I found this 1919 Railroad Commission ruling on line, brought to us by Google Books. I fear Google and know they have little robots that infect everything and that they lure us on with their gifts, like this blog, their email, their search engines, their Earth mapping software and so forth. What's the deal? Sadly, like with Obama, we'll find out. Until then, let's party and read about Huey Long's beef with the Lake Charles and Northern Railroad. Zooming in your browser helps or break down and get some new glasses or be the lazy donkey you are and get the magnifying glass out like me. (or you can click them and the larger version of each text picture appears)
Now there's freedom and the American way at work. That populace SOB,
Huey Long, sure hated free enterprise, especially railroads
and oil companies. If they didn't bend to him, he'd try to ruin them.
It all started with his father's fight with Edenborn in Winnfield.
This is at the beginning of his illustrious career. We know
how it ended. Tyrants tend to share in that destiny, eventually.
If you had a railroad, or any other business, shouldn't it be
your call on how to run it as long as it didn't infringe on others
freedom? Look, I'm up at 3am. I can rant if I want as long as
it stays within the confines of the ride report. Oh, this is a ride
report, almost forgot. BTW, Obama is nothing more than a
modern Huey Long. We in La. saw him coming. We'll be seeing
Landrieu and Charlie Melancon leaving, asap. Go ahead and
vote our freedoms away you Obamaites. Revenge is waiting.
"Don't Tread on US", oops my BP is off the scale again.
Below is the third part of the ride. I followed US 171, sorta.
Not exactly, I've had to add a page.
Approaching DeRidder, I shifted over to La.27 to enter DR.
I saw where I think Lilly Junction was. I think the name comes from
"lilly pads" as it is pretty swampy below Bon Amis, the location of one
of the Long's (the Missouri Longs) mills. And, I once thought their only
mill was at Longville, which reminds me, I have several really good
pictures of Longville from the J&E adventure I'm going to post here,
but, first, we have to get to Longville. Ok, we're at Magnolia Church
or near Ragley, whatever. Let's go.
Purple arrow at bottom is Magnolia Church Road.
Green arrow above is Longville.
Red arrow above that is Bannister, the original rails end (log front).
Black arrow is where I saw the first cut through a hill.
Gold arrow is Bon Amis. ( bahn-ah-me, fr. meaning "good friend")
Purple with the green tip is the existing and functioning Kansas City
Southern RR. between DeRidder and DeQuincy and Lake Charles,
the western side of the oval loop.
I started at the bottom left and went up US 171 I was now above Magnolia headed
for Longville.
I love it when I start seeing this stuff and know what it is. It brings such an inner smile. It's not the smile of "I know something you don't haha", it's the smile of presenting a new born child to the world. That's as deep as I've ever gotten. I'm glad I was wearing hip boots. Seriously, I've run many searches for this report and "further information" is scarce, that's what the pictures are for.
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This I plucked from somewhere? I also keep poor records. You'll have to click it to read it. About the Lake Charles and Northern, it has this information. It was established on 10/30/1906 and ceased in 3/1/1927. That is extensive, isn't it. I posted the whole thing in case you see your favorite old railroad mentioned.
You do have one, don't you? Get one if you don't. You can have one of mine, I have lots.
Was there no railroad after that?
Is it possible that these old ROW's are what's left of of a railroad that has been gone for 83 years? My old mapping software does not go back 83 years, well maybe, but then it would show the line as a trail. The ROW supported steel rails up until at least the mid to late mid-1900's. I have to get a handle on this. Don't go searching "Louisiana and Pacific Railroad" or Lake Charles and Northern, you won't find much. You will find a little on the LC&N but not so much on the L&P. (now I can use just the initials, sneaky, huh?)(I should have done that earlier).
Come on, have you already forgotten that the LC&N was owned by the Southern Pacific. OK, I'll excuse you, it's been a few nights. Therefore, the Southern Pacific must have maintained the rails for a while, possibly.
It's a new lead anyway. I just verified from HERE, that in 1920, the rails from DeRidder to Lake Charles were owned by the Southern Pacific. We'll, we already knew that. At least it backs up the other two writes. But I still have a problem with the Louisiana & Pacific. Did they only work the mill spurs?
Shifting gears, this is from a World War II site. Click Here It establishes two things for me. One is that the SP, was in DeRidder (it could have only come from Lake Charles) and that there was an army base in De Ridder, that covered later.
"Many of these train cars were stored on spurs all over the country, some
in the Louisiana area. When the train cars arrived, there was brush grow
ing on the decks; they were in horrible shape. So the Santa Fe [Jasper &
Eastern RR , Oakdale to Kirbyville] and the Southern Pacific brought in
work crews and supplies and wood for the decks in order to get these cars
in shape. They brought equipment with them to raise the decks of the cars
off the trucks, grease them, replace springs. Sometimes decks had to be
replaced. They did a lot of work in order that we could get this equipment
and get our troops moved to the desert. This was a massive job for the
railroads.
At that time the Government was about to take over all the railroads in the United States because of this mess. The railroads had not driven anything in six months so they were kind of jittery. They wanted to go a good job since this was the first major move.
The Southern Pacific assigned one of the top operational officers to work with us. He took a kitchen car for himself and some of the people who were working on the railroad and the spurs around Camp Polk. There must have been approximately two hundred men near DeRidder. They had kitchen and sleeping areas for the crews. They were really trying to do a good job. They knew we would be making daily reports to Washington noting their progress. The railroads were very, very careful to do everything we wanted".Continuing, the "rails" to Longville were to the left.
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This was headed back to an area where I'd been detoured.
It was a private road sitting on the ROW, not an uncommon
occurrence.
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I take pictures of road signs to keep my pictures and myself straight.
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Whoa, I'm straight. I don't like it, I'm going back to crooked.
Jordan D follows the rails then veers off meeting Longville Rd.
coming from the east. I came into Longville and immediately saw
where the Right of Way was.
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I talked to a guy that was pulling an old ice chest around on a rope putting dirt in it from the ditches. I figured he was a railroad expert and approached him. I know em when I see em and sure enough he was the local historian.
He pointed out that the depot had been in the low place pictured above and that the house below was part of the original mill town school. I didn't ask him what he was doing as when I do stuff like that I don't want to be asked.
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The plaque mentions that both railroads served the town / mill. I think I'm seeing the sale to the LC&N as a good deal having them keep the rails up and the Long-Bel retaining usage rights. That's it, L&P trains ran on the LC&N rails.
So, there was dual occupancy. I knew the truth was out there.
This is the Longville mill's pond.
One of the last 2 original mill homes.
An old store nearly covered by foliage next to the "new store". On its side, covered by bushes, it says "Longville Store". I wasn't ready for another mystery.
Recently Found:
The Company Store. See the rails beside the store. Wonders a cinder didn't catch it on fire? Or did it?
The Baptist Church. It had been other denominations and the town meeting hall. Info, courtesy of the Cooler Man.
The mill town bank.
The remains of the mill next to the lake.
I left glowing with my new knowledge. I was back on
US 171 headed to De Ridder. I went down each opened
road and checked out where they met the old ROW. This
was at a church. It looks like an old school. I could
not find a community name to associate with it, immediately.
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Tulia is the closest community. It may have come from there.
Tulia is on the ROW. I went there and got my boots muddy
taking the picture below. From that mud originated the
title for this ride report. If you just read that, now you know.
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More ROW.
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More ROW and a suspicious rail tie.
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A close inspection detected that it was an used one.
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The rails had ridden though a deep cannon, much like
the Royal Gorge in Colorado.
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Getting very close to Bon Ami, in fact, I was traveling from
US 171 to La.27, I found the ROW with a gate on it.
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Looking across the gate. Well, wouldn't you?
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I soon arrived at the KCS rails ( they are still) and La.27
and looked both ways.
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Here is an example of why Louisiana ROW following is
so easy. All of our railroads have to be elevated. When
the rails are picked up, removing all that elevation is a pain.
But, today's rr's use expensive fill, so if they are abandoned,
I'll bet Bubba will be doing his driveway with RR bed if the
railroad doesn't move fast. (I wouldn't put it past Bubba
to do his driveway in fill even if the railroad hasn't been
abandoned)
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I rode up to where the road to Bon Amis turned east.
I think I passed Lilly Junction as the rails ran very close
together for a short while. Map below.
I crossed the KCS and found the LC&N. This had been part of
a road bridge across one of the two ditches that paralleled
the tracks. This being a low wet area, the ditches were required.
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There's the ROW looking south toward the location of the
Bon Ami Mill. Check the map above. The Bon Ami Pond
marks the mill's location.
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There's the crossing. The next road resurfacing, it will be
gone.
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This blew me away. It is where you see "signlb" on the map.
I don't know what it sells now. Clearly it says, "Established 1875".
That phone number may be from earlier, less complicated times.
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Who knows, this house might have been around back then.
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More used railroad tires. I checked.
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Another mind blower. Whoa. There was this RXR sign
where it shouldn't be. The rails surely were not there.
They were. Look on the map where I have "nline". This
was where the old line lived again. It actually ended where
some tank cars were stashed and a spur left it and went
into a chemical plant. Remember a chemical plant being
mentioned? I vaguely do.
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There it is. A loco was working the yard. You can see the
tank cars in the background. This company makes perfume.
Lots of perfume. Well, other stuff, too.
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Near the entrance was this old building. I think it was
a guard house for an army installation. In the write
about the railroad and the army, DeRidder was mentioned
having 200 soldiers there. An investigation is forthwith.
Added: OK, there was an Army Air Corps field across La.27 toward
Merryville. I'm saying the Army owned this too. I can't prove
it right now.
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I'm telling you that sign is on the post's old sign's pedestal.
You can Google MeadWestvaco. It is a huge company.
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The road surface smacked of Camp Claiborne's construction.
The army had developed a fast drying cement that was super
hard for their WW2 posts. That road had never been repaired.
The secret to its formula is hidden at Area 51. Yes, it was found
on that UFO which was brought to Camp Claiborne in 1951. Mark
has the documentation and can take you right to the door of
the laboratories. Please do not spread this information, I do not
want to be causing riots around the world. If it got out, the road repair
industry would be obsolete. Instead our roads are obsolete in
3 years. More later.
I'll repeat since after the last info, the previous info may
have been forgotten:
There was an Army Air Corps base at DeRidder. It was
across La.27 on the back road to Merryville situated along
the Jasper & Eastern RR. Saying that it stretched over the
highway to this point is just that, a stretch, but, there was an
Army presence in DeRidder. This could have been an addition
to that facility. I know my concrete. It smacked of "Alien".
Now don't go crying to your Mama. Stay strong and just wait
for the next edition. CLICK HERE FOR PAGE 4 and that's it.