we should do that, but to get going right then and there! We later learned that we had stumbled onto the Crowell family property, and this was their (former) Long Leaf Lumber Company mill.

This mill operated until 1954, at which at the end of a day, the owner announced to the employees that the mill was now closed down. The employees simply left, and things remained just as they were over the years, untouched and unfinished. Not too long after our encounter, the family decided to turn the property over to an organization that has turned the entire mill site into an historical museum . . . one that is well worth seeing.

The Red River & Gulf Railroad was created to serve for timber transportation at Long Leaf, Louisiana, and steam locomotive #202 was the first ordered and the last one operating for the Crowells when all the mills had shut down. It was built by Baldwin in 1913 and delivered to the mill in Long Leaf in November of that year. She was immediately sent to work at the mill in Meridian, La. She was there until the mill burned in 1928, and then worked at Sieper and Alco, La. Just before WWII, she was returned to Long Leaf, and served there until that mill shut down.

She’s a 2-6-0 Mogul, and she’s a wood burning locomotive (that given away by her cabbage head stack). She was languishing outside the engine house when we spotted her, the weeds and vines trying to cover her up. She has since been cleaned up and moved under cover, and there are hopes to cosmetically restore her for proper display.

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.

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.