The Lost MoP Collection

This one was going to get shelved because I'd let the information and pictures I'd received linger too long. As the years have moved on I have had a problem maintaining any heightened interest  as I'm eager to move on to some pie in the sky new adventure which then needs inventing. Lingering stuff is left in the dust. Stealing a line from a Stones song, "Who wants yesterday's papers, Who wants yesterday's girls"?

But, that's not the only reason I was going to shelve this one.  It is on a subject which only I and the donating party could have any interest. Well there may be a few others but then I don't know nor care if they are

 interested or not. 

So, why?

OK, I'm bored.

Lately I've been awakening at 2:00 something in the morning unable to return to any form of sleep. I'd  gladly accept participating in some mind bending torturous dreamland if it would supply enough closed eye. 

Instead this is the last resort for which I'm lucky to have. 

Thanks to David Ellzey I have this life raft.

This is how I started it several days ago when the boiler still had a little steam.

I'd mentioned to LZ  that I was having a problem with "titles". I was torn between "meaningful and meaningless".  I opted to use the email title of his last offering of pictures and information. 

"The Lost MoP Collection"

That and more will be included in this multi-chapter  endeavor to present New Iberia, 

a town which ranks with Lafayette as a multi-rail center.

Actually, I think New Iberia, in the hay day of railroading, 

was locally more important.

This was his David's note concerning the new pictures he'd found: 

"These prints were discovered during the move. The quality is not that good but the subject matter is a treasure. You may recognize the location of some. The MoP {Missouri Pacific} "roundhouse", ...{And} the one that is hardly recognizable is from the top of a boxcar parked on Fulton St. looking toward Jefferson St. The MoP engine with boxcar and tanker is on Pershing St. just east of LaSalle St. {near West Tower}. The old wood passenger car was in MW {Maintenance of Way} service parked near the  Iberia Coop Sugar Mill. These pictured were damaged in a flood around 1984. I almost threw them away with a bunch more, but peeled them apart and kept them. You will have to use plenty of imagination when looking at them".

I've cropped his pictures a bit and here they are.

This shot was taken by David Ellzey as were the remaining old ones in this chapter.

This one was taken while standing on the roof of a boxcar (number 2 in the picture).

I inserted the numbers to quiz him.

 LZ replied. I had asked about the building with the side loading doors.

(South?) This is looking southeast down Fulton. The track curving to the left goes past the MP freight depot near the bayou at Jefferson St. You have good eyes, the building with the freight door is an old SP building that became Ralphs Floor Covering. The Sanborn Maps will help explain the track work {shown below}. The sign near the building looks like an impaired side clearance sign. That track may have still been in service. That is the (Southern Pacific) track crossing at 90 degrees across Fulton. The large building at the crossing on the map is that building. 

LZ's words:

"By the numbers, #1 is the MP  track crossing Jefferson and continuing along the bayou. (Past the MP freight depot) #2 is the siding that the picture was taken. #3 is the SP crossing. #4 looks like 2 sidings on the map, but was probably gone when picture was taken".

Indeed the sidings are shown on the map below.

For those who don't dream  "New Iberia", this is my explanation based on LZ's.

See "Railroad" on the left. Those rails came from the SP mainline at the SP depot, SP main line. 

They are number "3" in the picture. They cured north.  

I have set these pictures up using the bayou as a horizontal axis.

Right will be roughly north. The maps are large. 

CLICK TO OPEN ... THEN HIT YOUR BACK ARROW.

("Picture taken here" refers to his boxcar perch)

This is a blow up of the spurs off of the SP's rails which crossed the Missouri Pacific's which ran down 

Do not confuse "2" in the less defined map with "2" on the one below.

The top one is on Main and the bottom one is on Fulton.

Fulton eventually reaching the MP shop and the MP mainline which ran between New Iberia and Port Barre.

There are 3 rails going down Fulton. The top one would be MP. The middle one is the SP's, the bottom one is another MP. The top rails go south to the MP freight depot and beyond.

My guess is that the rails that crossed Fulton at a 90 degree angle serviced the NI waterworks.

Farther down the page I'll show you a picture of evidence on Fulton of the SP rails crossing Fulton

at a 45 degree angle, then heading north. They are the ones shown below with "Fulton" written on them.

South of the SP crossing (left), the MP rails passed in front of the water works  (pipes drawn as dashes crossing Fulton). They then a business on the west (up) side of Fulton,  and the MP freight depot.

Notice the loading doors of the freight depot were on the bayou side. A switch back and back up move was required to reach them. Then they served waterfront businesses by way of 2 spurs.

Below:

My picture shows the doors on the depot.

Without David's map I would have never seen them.

Before we leave this area I want to show you the little evidence that remains.

The SP rails crossed Fulton to the north of the waterworks. They were the 45 degree crossing north of the waterworks which continued north and the 90 degree crossing which I believe went to the waterworks.  Then they went to  the MP freight depot which required backing.

Looking southward at the waterworks I realize that my thesis about it being serviced may need amending.

The next building south of the waterworks is the MP depot.

The finest remaining RR evidence in this area is of course the MP depot.

 Inside the north end.

 Street side.
I'd assume these loading doors are for trucks. No rails were shown on the map.
The building was being scraped and painted.

The new occupants are using the building in a respectful manor, so it seems.

Explanations of these to come.

We'll continue down Fulton for more Southern Pacific incursions into what I thought was MP territory.

I never realized that the two spurs, the Railroad Ave. tracks and the Chestnut St. tracks, were SP.

Actually I'd never paid them any mind. Maybe I was mentally broke? 

Insert Chestnut

Steve, I can't be positive what kind of material was handled by that installation but it seems to be a dry bulk material loaded into trucks for delivery. Could be barite for mud weight or maybe cement or?? The tall thing with the motor on top is a bucket elevator. It must be located on a spur?

It has the faded colors maybe of Dresser Magcobar. ??!!