#4501 Departing Grand Junction

Posted on Sunday, December 24, 2023 by Jack Shall

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum used to offer several steam powered excursions in the fall to enable folks to view the autumn colors. These were labeled as The Autumn Leaf Specials and were day-long trips originating in Chattanooga, and running down into Georgia and return. The turntable in Summerville didn’t exist at that time, so the train only ran as far as LaFayette or possibly Trion. The return trip had the diesel locomotive hauling the train as the steamer had no way to turn around at the end. I understand that these trips are now offered under the label Summerville Steam, with the train running all the way to Summerville.

If I recall correctly, this photograph was taken in November of 1996 just as the train was departing the museum’s Grand Junction depot in Chattanooga early in the morning. The signal bridge in the background is on a mainline of the Norfolk Southern Railway (formerly the Southern Railway).

The Grand Junction depot is a great place to watch trains. There is a yard adjacent to the depot where locomotives and cars are on display, and NS freight trains frequently pass by over the aforementioned tracks. The depot itself has a snack bar and rest rooms, and of course a gift shop with railroad oriented merchandise. I’ve visited their facility and ridden several of their trains quite a few times over the years and highly recommend them.

Site Improvement

Posted on Sunday, January 27, 2019 by Jack Shall

Several things have been going on in the background in recent weeks. You might recall the problem I was having a while back with “Unwelcome Subscribers” to this blog. Happily the fix I implemented seems to have solved that problem, hopefully for good.

Last week I took another step to help provide a bit more security to the site by adding something called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL for short). This is a standard security protocol for establishing encrypted links between a web server and a browser in an online communication. You will likely recognize this by the https prefix on the site web address.

This changes the blog address (as well as the primary Louisiana Central website address) by adding that “s” to the http. If you use your old link to the site, you should be automatically re-directed to the new address. However I’d recommend that you update your link to the new one. I find that the new link will get you there a second or two faster.

In my testing last week I think I got the bugs squashed, but if you happen to encounter something else, please let me know.

In other news, the 7th annual Train Day at the Library event took place yesterday at the Jones Creek Library over in Baton Rouge. I had the privilege of assisting with the organization of the show this year, and we were rewarded with a record attendance. To be sure, nothing that I did caused that . . . I give all that credit to the absolutely gorgeous day we had, plus the reputation that the show has been building on for the six prior years.

Though not aimed at hard-core railfans and model railroaders (the general public is the targeted audience), the show does draw in many of those folks, and that’s good because I think it has helped to entice more actual display participants to the event. The library has also been thrilled with the attendance, and continues to request the show each year. Hopefully, that will continue.

Steam-up In Jackson, Louisiana

Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2018 by Jack Shall

Last Saturday my friend Ron Findley and I drove up to Jackson, Louisiana to watch the steam-up scheduled for the day. This is the home of the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders, and one of the club features is a nice elevated loop for the live steam buffs in the club. This day was host to a number of folks from out of state, and we delighted in seeing several new faces at the event.

Just heading out on the mainline after our arrival was this beautiful F scale D&RGW K-36 2-8-2, pulling a short passenger train over the line. An F scale (1:20.3) steamer is quite large, and the sounds are awesome!

Shortly afterwards, a Great Northern class S-2 4-8-4 took to the rails, seen here hauling a freight train with several perishables in tow. She had to make speed to arrive at her destination in a timely fashion!

Perhaps the most interesting thing run yesterday was this Schnabel car. It appears to be a model of the Westinghouse car, WECX 800, which I believe to be the largest Schnabel car in service. She sports 36 axles! These cars are used to transport very large and/or heavy loads. The car splits in the middle and the load is placed between the halves. In essence, the load virtually becomes a part of the car. The model was built with the aid of 3D printing, and is almost complete, with only the need for lettering and perhaps a detail or two.

And below we have a tidy little passenger train being hauled by what (I believe) to be a British 2-6-2. She is running on the portable loop seen in the background of a photo above, and was a sweet running little thing . . . a pleasure to see. Trevor, if you’re watching, this one’s for you 🙂

These are just a few of the locomotives performing during this day; quite a few others ran as well. I’ve posted photos previously of others that I’ve seen in earlier years, and a search should yield those posts if you would like to see them.

-Jack

WWII Air, Sea & Land Festival

Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2017 by Jack Shall

This past weekend Ron Findley and I attended the WWII Air, Sea & Land Festival down in New Orleans. This is the fourth time this event has been there (it was given a new name this year), and it is an absolutely fabulous show. The primary forces behind the event are the Commemorative Air Force and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

I know this is supposed to be a blog about railroading, but I confess to also being an aviation addict, at least when it pertains to military aircraft. And WWII vintage aircraft are dear to my heart. Therefore, I’ve decided to relax the “rules” to accommodate this post, and show a few highlights from this year’s show. OK, a “few” are actually 28 photos, but that was culled from the 861 images I shot during the course of the day. I wish I could post them all.

Saturday morning was windy and had a heavy overcast, with a very low ceiling. Fortunately, by late morning a cold front moved into the area and pushed the clouds away. The day was chilly and very windy, with a strong north wind for the remainder of the day. But now with sunshine and an unlimited ceiling, the aircraft took flight. In years past, the flying aspect of the show was pretty much limited to take-offs and landings, with aircraft mostly used to take (paying) passengers for a short spin around town. But this year that all changed. All of the bombers and most of the fighters and trainers took to the air. And a number of them did splendid aerobatic maneuvers to the delight of the crowds. This year’s show was hands down the best thus far! I’m already looking forward to next year.

I’ll start with a few shots taken of the ground parade that was also new this year. This was basically a “pass in review” of the cars, jeeps, trucks, personnel carriers and even tanks. That was followed by various groups and organizations (some rather zany), all in good fun.

Let’s start!

At right is an M4A3 Sherman tank as it passed a parked B-29 bomber. At left, a half-track is approaching.

And here is that White M-3 half-track approaching my position. A Dodge WC-54 ambulance is seen in the distance.

A 3/4 ton truck and a CCKW deuce-and-a-half follow.

And a light M3A1 Stuart tank follows up at the rear.

Here’s the Sherman and the deuce-and-a-half parked back in the display area. There were quite a few other vehicles that I haven’t shown . . . these were just a sampling.

Let’s look at some aircraft highlights. The good news is that there was a lot of flying, and some pretty slick maneuvers going on. The bad news is that the sun was on the far side of the field. So naturally, this made photography quite difficult. Unfortunately most photos tend to be in shadows or silhouetted. But even the silhouettes are cool! So let’s get to it.

First we have a USMC PBJ, the Devil Dog, which is really a variant of a B-25 bomber. This was used for many things, but strafing was it’s specialty. Note the array of eight guns poking out of this things nose. And if that isn’t enough, there are also four .50 caliber machine guns mounted on the side of the fuselage (two on each side) just behind the pilot. Can you imagine the sheer volume of lead being rained down upon the target?!

And here is the classic North American B-25J Mitchell bomber, the Yellow Rose. Apparently these large aircraft are fairly agile seeing the way these pilots were flying them, and considering how they were used during the war beyond their intended use as bombers.

Here’s a close-up of the nose art on a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress bomber, the Texas Raiders. She even has a bomb load inside, complete with anti-Hitler graffiti.

And here she is in flight. The markings on the plane indicate it’s from the 533rd Squadron, 381st Bombardment Group of the 8th Air Force.

The Boeing B-29A Superfortress, Fifi is coming in for a landing. In the foreground is the former control tower of the art-deco styled terminal building at the New Orleans Lakefront Airport. Fifi is one of only two B-29 bombers still in flying condition.

Here is a Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk fighter. This one is in the Army Air Force livery, rather than the commonly seen Flying Tigers motif.

And here’s a beautifully restored TBM Avenger torpedo bomber. This airplane is surprisingly large! It has a crew of three. The TBM is a Grumman TBF produced by General Motors’ Eastern Aircraft Division under license.

Something a little different: a Russian Yakovlev YAK-9 fighter. This thing is rather small, but appears to be fast and agile. It was the most produced Soviet fighter of all time.

Now what would an air show be without a P-51? Many consider the North American P-51D Mustang to be the most beautiful aircraft produced during WWII. Here’s Gunfighter coming in for a strafing run.

Gunfighter buzzes by the B-29 Fifi as she taxis out for a takeoff.

The Gunfighter put on quite a show, complete with loops, wing-overs, rolls, and more! This airplane is very fast and agile, and it always impresses the crowd.

Someone has sounded an alert! Here’s an FM-2 Wildcat springing into action. No, I didn’t tilt the camera for effect. With this airplane’s ability to launch from aircraft carriers, coupled with the stiff headwind that day, the thing literally leaped into the air within moments of the pilot opening the throttle. Grumman Aircraft was focused on the development of the new F6F fighter, so they licensed production of the F4F Wildcat to General Motors’ Eastern Aircraft Division, hence the designation of FM-1, then the FM-2.

And here’s what caused the scramble, three Japanese Zeros! Looks like the one on the left has just been hit.

And it looks like this Zero has been wounded as it was strafing the field where this B-17 is trying to taxi out to the runway.

Well, the Wildcat is that Zero’s problem. He’s hot on his tail. I was surprised by the performance of the Wildcat. It was one of the hardest aircraft to photograph due to it’s small size, it’s speed and it’s maneuvering.

With the Zero dispatched, the Wildcat can celebrate….

….with a victory roll.

And in the meantime:

The third Zero is frantically trying to avoid the hail of lead about to come his way! These aircraft are Japanese Zero replicas created from AT-6 Texans. They’ve been featured in several movies and in scores of airshows.

Actually, there were many more aircraft flying than what I’ve shown here. And there were a couple dozen aircraft on display that didn’t fly at all on Saturday. I wish I had room to show them all. There was even a (surprise) low-level flyover by a B-52 bomber!

The title of the post indicates air, sea and land. You’ve seen the air and the land, but what about the sea? The WWII museum recently completed restoration of a Navy PT boat, which was on display in the adjacent yacht harbor. Unfortunately we just didn’t have time to make it over there to check out the boat. However, since it is local to New Orleans, we can go visit it on another day, and without the pressure of trying to see too much in one day. Indeed, the biggest problem I’ve had in viewing the displays downtown at the museum has been the overwhelming abundance of displays. It’s impossible to see everything there in reasonable detail within a single day.

And just to show that I haven’t forgotten all about railroads, here’s a Norfolk Southern freight:

The NS mainline passes right by the airport, and this was one of 5 or 6 trains that passed during the afternoon. So there, I’ve managed to bring this post back to where it belongs.

-Jack

Saturday Railfanning

Posted on Sunday, October 15, 2017 by Jack Shall

Well Saturday was railfanning day . . . both for model railroads, and for the real deal. I headed out to the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders’ open house up in Jackson, Louisiana this morning. When I arrived there were already a couple of live steam locomotives fired up on the outside loop, with another on a siding taking on water and fuel. Here’s a shot of a rather unusual double header consisting of two 0-4-0 switchers 🙂

After watching the live steam operation for awhile, I headed into both of the layout buildings to see what was going on in them. Most of the layouts were buzzing with activity. Finally I headed out to the covered pavilion used as an open-air shop. At one time there was a narrow gauge “amusement” railroad (the Old Hickory Railroad) operating on the property. It’s been quite a few years since it operated, with the rolling stock now parked in and near the pavilion. The biggest reason was the condition of the steam locomotive . . . it was simply worn out. Manufactured by Crown Metal Products, this steamer was propane powered. It was completely dismantled several years ago and is supposed to be undergoing restoration. However, the only things that have been on the property for quite some time are the locomotive’s frame and suspension, it’s cab, and tender.

Well surprise! The boiler is back from being repaired and re-certified. It was sitting outside still lashed to the truck trailer on which it was shipped.

There still are no signs of the drivers and trucks; I’m assuming they are still out somewhere being overhauled.

I left Jackson a bit after noon and headed east down Highway 10 until reaching US 51 by the Canadian National mainline. I grabbed a quick lunch in Amite, then raced south down to Hammond, hoping to catch Amtrak train number 58 headed up to Chicago. As I pulled up to the depot, I noticed the northbound signal was indicating a meet at the siding north of the depot. Great! Here’s 58 as she pulled out from the depot:

And here is the southbound CN freight that patiently waited for 58 to pass. It’s headed down to New Orleans.

While at the depot I noticed three young fellows taking videos of the passing trains. We engaged in conversation after the action, where I learned that they were high school students, and they had developed a liking for trains, and were taking every chance they could to get trackside. Later the father of one of the boys joined us. They were from the Watson area, not very far from my home. The boys had talked him into taking them to Hammond for a day of railfanning. With all the talk these days about how the hobby is just for “old folks”, it was refreshing to see three young guys bubbling with enthusiasm about train watching.

I finally capped off my day at home by watching the (recorded) football game between LSU and #10 Auburn. Wow, Auburn was walking all over LSU during the first quarter, with a 20-0 score. But the LSU Tigers dug in their heels defensively, and the offense finally came to life, ultimately defeating Auburn 27-23! What a game!

-Jack

Some Area Fall Happenings

Posted on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 by Jack Shall

Being pre-occupied with finishing up my home restoration (as a result of the great 2016 flood) coupled with a lack of progress on my model railroad, has resulted in very few posts over this past year. I’ve mentioned before that I have decided not to do any reconstruction in the train building until the house proper is complete. If I started the work out back, I would never finish the work still needed in the house (too much of a diversion). Drying out the place and remediation has been long completed . . . I just haven’t started the process of rebuilding. But I do hope to finally get out there sometime this winter to begin the work.

In the meantime there are several activities, some railroad and one aviation oriented, that I hope to attend. I think it’s time for me to get out of the house more in order to keep my sanity!

First up: The Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders up in Jackson, Louisiana will be holding their Trainfest on Saturday, October 14th. Things get rolling around 10 am. If you haven’t been to one of these open houses, you really should give it a shot. The club is home to quite a few operating layouts. They cover all of the popular scales (Z, N, HO, S and O) with their indoor layouts. And there is an outdoor G scale layout, along with a separate live steam loop that sees trains running in various scales (G and Fn3 mostly). There is also an open pavilion that is used to shelter and restore a variety of full size equipment. I recently posted a couple photos from there including a neat little Plymouth critter, and a grape harvesting machine. There are quite a few other interesting pieces of machinery under and near the shelter.

A week later (Saturday, August 21st) the Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the NRHS will be getting together for a day of railfanning over in Hammond, Louisiana. They will be meeting next to the Amtrak depot located downtown on the CN railroad mainline. Folks usually start gathering around 9 am or so, and you’re welcome to stay until you just can’t take it anymore. 🙂 Everyone is invited to join in, you don’t have to be a chapter member.

The following week there will be an aviation event down in New Orleans. The WWII Air, Sea & Land Festival will be held at the Lakefront Airport on October 27-29. This is the fourth time this event has been there (it was given a new name this year), and it is an absolutely fabulous show. The primary forces behind the event are the Commemorative Air Force and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. There will be a significant number of WWII aircraft both on display and flying, along with several ground vehicles ranging from jeeps to tanks. This year will also feature their newly restored PT boat. I don’t have details of exactly where the boat will be displayed, but I assume it will be in the adjacent harbor. Here’s another link if you’d like more information: The National WWII Museum.

And finally, the Louisiana Chapter of the Train Collectors Association (TCA) will be holding their fall train show on Saturday, November 4th over in Ponchatoula, Louisiana. The event will be at the First Baptist Church gym located on E. Pine Street. Hours will be 9 am until 3 pm. This show coincides with the Ponchatoula Trade Days and Craft Fair which, while not railroad related, can be an interesting adjunct to the day.

Whew, the next month will be busy! Hope to see some of you at one (or more) of these events.

-Jack

The 5th Anniversary

Posted on Saturday, July 15, 2017 by Jack Shall

My, how time flies! Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Louisiana Central layout construction. Unfortunately tragedy struck the Louisiana Central less than a month after the fourth anniversary post was made. For those of you who are new to reading this blog, my city suffered a horrific flood last August 13th. My home and the layout building took on about 15″ of flood waters. The good news is that the layout itself suffered only wet feet. However the restoration of the building (flooring, drywall, cabinets, etc.) is on hold until my house restoration is complete (hopefully within these next few weeks).

Since the layout and building have been out of service for the past year (the building is serving as a warehouse for items salvaged from the house), there is little to report with regards to layout construction. A few weeks before the flood I posted my latest (and last) progress report on the layout, the advancement of the mainline west out of Oneida. The only mainline track left to be done is the last stretch into Monterey, and the track in the turnback curve back in the alcove (this is the mainline between Oneida and Whitcomb). I had just finished casting the bridge abutments needed there, and was about to cast the wing walls. The fourth anniversary installment gives more detail on the remaining work.

I’ve spent time surveying the layout progress these past few months. I’ve laid enough trackage and done enough wiring now to have a good feel for the time required for those tasks. Once layout construction resumes, I should be able to completely finish laying track (including the yards and service areas) within two or three months. Add a month for the wiring, and another month or so to install all the fascia and control panels, and the layout will be ready for shakedown operations. Maybe I’ll have a big announcement on the sixth anniversary!

Fortunately I was able to attend a half dozen railfan and model railroad events last winter and this spring. In just a few weeks (August 5th) the Southeastern Louisiana Chapter of the NRHS will be having their annual slide show at the Denham Springs library. It’s a lightly attended event, but I enjoy the company of those folks, and there are always some interesting slides to view. You don’t have to be a member to attend, so I encourage those of you local to this area to come join the fun.

I’ll post my progress on the layout building restoration once it gets underway. Hopefully that will be soon.

-Jack

Critters and Such

Posted on Tuesday, June 27, 2017 by Jack Shall

Back in late March Ron Findley and I took a trip up to Jackson, Louisiana and spent the morning with the Greater Baton Rouge Model Railroaders, also home of the Old Hickory Railroad. While there, we headed over to the large “train shed” on the property, a large covered area where 1:1 railroad equipment, and an assortment of other odds and ends are stored and worked on. I thought I’d post a few photos of some items that caught my attention.

First up is a recently restored Plymouth “critter” that was parked just outside of the shed. I don’t have any information or background on this piece, but plan to ask questions on our next visit. She looks like she just rolled out of the factory.

Here are a few other Plymouths quietly awaiting their turn at restoration. Seeing that chassis without a cab and hood (look closely behind the two locos in the foreground) was very interesting, as it allowed one to inspect and figure out the internal workings of the machine.

Below is a contraption that I’d never seen before. From a distance I initially thought it was a straddle lumber carrier. But once I walked over to it, I realized this was a beast of an entirely different nature. I’m speculating that it is some kind of harvesting machine. If any of you folks can shed some light on it, please feel free to comment.

A side note: my home restoration from last year’s flood is on the final lap . . . hopefully I’ll be moving back in within a few weeks. Much work remains, especially on the exterior, but at least I’ll be home again!

-Jack

Donald M. Menard

Posted on Monday, May 29, 2017 by Jack Shall

I learned yesterday of the passing of an old friend, Don Menard. Don was 92 years of age.

I met Don many years ago when he joined the Baton Rouge Model Railroad Club. We quickly became friends as he became involved in the wiring aspects of the club layout (which I was heavily into). Don founded and owned an electronics parts and equipment business, Menard Electronics, which catered mostly to the Petro-Chem industry in this area, so he graciously provided our electrical/electronic supply needs from his business.

Eventually both of us moved on from the BRMRC, but later joined in with the group of operators at the late Lou Schultz’s layout over in Covington. Don always rode over there with a few other friends and me. He was a prolific operator, and he loved running manifest freights, and especially fast passenger trains. He probably moved more trains over the line during a given session than any other operator, despite his being the oldest operator in the crowd!

Don was a WWII veteran. He was the radio operator with a B-17 crew flying out of England. On one fateful mission his plane was shot down and he parachuted to earth. Unfortunately he was taken prisoner by the Germans and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp. He shared many stories with me about his time in the U.S. Army Air Forces. My dad was also a former airman during WWII, having been a gunner on a B-24, so between his stories and Don’s, I always had a great first-hand recounting of the 8th Air Force air war in Europe. Don was active in a POW group, as well as a group of folks from his old bomb group.

He also loved flying and he held a private pilots license. I was fortunate to fly with him a number of times. I would get a call early on a Saturday morning and it would be Don. “Want to go to Cook’s today?”, he’d ask. Cook’s was a hobby shop up in Shreveport (a couple hundred miles from Baton Rouge). “Sure”, I would reply. He would direct me to meet him over at the airport, and off we’d go! Upon arrival at the airport in Shreveport, we’d take a taxi to Cook’s, spend an hour or so browsing and purchasing, then head back to the airport and home. One thing I learned about pilots and flying: any excuse to go somewhere in the plane is good enough.

Both Don and his wife’s health had been declining in recent years, so his children moved them to Houston so they could spend their remaining years near them in a senior’s home.

Don was one of the good guys down in this area, and I don’t know anybody that didn’t like Don. I know he will be missed by all that knew him. I have missed him greatly ever since he moved away to Houston.

Rest in peace, my good friend.

-Jack

Back On Track

Posted on Thursday, May 5, 2016 by Jack Shall

Really . . . I’m back on track, having reactivated my program of modifying Shinohara code 70 switches to be “DCC friendly”. Regular readers of this blog will recall that I was suffering from “layout construction fatigue” back in late February. Well, I’ve been ready to get back at it again for over a month, but have been continually distracted by other things. To be sure, I’ve been doing mostly railroad related tasks, but meat and potatoes production on the layout, -namely trackwork- has been stagnant. I spent time evaluating, ordering, and then changing out my DCC system back in March. And I finally got my plate girder bridge assembled; it’s waiting for abutments and wing walls now. I finished some miscellaneous support framing for the scenery base that will cover the staging tracks, and that area of the layout is just about ready for the hardboard fascia. All the wiring is caught up with the installed trackage. I even put some time in on my waybill creation program, redesigning the waybills and empty car bills to more closely resemble the real thing (thanks to Tony Thompson and his work in this area). And as you know, I’ve been playing a lot, A Mini-Reunion at Covington.

But I have been distracted from the trackwork for much too long, so I determined that I was going to get something done under that discipline today. That mission was accomplished. Now that I’ve broken the ice so to speak, I think I’ll find it easier to get back into the swing of things. I only have about 30 feet of track left to complete the mainline, but I’m holding off on that as I want to complete the trackage in Whitcomb and Oneida before I continue with the main. I need eleven code 70 switches to be modified and installed in order to complete those areas, so I really need to get with the program.

It’s good to be back!

-Jack

The Louisiana Eastern Railroad

Posted on Friday, April 29, 2016 by Jack Shall

In a recent post, A Mini-Reunion at Covington, I had mentioned visiting Matt Hardey’s Louisiana Eastern Railroad layout. Well, I didn’t get that exactly right. Matt started his dream with the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. The prototype eventually was acquired by the Gulf, Mobile and Northern, which itself later became the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Matt has come up with several operating schemes for his layout. By using equipment and such for different eras, he can operate the road as the NOGN, or a later era of the GM&O. Another variant is a “what if” scenario, running steam powered Louisiana Eastern trains over the GM&O via trackage rights in the Covington, Louisiana area during the early 1950s. Matt has a collection of LE rolling stock, which is what I was fixated on during my visit.

Most of the readers of my ramblings are from this area and are likely to be familiar with the Louisiana Eastern Railroad. However a few of you may be scratching your head and thinking “never heard of it”. The Louisiana Eastern was the vision of Paulsen Spence. An excellent piece about Mr. Spence and the Louisiana Eastern has been written by noted author and local historian Louis Saillard, and can be found here on Chris Palmieri’s website. I’ll touch on a few of the highlights of the LE gleaned from Louis’ treatise here.

Born in Baton Rouge, Mr. Spence had made his fortune with his Spence Engineering Company and his considerable number of patents for various steam regulating valves. Eventually he turned his interest to the sand and gravel business, starting a gravel operation in the late 1940s. He utilized steam locomotives (that he had recently acquired) to move the cars of gravel from the pit to the interchange with the nearby Illinois Central. The Comite Southern Railroad was born. In 1950 Mr. Spence acquired a larger gravel pit operation a short distance away. Included with that sale was the one mile Gulf & Eastern Railroad. In late 1950 the Louisiana Eastern Railroad was chartered and that’s where the dream began.

Now, the gravel business was good for Mr. Spence, with well over 200 cars of commodity eventually emerging from the pits each week. But he had a larger vision. Mr. Spence had been purchasing recently retired steamers from various roads beginning in the mid 1940s and throughout the 1950s, and he eventually had about three dozen of the breed on the property. The reason for these purchases? Mr. Spence had conceived the idea of creating a railroad that would run from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Pearl River, Louisiana near the Mississippi border, a distance of nearly 100 miles. In Baton Rouge, he would have access to the Illinois Central, the Kansas City Southern and the Missouri Pacific. Near Pearl River he would interchange with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio and the Southern Railway. With these connections he could effectively create a bypass around the rail traffic congestion in New Orleans. The steamers were the power for that railroad. Buying these locomotives at bargain basement prices just made good business sense to Mr. Spence.

Grand plans to be sure, but things came to an abrupt halt in late 1961 when Mr. Spence died suddenly from a heart attack while on a business trip to New York. The dream was dead. Everything was sold off and most of the steamers were soon scrapped. I believe four of the locomotives survived and can be found in various parts of the country. One of the most interesting locomotives was one of several 4-4-0 types that Mr. Spence had acquired. Locomotive No. 98 was purchased new by the Mississippi Central Railroad in 1909 and eventually sold to Mr. Spence in 1946. She still survives and is in operation on the Wilmington & Western Railroad, where she still carries her number of 98. There are a number of YouTube videos showing her in service; see her during the Wilmington & Western’s Springtime Steam Spectacular in 2014.

A few other links for information about the Louisiana Eastern can be found at the HawkinsRails website, and on Wikipedia. But if you want the very interesting and detailed story, be sure to read Louis’ piece linked to above.

-Jack

A Mini-Reunion at Covington

Posted on Friday, April 15, 2016 by Jack Shall

This week has been one of several social gatherings for me. It began last Wednesday when Wayne Robichaux, “Tomcat” Kelly and I drove over to Covington, Louisiana to spend the day touring several layouts. The three of us are former operators of the late Lou Schultz’s Alleghany Subdivision of the C&O Railroad. Our hosts were also members of that same operating group, so this was not only to be a series of layout tours, but also a “mini-reunion” of sorts.

We motored over to Covington during a steady rainfall, but that didn’t dampen our spirits. We arrived at the first layout, the Southern Railway’s “Rathole”, under construction by Walter Rieger. Also there were our other hosts, Matt Hardey, Mike Walsdorf and Sam Urrate, and the layout tour commenced. Walter has essentially completed the first third of his layout, and is now hard at work doing benchwork and laying track on the remainder. The bulk of the layout is a two level mushroom design, with a third level for staging. The focus will be on hot and heavy freights running on a fully CTC controlled mainline. One must see the completed section of this layout to appreciate Walter’s attention to detail, and the completeness and authenticity of the design. I’ll be following it’s construction over the next several years.

We broke for lunch after touring Walter’s layout, heading over to Bud’s Broiler for one of their famous burgers grilled over a real charcoal pit. I was especially pleased with this selection of eatery, as I grew up a few blocks from the original Bud’s Broiler on City Park Avenue in New Orleans. I was a regular patron of the establishment back in the 60s (and which is still in operation).

After lunch we headed over to Matt’s rendition of the Louisiana Eastern Railroad. Matt had recently completed grafting a beautiful section of a layout that he had acquired onto the peninsula of his layout. And he has done a masterful job of integrating it into his original layout. Had he not told me what he’d done, I would have thought it had always been there. Matt really enjoys building very detailed structures with interiors, and I enjoyed studying them, continually finding more and more to see.

And last we visited Mike’s L&N Railroad. Mike has an attic layout, and that thing has one of the longest runs I believe I’ve ever seen on an HO layout. The layout goes around the four walls of the room, and into a long U-shaped peninsula in the center. But get this . . . it has three levels! The room is over 50′ in length, and while I don’t recall its width, it is wide enough that Mike has four foot (and greater) aisles through most of the layout. He says it takes about an hour for a train to traverse the entire line! He is relatively close to completion on the trackwork, and scenery already has a good start. The layout will feature both CTC and some APB signaling, and should be quite interesting to operate.

I believe all three of these layouts will have good operations when the time comes, and that can’t be too soon. I really miss the operations we had at Lou’s, and I’m hoping I’ll be invited over to run on these pikes someday. The tours were excellent and I’m glad we made the trip to see them.

Late that afternoon we departed Covington and then made a stop in Hammond just to see if anything was running on the CN line there. Our timing was impeccable. We arrived just in time to see a southbound freight roaring by, headed by a couple of KCS units . . . an unusual sighting. And a few minutes later, the southbound local came charging though town hot on the tail of the first train.

Upon arriving back in Denham Springs (about 8:30 pm), Tomcat decided to call it a day. Wayne and I headed over to the Lagniappe Restaurant near my home for a late supper. A great day, indeed!

But that wasn’t the end of the week. Today, Friday, Syd Dann dropped by my house for a visit. I gave him an update tour of the Louisiana Central, and he then went to his vehicle and labored to carry a large grip into the train room. Inside was his latest acquisition, an O scale 2-6-6-6 Allegheny! Man, that was one massive locomotive (even as a model). After our show-and-tell, we headed up Highway 16 to Watson’s Pizza Place, where I ordered one of their famous Watson Supreme pizzas. I really love that pizza! Naturally, my eyes were larger than my stomach, so I’ll be chowing down on the balance of my Supreme for lunch tomorrow. No problem, there.And the week still has another day left. In the morning I’ll be attending the weekly ROMEO breakfast with some railroad friends at the Warehouse Restaurant over in Baton Rouge. I know I’ll have gained five pounds this week by the time I finish it.

But what a delightful week it has been.

-Jack