{"id":4724,"date":"2026-03-08T13:34:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/?p=4724"},"modified":"2026-03-08T13:52:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T18:52:48","slug":"how-is-track-laid-in-a-swamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/2026\/03\/08\/how-is-track-laid-in-a-swamp\/","title":{"rendered":"How is Track Laid in a Swamp?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Track<\/a>
C.W. Witbeck photo, Jack C. Shall collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Track<\/a>
C.W. Witbeck photo, Jack C. Shall collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

\"Track<\/a>
C.W. Witbeck photo, Jack C. Shall collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Company\u2019s 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos-i-like","category-proto-research","category-railfanning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4724"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4729,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4724\/revisions\/4729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lacentralrr.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}