***** The Missouri Pacific: New Iberia to Jeanerette to Sorrel

One of the pure pleasures I've had doing the website is creating connections. I've even hooked up cousins. It is South Louisiana, after all. Information connections have been especially rewarding. In other words, I, or someone who writes in, will mention something that then jars another person to think of something and then that is added. These additions snow ball into a larger and larger collection of information. That's what this site is all about, scavenging everything I can before it is gone. Everyone is a library. When a person is gone, a library closes. That's a quote from another contributor, years ago, and so true.

Jacques wrote saying that he had enjoyed Mike's write on the railroad shanties. This is from Jacques' note.

"Thanks again, Steve. This guy's got a real talent! I've enjoyed this one the best, so far".

"It makes me think of things Papa told me, like when he pointed out a couple of fellows from town who he said were on the, "section gang" a long time ago. After asking Papa a lot of questions he'd proceed to tell me about the section gang, who he knew, or used to know, who worked in it, where their quarters were and about hearing the songs and the sounds they'd make to keep the work in time, along the track in town all the way to Albania where the water tank and hobo jungle was".

Back to me:

See, "makes me think of things". That's the way it works.

Reading Jacques' recollection left me with only one alternative, especially since he closed the note with, "Your assignment is to get some pictures".

I was off to do the "track in town" all the way to Albania Plantation". Words like that are irresistible. A "snowballing" of information would continue.

"Snowballing to Albania"

That was the original name of this write which no one understood, so I changed it. 

This is the old write, edited.

I rolled out to the end of my driveway just in time to see a tractor lumbering down 347 pulling 2 carts of sugarcane and 37 cars bound for the St.John mill. I did not want to couple on. I turned north and then cut over to a back road that takes me to Parks where I hooked up with haunted Section 28 Rd. Section 28 takes you to La.96. At the old Missouri Pacific bump in the road, Isle Labbe, I saw this house which was very close to where the old rails had been. I know it's "reaching", but that place sure doesn't look like a home. You know I imagine old railroad stuff being everywhere and only about half of it is really rail related. The MP would come into play again on this ride. Later a neighbor said it had been a lawyer's office and that was all it had been.

I just came across something.

It's a Missouri Pacific schedule.

Here's the hump on La.96 so you know what that rise in the

road is the next time you are going to Catahoula or St.Martinville,

or maybe Section 28 Road or Parks.

Tell ya what you should do the next time you are there.

Stop at the bump as if stopping at a rail crossing, look both

ways and then proceed. The people behind you, if they

haven't run over you, will wonder what the heck you are

doing. You'll have a little private, knowing laugh that you

can reflect upon for the rest of the day. That will lend to a

good smirk which other people will wonder about, then

you can have another little private, knowing laugh.

La.96 takes you to 679 on into Loreauville. I've left

whole tires on rubber on this route as it is my way to

OLD US 90 and what I call "Sugarcane Alley".

At Loreauville, I hook up with 86 which goes into New Iberia.

I usually take 320 south to La.182 which is the

renumbered, historical US 90. This time, for the

scenic benefit, I took Crochet Road into Olivier. (O-liv-E-A)

You'll have to excuse the pictures. It was heavily overcast as

that's one of the stages in our Fall weather. Clouds and digital

cameras have a problem. It clouds up, we get rain and a cold

front comes in clearing things up. I can deal with the overcast

stage. It usually means that the temperature is in the mid-70's,

almost t-shirt weather if not too dank.

I fueled up at the corner of 320 and 182 and headed toward Jeanerette.

I was traveling east on 182 and started noticing that the GPS

was showing a rail line very close to the road. I looked and there

was no rail line. Just before the sign noting that the property

belonged to LSU, I stopped to figure out what those post were

where the rails were marked. This was weird. They ran for

about a quarter mile. THEY ARE NOW GONE, removed for a few 

more feet of sugarcane.

Arriving at the LSU Agricultureal Experiment Station Rd.,

I took these shots up and down what I'm calling a "line".

Was this the Missouri Pacific or the trolley line Jacques had

told me about, or both? What were these pole nubs?

3/15/2012: I am glad I took those shots. The evidence is being removed.

I'm refraining from comment.

Then the line left La.182 and veered south a

little. Those are imaginary rails I drew in.

Next stop was the old mill site at what my map calls Loisel.

I have the rail lines labeled. I'd be back to the mill on the

return ride. And, to avoid an avalanche of corrective emails,

everyone knows that the Southern Pacific was merged with

the Union Pacific railroad. I wrote "S&P" because my historic

map labeled it as that and this is a historic write.

2012: Of course the railroad is not the "S&P", but

the SP. I can only claim "youth" as my excuse.

The old mill stacks are everywhere, but they can't

last forever. In the eight years I've been looking,

I've seen them disappearing.

I was at Burleigh Road. I went down to the BNSF (once SP)

tracks to take a look as this is an interesting area. I don't

know why, but it is.

2012: I have continued to visit this spot. As it turned out,

my sniffer was correct. The branch to Patoutville is 1/10 mile

east of the Burleigh Rd. crossing. Burleigh is now closed

to most people.

Coming back up to the highway I shot a couple of pictures.

The one of the tractor was a not aimed and didn't give the

camera a chance to adjust. It nevertheless shows that the

tractor I had seen at my house had caught up with me.

The old turtle and the hare story continues to ring true.

2012: That was an early attempt at levity.

I was now in Jeanerette and preparing to do an urban assault

upon the bygone, invisible to most, Missouri Pacific Railroad

right of way. Here's the a look toward New Iberia where the

MP is coming into town.

Here we are going into Jeanerette. These were taken from

the corner of Doll and Glover. The next pictures are of two

maps, one, my old map software showing both

lines going into town, and, the newer, showing the street

names along the way so you can follow along.

This site originally started as a tour guide rag. The inclusion

of multiple maps in this article supports that mission.

I'll offer a fair warning here. Not all of my route was of the

scenic variety.

Below is looking toward town, notice the houses. I wonder

how many homeowners suspect they built next to an old

railroad right of way?

The GPS was guiding me into Jeanerette. I was going hump

hunting and ROW rendering. Following the evidence can take you

to interesting places. I went through some interesting places.

For expediency sake, we'll just breeze through those, as I did.

I believe this is the Kern St. hump.

I made my way to Church Street where I found a church.

When you find a big church, it is usually near the historical

center of the community, especially in south Louisiana.

Here's a bit more of the view.

I almost forgot the barbershop picture.

I think these were taken down Provost St. or Provost went

down to the street they are on, whatever. Anyway, these

businesses backed onto the old MP rails and may have been

serviced by the railroad.

The businesses are marked "Provost" on the map.

Here's the paint store which I believe to be partially an old

warehouse associated with the MP rails.

The next hump check was down Minville Street.

St.Paul United Methodist Church sits impressively on the

other side of the BNSF (SP) tracks.

Next, I returned to Church St. I saw a branch line coming

off of the old MP and I looked for a sign of its crossing Church.

Bam, there it was on the street.

Jacques said it went back to a sawmill. "The siding, or switch

in your fourth map is the one that was near Lapeyrouse motors.

It ended up at the site of the Provost Lumber Co, one of the cypress

sawmills that helped build this town".

He went on to tell me that there was a foundry that built the "LSU Bridge"

at the "Experimental Station" [locally known as], and other prominent

projects in the area. The foundry will be found down the line.

The first place the sawmill spur went past was this home.

Here's a map to put you back in sync.

While riding through Lapeyrouse Motors' car lot, I saw this

neat old home. At this point, let me say that Jeanerette is an

architectural treasure.

Continuing in the same direction as the branch rails traveled,

I went down a one way street the wrong way, on purpose.

I am becoming the consummate outlaw. First there was the

levee wrong way ride, now an urban addition to my rap sheet.

Of course I ended up in a nursing home parking lot which is

a message unto itself. Being there I took this picture of the bridge.

I see it as representative of "crossing over".

2012: It's good I took this picture. These old scenic bridges are

being removed and replaced with ugly concrete slab ones.

2012: I seem to have lost my target, the sawmill. Evidently

the nursing home now sits there. You can look at the map above.

This design is pretty common up and down the Teche.

2012: Somehow I returned to the MP right of way.

I was now getting toward the east side of town. I went down

Druilhet and Canal Street, netting these gems.

If you have some extra time, take up hump and ROW hunting.

You can see how rewarding it can be.

Next, I left Church St. as it had given up, for the time being,

what it could. I returned to Main which is La.182 and was

US 90. Next, I turned on Trappey St. Yes, the same Trappeys

of Trappey Foods fame. There previous home was on the corner

and I failed to shoot it. I headed back on Trappey St. to get

this instead.

2012: Ignore the picture below.

Back on Old 90, I saw this old club [honkytonk, I bet] done

up in the architecture I called "art deco", but was wrong.

I think it was prevalent in the late 20's or early 30's.

That part was right.

2012: I've been waiting for a place to insert OO-L's nformation

on this architectural style. Here it is, "It called 'Streamline Moderne'".

Yes, "Moderne" has an "e" on the end.

Ah, but there is more. I had mentioned a couple of similar building

having rounded corners and glass bricks on Airline Hwy between

New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Here we go:

"They're more commonly called "glass blocks." They were invented in the very early 20th century to replace the huge multiple-pane glass windows that had admitted light to industrial buildings, while providing much improved insulation and durability. They came into wider use later as a near-essential element of the Streamline Moderne style of architecture that was all the rage from the late 1920's until eclipsed by the boxy International (German Worker Housing) style in the post-WWII era. Streamline Moderne was actually a reaction against Art Deco. While it purported to strip Art Deco of angularity and non-functional decoration, it replaced them with smoothly curved surfaces that carried design to the absurdly laughably non-functional extreme of streamlining stationary objects"!

2012. Of course I have chosen a bad example of to support
the "glass block" explanation since the building below lacks them
but is nevertheless a "Streamline Moderne".

Next was Abania. It is just past the Jeanerette city limits.

Here's a map to sync you up.

Why was there a pond? Jacques told me there was a sugar mill

at Albania. He may have mentioned a lumber mill, also. I don't

remember that. Anyway, a sugar mill definitely needed water.

Now, why would the flow go away from the bayou? Because,

the bayou is higher than the land away from it, That's because

the bayou, in its natural cycle, floods, depositing sediment that

builds natural levees which are higher than anything around.

That is why the plantation big houses were on the bayou or river

in many instances.

With the geology lesson over, here is more about the mill from Jacques:

I was lucky enough to go through the Albania sugar house during grinding [season] when I was a kid. [I went]Each grinding [season] for 3 or 4 years starting when I was about 11 or 12 years old. Papa took my brother Robert and me to one of the sugar mills around town, once a year, at night after he got off work. We'd get a tour from top to bottom.

The Albania mill had a huge Corliss engine that ran the mill with some smaller steam engines running other equipment. The flywheel was so big that a hole was cut in the floor to fit it in. You could see only half of the flywheel on the engine floor with the bottom half showing below on the next floor. The mill was so old that its frame was built with huge, probably cypress timbers that I remember seeing sagging in the middle of a long span.

I can kind of get an idea of how steam engineers came to love their engines with each engine probably having its own personality and quirks. The Albania mill was right before the Albania Mansion on 182, old 90 just east of the city limits of Jeanerette. It closed around '71 and burned down one night when the mill was being torn down.

Papa took us to look at the ruins on the way to school the morning after the fire and I could see one of the little steam engines on its concrete foundation. The cast iron cylinder had broken and the side of it fell away showing the piston. I remember the fellow running that engine and oiling it like it was a baby, smiling all the time, when we went in that mill during grinding. Papa seemed to have known everyone there by their first name. I hated to see that old mill with its engines go.

If you ever go to the museum in Jeanerette, you'll see lots of good photos of the Albania mill. When I was a kid it seemed that there was an unusual amount of pride among the people that worked at Albania. Maybe it was because the mill was the oldest...I don't know. Maybe because it was so old and that it took so much to keep that mill running there was a, "Esprit de Corps", among the people there...or maybe it was because those old folks enjoyed talking about their mill and how they made their living and that a 12 year old boy wanted to know all about it. I was so lucky to have been able to listen to them.

Me: I'll close this first part of the Jeanerette tour. It's time. I'm whipped. Tomorrow, I'll show you Albania, we'll go back though Jeanerette, there will be another "Jacque Story", and we'll visit that mill on the New Iberia side where I took the first "stack picture".

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In our last episode, I promised to show you Albania, no trans Atlantic flight needed.

Feeling some of the fire gone from yesterday's enthusiasm,

the paragraphs may be shorter and the my mood colder and darker.

I left Jeanerette going east to where I wanted to investigate

Albania Road where Jacques had mentioned the water tank

and hobo jungle area. I took these shots where Albania Rd.

crosses the ghost tracks of the MP. If you can see the rails,

you have ghost vision, congratulations. This picture is looking

east, 182 is to the left. Notice that there are woods on the other

side of the tracks. Could this have been the hobo jungle

Jacques had spoken of?

Looking the other way, was this the location of the water

tank? I went to where the arrow is pointing and found a

target full of bullet holes. I had reflective thoughts about

some of my latest incursions.

Since this write was first done, Jacques has

added much. The weight of it can be applied to

his spot. The area where the target was picture,

added above, was the site of the water tank, as

I had guessed. The red arrow is the target I joked about.

Now, I'm going to add Jacques notes and interject if

needed for clarity.

Here's Jacques again:

The mill was on the bayou side. I think the scale house, a little bitty affair, may still be there. It's about 50 feet or less from 182. The three spurs, or sidings, did cross 182 to the mill. The tank and jungle were behind you when you took this picture [the area of the target]. I think the spot is where 182 and the S.P. track are closest together.

[The shell road in the first] picture is one of the curved siding roadbeds [off the main line, crossing the highway to the mill]. [Your] MP line [drawn rails are] right on. The shell road was behind you and may have been marked, Albania Rd., [it was] unless the sign is gone now. It's a parish road, shell or limestone that runs from 182 south across the track into the fields.

The two tracks that crossed near where you where may have actually been one track that split at a switch between the mainline and 182. The rails were there probably up until '70s. [they were]

I found a schedule mentioning Albania as a "business stop". The third crossing was behind where you're standing to take the pic. [the target area] I'm surprised the farmer hasn't broken up the roadbed in your [first] picture, yet. It must have been an SP siding. It's at too sharp an angle to have come from the M.P. It must have crossed the M.P.

ME:I'm adding the schedule mentioning Albania and the speed limits here.

Jacques continues:

"There's also a curved line in the Hwy 182 pavement that indicates a third siding to the mill.The S.P. tracks must have crossed the M.P. tracks since the roadbeds run up to the S.P. line. The siding from around where the water tank may have been M.P. It was gone when I was a kid but the two sidings in the foreground of your photo were still there and being used. I didn't know about the third siding until one day an old lady that was in the store told me, "...did you know that there were three tracks at Albania?" She lived just east of Albania on her family's farm. She then started to tell me about how when she was a little girl she was riding in the back seat of her father's car, leaning against the door. When the car went over the third track the door opened and she fell out onto the gravel road and landed on her head. She told me this story a couple of times and said that's why she's as crazy as she is, because of the bump on the head. She ended this story with a big laugh".

"Up until the early 70's, the MP, also called the Frisco around here, (note "Frisco St. in Jeanerette) was still running short trains of gondolas filled with baggasse from the mills and boxcars loaded with sugar. They'd load it with some type of blower that would blow the sugar into the boxcars and men would shovel it around. It may be hard to believe that they'd ship it that way but I remember seeing it done like that at Jeanerette Sugar. I don't see how they could have loaded the boxcar completely through an open door in the car side. Molasses was shipped of course in tank cars. The MP trains went under 10 mph. [That is varified by the speed limit on the schedule I found] The track was in really bad shape.

Jacques continues:

"I was always too scared to do this but some of my friends would 'hop the Frisco' for a ride, then jump off. I always thought that just as I'd try to grab on to the train it would derail like it did every so often.

I wasn't scared enough not to hop a ride on the back of a swinging, two-wheeled loaded cane cart a few times on my way home from school. I remember holding on to the back of the cart with one hand and holding my books with the other. We couldn't ride long like this since eventually someone in a car behind us would start blowing the horn for us to get off. My friends and I had a lot of fingers wagged at us back then.

Now on to Albania, the big house.

You may want to check out these links first:

Link One, general discussion on plantations in Iberia Parish.

Link Two, who owns Albania now.

Link Three, the La.Digital Library page featuring a few pictures of Albania. Click the small pictures and they enlarge, just like on my pages.

Albania sits between the highway and Bayou Teche upon the

natural levee, mentioned earlier. Going east, this was my first shot.

Coming back west.

The owners have kept some of the out buildings. I'll let you

decide what they were.

Neat place. But, remember it is a private residence and not

open to visitors.

There is ample room to stop off the road and take a few pictures of

yesterday's grandeur. The house was used in the making of "In the

Electric Mist", a fine movie with lots of authentic area scenes.

I was headed into Jeanerette. I had a standing invitation, well, I presumed it to be still standing, anyway, an invitation to visit Jacques' store. He and his wife own a downtown drugstore dating back to 1916. That in itself would be reason to stop, but, as I guess you have gathered, Jacques is a local historian. I haven't figured out how far afield his knowledge goes, but it seems to tread far beyond the city limits. He has monitored my wayward rides and if there is some place I've gone which he knows about, he has always added anecdotes. He showed me around the place pulling out this goodie and that. We laughed about some of his old stories and I told him I had to go to Shirley's Grocery, a place where one of his tales terminated and which he had described as a time capsule of the past. I left and headed to Shirley's. It is on Provost Street, also the location of the Jeanerette Depot which, unfortunately, is gone, though I thought, at first, wasn't. As you can see, I have a new supply of commas.

Before I show you Shirley's, here's Jacques' story of the train that went off the bridge approach at Charenton. I had asked him a question about the old railroad tracks that crossed Irish Bend from Franklin and continued across the Teche to recross the Teche at Charenton to return to the main line. He wrote this.

"The only thing that I think is still there is a hump in the road about a half mile from Medrick Martin's store, heading towards Adeline. That must be where the track crossed. It's been a long time since I was in the bayou [a boater's perspective] at Charenton, but I think the approaches for the rail bridge, and maybe the foundation for the turntable in the bayou, are still there". [which they are, shown below]

He continues, "When I was in school in the early or mid seventies, an engine went into the bayou at that bridge. The bridge was open. Papa told me he had heard that the engineer had been drinking. A classmate who lived near the M.P. & S.P. tracks in Jeanerette told me that he saw what must have been that engine being pulled through town by another engine. He said that it sounded like something was dragging and hitting the cross ties as the engines passed and that the engine was covered in mud. I didn't believe him since he used to like to spin a few tales pretty often. A little later on we were walking along the tracks and we saw that on every cross tie there was a big fresh gouge almost in the center of the ties. My friend said, "That's where that thing that was hanging from the bottom of that engine must have been hitting". We looked at each other and started running down the track to see where the gouges ended. After a while, not seeing an end to the marks on the cross ties we stopped running, all out of breath and sat down and started laughing. I told him that I believed him...now. We walked back to town and got a pop at Miss Lu Lu's store right by the track and sat on the store steps and watched another train go by".

Then he went on to tell me about Lulu's and who has it now by what name. I think Lulu's is now Shirley's. He'll correct me if I'm wrong. Here's Shirley's.

The old postal drop box caught my eye.

Across the street I saw what I thought was the old depot or

associated building since it seemed to be right on the tracks.

Jacques said that the building is owned by the adjoining

Chancy Lumber Co, and is indeed old. But as far as it being

the depot, no cigar.

I left the city limits headed out of town.

The mill and Burleigh Rd. would be my next stop. I had seen

a spur coming off the MP to the mill and another lead was waiting.

But first, Jacques has sent a lot of information.

Concerning Hubertville Rd. or La.85, as it is called.

"Hubertville, I found out recently, was named after Hubert Pellerin who owned the farm land all around there. Up until the early '30s, the western city limits went only up to Pellerin St. Hubertville was considered, in the country. There was a big old country store there that burned around 1981. I grew up just less than 1/4 mile west of there. The Pellerins had a big plantation just east of the Sorrel plantation...Just east of the Yellow Bowl restaurant is the family plot with tombs dating before the Civil War".

Oops, almost forgot the rest of his description:

"That siding in Hubertville was for the Jeanerette Sugar Co., formerly, Duhe & Bourgeois Sugar. That mill was built in the 1930s, but before that there was a syrup mill which didn't make sugar, only syrup from the cane and the juice was sent to another mill where it was processed into sugar".

Then this anecdote about being around the mill one day:

"When I was a kid, I remember seeing some guys from the Duhe & B ourgeois Mill tow an empty boxcar across Main St. closer to the mill so they could load it. They had an old winch truck with long gin poles. With the cable over the pulley at the top of the poles they hooked up to the boxcar. Every time they tried to pull the car the front wheels of the truck came up off the ground. It was funny. They finally got it to the mill".

Next, I was off to the next old mill. Here's the map.

Again, it is "SP", not "S&P".

Here's Jacque's note, "The siding at Loisel explains why that bulk oil warehouse was positioned at an angle. The track went across 182 to the mill. The mill closed in the late '50s or early '60s, I think. The house just west of the mill site predates the Civil War. The stack and the mill ruins are probably from the 1930's or later. There's been a mill there since at least the early 1900's, but probably earlier. It was added on to several times and is owned by a plumber. The plumber is a very nice fellow. He's a Frenchman...a former French Army paratrooper. The house if for sale".

Looking south, off of 182, toward Burleigh Rd., it would be on your left. This is the bulk oil warehouse Jacques is talking about. See the rail access door.

The rails ran alongside it, like this:

Here's looking back to the old SP tracks, now the UP.

We put our railroads on higher ground.

2012: this would be the location of hundreds of pictures

from that time on.

Here's looking from track level, south. Nothing has changed

except for the road being closed.

Heading back up to La.182, the mill spur crossed the highway.

The garbage dump is less prevalent now.

They seemed to be inline with this slab which was near 2

large "drive on" scales.

Here's a better look at the big building.

Here's look back toward the mill. I kept hearing strange

loud noises and finally realized there was a sandblasting

operation nearby.

This is a shot from the building's front side.

Looking back across 182 at the warehouse and Burleigh Rd,

I just had this thought about wires. I try to keep them out of

my pictures. But, when dealing with industrial scenes, the

more going on that is pertinent to industry, the better, I think.

I left the old mill a bit down but there was more ahead to

clear my mind. I had spoken of a trolley running between

New Iberia and Jeanerette back when wondering about

those pole nubs at the experimental station. Jacque had

this to say about it. He had directed me to the trolley car

barn and I'd missed it. Here's his note:

"The interurban line, as it was called, was named the,

"Southwestern Traction Co.", I think. The line lasted

less then 10 years. I think it was part of a larger outfit

that owned other types of businesses.The car barn is

a brick building, painted white the last time I saw it

and is only wide enough to house maybe two streetcars,

side by side. It's long enough to hold maybe four cars".

I will find that the next time down there.

After risking it all by entering a place I shouldn't have been,

I went on home. On the way I couldn't pass up taking some

shots of this beautiful countryside and the passage of another

harvest season.

And, the same little house, showing the cistern and the smoke

from the burning field passing by. Fall plays hell with our sinuses.

Just south of the St.John Mill:

And several rows of sugarcane. These the cold has gotten to

which is a good thing. The cold causes the sucrose to be

drawn up increasing the sugar content.

Below, you can see just the top of St.John's historical stack

sticking up above the cane. What you can't see is the billowing

steam against the gray sky of late Fall. Today, we expect sleet,

and in a day or two it will be in the 70's again.

Weather, you can have it your way, just wait.

And, finally, here's the map of the Snowballing Ride to Albania.

Jacques sure helped to add to its girth.

One more thing and this may be wrong since I'm not RR expert.

Here are some snippets from some old train schedules. On page

one I posted one that I think is a Missouri Pacific schedule.

The next one is an old Southern Pacific schedule whose actual

rails are still in use.

And, this one looks like the old Franklin and Abbeville

which does not list Jeanerette as a depot.

That's it. No it's not.

Bill, an ex SP engineer of 43 years, starting in 1955, added this.

When I began my time with the SPRR in 1955 there was the SP maintrack on the north side of Jeanerette. The siding to the Albnia spur was on the north side. There was a water tank for watering the engines, hence the pond to the south. In ;the late 50's the SP depot burned and I WAS on the first train to arrive and was delayed several hours while the old building burned. It was a sad site to see......bill