The photographs that I’ve posted over the last couple months were made during the trip Ron Findley and I had taken in May of 1989. Since I’ve been featuring images of shortlines mostly in Arkansas, I thought I’d post one additional Arkansas image that Ron had in his collection (though not from our trip together).

Ron’s grandparents lived in southern Arkansas, so he had an affinity for anything railroad in that area. Featured here is one of the three GE 70 ton diesel locomotives that the Prescott & Northwestern Railroad had in its possession at one time, the #25. I really liked this composition, so decided to feature it today. The scene is at the Potlatch Mill in Prescott, Arkansas.

This is likely a duplicate slide that Ron had in his collection. Unfortunately the photographer and photo date weren’t noted. I’m speculating that the photograph was recorded sometime in the 1970s or later based on those huge Missouri Pacific wood-chip hoppers.

The El Dorado & Wesson Railway (reporting marks EDW) is a shortline rail carrier in the state of Arkansas. Its present line runs 5.5 miles from El Dorado, Arkansas to Newell, Arkansas. It was a Sunday in May of 1989, the day after Ron and I had visited the five short line railroads reported on previously. We headed up to Reader, Arkansas early that morning to check out the “new” Reader Railroad. After having toured the property and taken the round trip journey on the train, we headed back down to the south. We decided to ferret out the El Dorado & Wesson Railway down in El Dorado to see what they had to offer.

Arriving in El Dorado, we found the railroad’s engine house. And inside was the company’s roster: three Alco S2 switchers. The railroad was obviously shut down for the day, and not a soul was in sight. Frankly, there wasn’t much to see. But the fact that the railroad had three locomotives to handle a train for under 6 miles suggests that they had ample traffic and perhaps some stiff grades. Due to the high security gates, Ron recorded his views from the outside.

The E&W purchased these three locomotives from the Kentucky & Tennessee Railroad in 1987, their numbers 101, 103, and 104. The E&W didn’t repaint them — merely re-lettered them for the E&W.

We circled around to the other end of the building to inspect the 3rd locomotive, another Alco S2.

All three locomotives looked pretty spiffy in their white paint. Regarding their numbers, I am quite certain that the two locos in the first photo are numbered 22 and 23. I have seen other photos of numbers 22 and 24, but nothing of the 3rd unit. I am speculating as its number being 23 based on former units on the roster. Units numbered between 18 and 21 (all Alcos) were painted green. Later units 25 and 26 are EMD SW switchers, and are painted green. That leaves only 23 “unaccounted for”, hence my assumption.

Again, today I’m continuing the series of the road trip that Ron Findley and I were taking back in May of 1989. It was a Saturday, and we had already visited several rail lines that morning. The fifth and final stop in our journey that day was in Fordyce, Arkansas. Our goal was the Transitank Car Corporation which was purported to have a small diesel switcher. As I figure, this company did railroad tank car repair and maintenance. We managed to find the locomotive buried between some cars off in the woods.

Leaving Fordyce, we drove to Camden to spend the night. Early the next morning, we headed over to the East Camden & Highland Railroad. We located the facility in what I believe was the Highland Industrial Park. Ron documented the two locomotives that we found there.

Today I’m continuing the series of the road trip that Ron Findley and I were taking back in May of 1989. It was a Saturday, and we had already visited several rail lines that morning. The fourth stop in our journey that day was in Warren, Arkansas. Our goal was to seek out the headquarters of the Warren & Saline River Railroad. It was headquartered in the Southern Lumber Co. (Potlatch) mill there, and upon locating the facility, our first sighting was of all things, an old former Rock Island caboose. It was behind a tall chain-link fence, but we photographed it through the links as best we could. And then an interesting thing happened. But rather than repeating the story, read this post that I made back in March of 2024.

We were led to the road’s two locomotives, #75 and #73. It was obvious that the #73 was the active locomotive, as the #75 was sans its engine, apparently needing some serious work. These diesel-electric locomotives are Whitcomb Locomotive Company 75 tonners, model 70DE24. They’re powered by a Sterling “Viking” series VDS-8 1200 horsepower diesel engine.

And below is an overall view of the railroad area at the mill.

Below is a photograph of some wood-chip hoppers being loaded just a short distance away. At left we see just a bit of the straddle lumber carrier. And just barely seen is the former Rock Island caboose . . . look just to the left of that metal tower at far right and you’ll (barely) see the caboose off in the distance. Follow the link above to see Ron’s photograph of it.

And finally, here’s the photograph of the lumber straddle carrier. This thing is the tallest straddle carrier that I’ve ever seen!

A good day at the Warren & Saline River!

In last week’s post we saw an Arkansas & Louisiana Missouri Railway caboose in Monroe, Louisiana. Later that same Saturday morning Ron and I arrived in Bastrop, La. where we checked out the A&LM facilities there. Ron photographed switcher #11 (also seen last week), then turned his attention to the structure featured below.

This combination office and freight station (often referred to as the depot) is located on Pine Street. I really like this building, having seen it a couple times. The white paint over the asbestos siding and the green roof give it a unique Southern look. Indeed, I plan to build something similar to serve my Louisiana Central (model) Railroad in the town of Monterey.

In late 2024 I posted an image of this structure taken by Tom Blackwell in August of 1990. That same beat-up pickup truck was still there. Click here to see that image. I took a look at Google Maps to check out the state of the building in 2026. Unfortunately, the structure appears to have been demolished. Sad!

This little steamer has been on display in various locations in Opelousas, Louisiana for better than 60 years. I first saw it while my family was traveling through Opelousas back in the early sixties. She was located in the Courthouse Square where my dad photographed the little 0-4-4T for my benefit. She was in good shape as I recall, with a relatively fresh paint job. Fast forward to December 26th of 1988 — Ron Findley and I were traveling westward from Baton Rouge to New Iberia. Taking a somewhat circuitous route, we passed through Opelousas to see if that little tea-kettle was still there. And sure enough it was. She was in rather rough shape compared to what I had remembered. Somewhere along the way she lost her pilot, boiler jacketing and lagging, and had received a rather hideous paint job. But at least she hadn’t been scrapped.

I wanted to learn a bit more about the locomotive’s history, so I started digging around. Most of what I found was simply copies from the display plaque for the locomotive. But I did manage to uncover a bit more. While the plaque claims she was built in 2004 by the Davenport, Iowa Ironworks Company, I found another source that says she was built in 1911 by the Davenport Locomotive Works (the proper name) as construction no. 1161. Not much more about the construction except to say she is a wood burner, is standard gauge, and has 35.5″ drivers powered from her 11″x16″ cylinders.

Her ownership history was this:
Built for the Weil Gutman Supply Co. at Columbia Switch, LA
Later sold (no date) to Caire & Graughard (Columbia, Church Place & Maxie RR #1)
In 1956 was sold to Elray Kocke Service Inc. at Donaldsonville, LA
Sold (no date) to Ben Prather at Alexandria, LA

At some point, she was moved to the Hwy. 190 Tourist Information Center grounds in Opelousas. About 1990 the Opelousas Kiwanis Club funded the move to locate the Mary Jane to her current home at the Orphan Train Museum located in the Le Vieux Village de Poste des Opelousas, commonly referred to as Le Vieux Village.

This photo shows her at her current location at Le Vieux Village, likely in the year 2009.

The paint job is essentially what I remember from back in the sixties, and it looks like some of her jacketing (sans lagging) has been restored to the boiler, giving it a bit cleaner look. Unfortunately a few details seem to be misapplied (note the coupler pin lifting lever (cut lever) attached to the lower extension of the pilot beam). But she still exists! 🙂

As best as I remember, it was the summer of 1965 that I was out on my little Honda motorbike searching for interesting railroad “things” to see and photograph. While riding near the engine facilities in the Illinois Central’s Mays Yard in New Orleans, I spied this ALCO RS-2 locomotive at rest, painted and lettered for the company Raymond as their number 1501. Armed with my Argus C3 35mm camera, I recorded this image of the unit while wondering who this was and where she belonged. An older railfan buddy later saw the slide, and said she had come from Africa and speculated that she was headed to a shop for overhaul.

I recently came across this photo buried in a box, and again wondered about its history, so did a bit of digging. She was built in April of 1949 and was delivered to the Lehigh & New England Railroad as their number 651. In September of 1961 she was sold to Raymond International who bought several L&NE RS-2s and many gondolas, hoppers and other rolling stock. They were sent to Liberia (in west Africa) where Raymond was building a railroad in the Nimba Mountains.

She was again sold to Whisler Equipment, c. 1966-67, and then to Precision Engineering, where she was eventually scrapped.

I mentioned above that I shot this with an Argus C3 camera. Older folks may remember that camera, which was rock solid in my experience. But it did have a few flaws. The view finder did not display the actual image you would get (it showed more than you’d get). I was disappointed that I’d cut off the nose of the machine. The camera also had a less than perfect light meter, that in my case often produced under exposed images. I was too dumb to figure out how to compensate for those discrepancies. Rats!

One of the photographic prints that was in the collection of railroad images that I inherited from Ron Findley was the one below of a 2-6-0 Mogul steam locomotive. It’s lettered for the Reader Railroad, but was a locomotive I’d never come across before. There was no information on that photograph, and I was stumped. So I scanned and posted the photo on Mike Palmieri’s Facebook group “Mike’s Mostly Louisiana Railroads” along with my request for information about this locomotive.

As hoped for, several readers were aware of this locomotive, and below are some of the responses about it.

Tony Howe: Yes, Reader 403 is correct. It’s a William Monypeny photo from the Louis Saillard Collection. (From the envelope sleeve): Reader Railroad No.403 2-6-0, Reader, Ark.
Ex. St. Louis Southwestern #403, (built by) Alco-Rogers (construction) #37535 (on) 4/1905
To: Reader RR 3/13/1937
Retired: 8/31/1945
Also from Tony: A.E. Brown photographed the remains of the same locomotive still at Reader in 1952 in derelict condition

Mark Locke: 403 was sold for scrap soon after Tom Long bought the Reader in the 1950s. He was alarmed by the decrepit condition of the railroad as a whole. He had #11 reconditioned, bought #108, and had 403 scrapped. In the early 1960s, he purchased 2-8-0 #1702 and had it rebuilt and modified from it’s Army appearance.

Thanks to these folks, and to others that posted on this as well. The #403 is no longer a mystery. 🙂

The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company’s railroad had to solve an interesting problem. The Manchac swamp in Louisiana was not an easy location to build a railroad. How does one lay railroad track in a swamp, particularly when the solid ground is often feet under water? They solved the problem by using a type of cribbing. It’s built on multiple layers of Gum logs stacked in alternating directions. Solid ground could be as deep as 5 or 6 feet below the water.

Tedious? Yes, and when done by hand, only about 10 to 20 feet a day could be installed. But the railroad found a better way, a custom built track building machine. It was designed by Mr. C.H. Lindsey, Vice President of Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. This machine could lay up to 120 feet of track on a good day.

Another view of tracks being laid in the swamp. This machine made lifting and positioning of the heavy logs, ties and rails much easier. It appears to me that the inspiration for this equipment came from a McGiffert log loader.

All of these photos were by photographer C.W. Witbeck, and are from the collection of Jack Shall (former collection of Tom Davidson). While the date wasn’t recorded, it is likely around 1951.

No, I’m not talking rail ferries. Rather, the shipment of boats on the railroads. During World War II an entrepreneur by the name of Andrew Jackson Higgins designed and built over 20,000 boats and small ships for the U.S. Navy. He originally had a small boat building company in New Orleans, Louisiana used to build boats for his lumber exporting business. At the onset of WWII this expanded into five huge boat building plants. One was in Houma, Louisiana, the rest in New Orleans. One of those four plants was located on City Park Avenue, just several blocks from the home I was raised in.

The largest number of the boats he produced were the model LCVP ramp boats, often referred to as Higgins Boats. These were the ones that were able to get in close to beaches, then drop a large ramp at the front for the Marines and the Army troops to storm out of. The other boats that gained attention were the PT (patrol torpedo) boats that Higgins produced for the Navy. While not as numerous as the Elco built boats, they were still vital in their mission. And there were several other boats and small ships that Higgins built, mostly unknown to the general public in the general sense.

So what does this have to do with railroads? Railroads were essential for the transportation of these boats. Only one of the boat building plants had direct access to a waterway. The others (including the one on City Park Avenue) had to transport each boat to Bayou St. John, and then travel down that waterway to Lake Pontchartrain for testing. There was a rail line directly next to the City Park plant, so boats there were shipped to Bayou St. John by both truck and rail. After testing, boats would be loaded on railcars for shipment across the country for delivery to the military services.

I visited a number of websites that covered the topic of the Higgins operation. One of the most interesting sites was The American Automobile Industry in World War Two,
An American Auto Industry Heritage Tribute by David D Jackson. Both of these images can be found on those pages. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a photo credit for these images on any of the websites that I visited.

On a sunny Sunday, April 10th of 1988, Ron Findley and I were spending the day trackside, traveling from place to place. We eventually found our way up to Wanilla, Mississippi, where a railroad crossing exists. And there we found parked an old GM&O speeder (a motorcar). It’s probably safe to say that it was unused, but remained in fairly good condition based on our inspection of the car. Ron recorded this view of the machine. Great find on that day!

According to Mike Palmieri, for many years Wanilla was the crossing between the New Orleans-Great Northern / Gulf Mobile & Northern / Gulf Mobile & Ohio running north-to-south between Jackson, Mississippi and Slidell, Louisiana, and the Mississippi Central running east-west between Hattiesburg and Natchez. In 1967 the Mississippi Central became a part of the Illinois Central and five years later the GM&O merged with the IC to form the Illinois Central Gulf, bringing both of the lines through Wanilla under the same ownership. Ron’s interest in Wanilla was because he remembered it as the crossing of the GM&O and the IC, making it an almost sacred place in his eyes! 🙂