X Southern Pacific Railroad> Weeks Island Branch & the Franklin & Abbeville RR

"I knew a fellow by the name of Garber. He live(d) in Lydia. He was on that line that ran out to Weeks Island, I think. He told me that he started with the R.R. in the '50s at the end of steam. He said that the engines he first started on were of the 600 series. I didn't know what he was talking about until later when I got as a gift from my parents, the big S.P. book. Mr. Garber told me that they had a peculiar way to get an empty derailed car back on the track, if no one was looking, and they were near a switch. They'd pull the car to the switch and the Y or Frog at the switch would force the wheels of the car back on the track if they did it right and had a little luck. Anyway, that's what I understood. He was a nice fellow".
Note by Jaques.

That's all it takes. I took off for Weeks Island to find the railroad that serviced the salt mine on that high spot in the marsh. I shut down the computer in a crash I'd have to face later. It was one of those deals where everything freezes and you say WTH, and just unplug it believing that somehow the computer god will make it rise again. Well it did, so there must be.

I flung the front door open and the sun was searing my front yard. It was 96 degrees and who knows what the humidity was? WTH, I'd be on my knees begging in February for this weather to return. I sprayed myself down with Sunblock 45 to protect the old shin from barnacle growth and wobbled off to Weeks.

First, before the usual five star entertainment starts, I have to once again write a clarification so that maybe I can avoid some silliness on your part.

Now, do you really think I could GAD about railroads and choo choo trains and all that kiddie stuff? Dream on. No. Not at all, you're delirious if you do. I use the rails for 2 reasons. One, they are another road I haven't followed even if the roads I have to use to follow them are old hat. The railroads are not the focus, just a means to an end. The other reason I use them is that they are a link to a recent interest, industrial history, of which, they are of course a part. Now, you know the truth about the significance of this presumed rail fetish of which I've recently been accused. So there, you can can the "so you like trains" crap. And, what if I do?

Now, about that introductory paragraph. That was Jacques'. I got down to just above Weeks island and didn't see any tracks coming down from New Iberia to the island. I shrugged my shoulders and admitted defeat. It's getting easier to that all the time. It was hot. I was in the middle of a sweltering swamp and dehydrated so I took these pictures. This was going to be the report. It is now the pre-report.











Still no railroad tracks. Jacques must have gotten mixed up.
That'll teach me to go out on these wild goose chases.



I figured since I'd made the investment in time and fuel, I'd shoot a few pictures of stuff I've shot a million times before.

There's some water.



An oil well or clean up rig?



Ah, heck, I'll just shoot another pickup truck pulling a trailer. This time it's going up the hill that marks the beginning of Weeks Island. That's interesting.









Some more water:



I was now on the south side of the island.

I'd do a closing picture of the bike. One time a reader said he liked "bike pictures", so I try to take at least one picture of a bike to satisfy the bike picture lobby.



I decided to walk down the little path and see what was there? I lie. You know why I went back there.



Oh, there are some old tracks. I remember a railroad here. I remember cars on this line. I have pictures of them, maybe.

Oh, Jacques was speaking from the perspective of one living in Jeanerette when he said, "He was on that line that ran out to Weeks Island, I think". Oh, they ran out from old highway 90 and the main line. The Weeks Island branch line actually runs out from Baldwin, east of Jeanerette to Weeks Island shadowing La.86. Well, at least it did. I'd have to see what happened to it and where it went on the island.

This is the end of the pre-ride report. I had happened upon a rare situation. This was fresh. I wouldn't be dealing with grassy humps. The Weeks Island line would be easy. It would take me to stuff I'd never seen in a million rides down these roads. Plus, I brought something home.

After sending out my little tease last night, Jacques wrote back with another layer of cake to bite into. Those additions sure do help in keeping the site somewhat legitimate in the eyes of those seriously interested in the history of the area. Continuing from the last page's discovery, all I have to do is copy his latest letter to the top of the page, then add Everett's a little further down to keep you, as Dave said, "chugging along", leaving me to only have to paste pictures and make dumb comments and another Pulitzer will be ready for the shelves to satisfy an adoring public.

It sure is nice having material to lean back on. Especially material that doesn't give my spell check a seizure.

He begins, sharing my amazement that I found anything. What little faith do ye have.

You've got it, Steve!
That road between Lydia and, "The Island', like it's [Weeks Is] called around there, wasn't built until the 1950s. It is Darnall road. I've seen it spelled Darnell, also. Up until that road was built the only way to get to Weeks Island was on Hwy 318 through Louisa. I went to Cypremort Point two Sundays ago and we crossed the tracks at Louisa. That's where they end now. [that's coming up] They're taking the rails up.


Lydia, as you've seen it, didn't exist until Darnall road was built. Up until then Freyou Rd was the way to get to that spot. Most of the people in Lydia are from Weeks Island, originally. Many still work there. I'm not sure when it was, maybe the 1960s when the employees of the mine that lived there on the island were asked to leave. This was after the advent of a union at the mine or a strike called by the union at the mine. I've gotten the feeling that it's not something people there want to talk about.

People who used to live on the island talk about how beautiful the island was and how much they loved living there. The workers there all lived in company owned houses. The miners could take, I guess buy, [after they were told to move] the company houses that they lived in. Most of the older looking houses in and around Lydia are houses that were once on Weeks Island. They were moved by truck to Lydia and the surrounding areas. [I scanned Lydia for similar looking houses going in as I knew of a story of moved homes but didn't put together where they had come from. I thought it had been from the Lydia Plantation, also, coming up. I'll have to go back and see if a they were of similar architecture]

Papa graduated from pharmacy school in 1943, went into the army, served as a medic in the 70th Infantry Division in France and Germany and came back home in 1946. Mama graduated from SLI and became a school teacher while living with her parents in New Iberia where she grew up. She started teaching at Weeks Island in a one room school house. It really was [a one room school house]. She taught the children of the miners there...all grades in one classroom. Anyway, the point of all of this, is that Mama used to ride to Weeks Island in an old school bus from New Iberia, through Jeanerette. It would turn onto Hwy 318 in Sorrel, go through Louisa and then on to the Island. The bus would stop to pick up some students and other teachers on the way. The other teachers and students were dropped off at a school in Glencoe.

Mama said that after she met Papa and they'd been on a few dates she'd see Papa waiting for her to pass early in the mornings on her way to Weeks Island. Papa would wait on the sidewalk in front of his uncle's store for Mama's bus to go by so that he could give here a big wave. They got married in June, 1949.

That must have been a long trip from N.I. to Weeks Island, and back each day in that old wooden-bodied school bus.
Jacques

Me: I guarantee it was a long ride. I'll have to measure it sometime. I have a request in for more info on what I'm getting ready to show you. So, if my writing seems hollow and pointless, help may be on the way or not. You should be aquaineted with hollow and pointless prose, so suck it up. I'm sorry, I can't explain my recent belligerency. Humidity? No it's "sinus", the generic Louisiana excuse. If you come down here and someone is rude, have pity, he's/she's probably having a sinus attack. Of course at that point, you are probably are having one too. Commiserate while having a cup of coffee.

Where was/am I?

I had just found the recently stripped rail bed.
We'll start slow and I'll demonstrate that I was working in a dangerous area. La.83 is a fairly busy roadway supporting large truck traffic going fast. Be careful out there.



So the rails were being torn up. I'd ride south, away from the island and see just how far they were being ripped. I reflected that so much has happened in my life time. Now this.

Here a trestle crosses what my expensive software describes as a stream.



On the other side of the road the "stream" opened up into a hidden "lake".
I'm glad I didn't have to tell you where I was, "by a stream that goes into a lake", somewhere in Iberia Parish.



There goes another truck, be careful out there. I get caught up in the moment and become unfocused, especially in this heat. It can get ugly fast.



You know I had to walk out on the trestle. By the way, behind the trestle was a big pump? for what?



I moved down to where the Cypremort Point road meets 83.



This is the new road that was built to accommodate the new Intracoastal Waterway Bridge built, maybe 10 years ago? So, the crossing has to be fairly new, meaning the rail rip is fairly new. You may call me Sherlock.

I saw a road sign marked Louisa. I'd never ventured down this way ever in a million years, roughly the time span of my visits here.

The road paralleled the ripped tracks, I had an excuse to explore.



The road crossed a spur, shown on the GPS.

Ok, here is a big map which covers this page's exploration, right click it and open in new window so you can follow along.




I was now down where Louisa Plantation is flagged. I saw this sign, that's all it took.



Look behind the sign.



And more:



Here's that gear, grease stains still visible, with other stuff.



There was this large cemented area. To me that said this was not a one horse operation. But, I can't find any reference to it yet.




I headed back north toward the RR crossing. I had seen something that drew me.



If I climbed it, I could really have a good view of everything, but, the grass was a little too high to take a chance. I even thought of climbing the car and then walking to the tower. I guess I'm getting old. Obviously, the rails were intact here. I would follow them to where they ended. But first I'd find the old scales and what was left of the scale shed.





I felt with my foot for any wires of or connection that might have gone to the shed from the scales, but I found nothing.

After the scales the rails ended. I noticed one thing, the ballast was reef oyster shell there. There is an oyster plant nearby. I wonder if there is a connection?




Possibly the limstone had been scrapped off and the shell was beneath?



I followed the tracks toward the Port of St.Mary and there were more cars stored there.



That's looking back toward the tower I wanted to climb.

I took 2 more parting shots before going back to Weeks Island. That's on the next page as I'm getting tired and sloppy.

Just because I liked the shot:



And, this one is so artsy. That's the new bridge supported by an old crop.



This is going to be the horse is headed for the barn page.
First, I'll transpose another note from Jacques, as it fits what's coming.

Jacques had written this on the last page:

Lydia, as you've seen it, didn't exist until Darnall road was built. Up until then Freyou Rd [now La 83 from Lydia west] was the way to get to that spot. Most of the people in Lydia are from Weeks Island, originally. Many still work there. I'm not sure when it was, maybe the 1960s when the employees of the mine that lived there on the island were asked to leave. This was after the advent of a union at the mine or a strike called by the union at the mine. I've gotten the feeling that it's not something people there want to talk about. People who used to live on the island talk about how beautiful the island was and how much they loved living there. The workers there all lived in company owned houses. The miners could take, I guess buy, the company houses that they lived in. Most of the older looking houses in and around Lydia are houses that were once on Weeks Island. They were moved by truck to Lydia and the surrounding areas.

ME: I'd asked if I could quote him.

You can quote me if you want. I may be wrong but that's what I remember being told. I remember some of those houses being moved to Jeanerette, too. I must have been only five or six years old when that was going on. They say that's when, "Roy Berard", from Loreauville got his start moving houses. His company has since graduated to big oil field work and I don't think they move houses like that unless it involves something complicated like loading the house on a trailer and then on to a barge, to be move by water. Mr. Berard moved a house from Center St. in N.I. to my father's property south of Patoutville in the mid-'60's for about 600 dollars. They used railroad jacks, cribbing and a lot of men cranking those jacks at the same time. It's all different now...to say the least.

That's a good pic of Greg deKeyzer's store in Lydia [The Olivier Plantation Store, later on this page]. Go there on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon if you haven't yet. You'll get a kick out of all of the stuff there. There's a big penny scale that's, (On Loan) to Greg, that came from my great-uncle's drug store. It's the kind with a slender column with the great big round faced dial top. I kid Greg once in a while that I'm coming to get that scale to put back in the store...with all of the pennies...Ha-Ha.

Another fellow to talk to in Lydia that can tell you anything about the area is, Mark Charpentier. He's a barber and has his shop on Freyou Rd in the yard next to his house. On Freyou Rd, it's about 1/4 mile from what I think is called the Weeks Island hwy, the same road that the Olivier Plantation Store is on. I bought a tractor from, "Charp", about 2 years ago. Not only is he a barber, but he's the Justice Of The Peace. He's a really nice fellow and has lived in the area before the road from Lydia to the island was built. If you see him tell him that I fixed the leak on the tractor and it's working great. It's an old tractor...a '64 Case...just my speed.
Jacques

That was the coherent part of the page, now my part.

I headed to the hill, Weeks Island, from whence those houses were moved. The first time I went to Weeks I could ride everywhere, not now.



The blue behind the building is Vermilion Bay. Here's a picture from where I'd be next.



Which is at the crossing, marked "Crossing". The purple lines are where you once could drive, the +++++++ marks the rails, where they once were and where a little still is. Click to enlarge like all the pictures.





More torn up rails, this is coming from where I first found the grade.



Here's the approach to the scales.



I like to create tension and anticipation.



Now, that you are tensioned and anticipating, that's it. One more look down the once rails as they descend to marsh level. I wonder what that grade is?



I found this on the ground. It's a plate the rails rest on which is spiked to the wooden tie that supports both rails.







I took a picture of two I'd found earlier and asked Everett about their differences. Here's his reply.

In answer to the question, they are both tie plates. They are just for different size rails. Rail comes in sizes from as little as 15-20 pounds per yard, up to like 145 pound. In standard 39 foot lengths, it is not too difficult for a couple of guys to handle a length of 30# as it only weighs in at 390#. When you get to 56# and 60# which is most of what we have at Longleaf, a length weighs almost 800#, and I don't know about you, but to me that is too much for 8 guys. They originally built the Union Pacific and Central Pacific with that size rail, and I am still amazed as to how 8 guys laid as much as 10 miles of that stuff in a day. Let's see that is 1354 rail lengths for each rail, one crew on each side, so each crew handled that many lengths at 780# per rail, that is 1,056,120 pounds in a day, or 528 tons of steel. That is 66 tons per man per day.

ME, my back hurts.

I then asked him about how the tracks transitioned form one rail height (size) to the next. He be the man with track fact.

Everett's words:
As far as changing sizes goes, like from 50 to 80 or something like that (we have 30 to 56 and 56 to 60 and such as that at the museum,) they make splice bars (angle bars, rail joiners or whatever you want to call them) that fit each height of the rail web and head, so that they kept the rail surface smooth on top and inside as well. Then you shim up the shorter rail to make it all solid.

Tie plates come in many sizes and shapes, and by distributing the rail weight over more of the tie, they extend tie life by more than two times. Next time you go to Longleaf, look beside the engine house and shop, at the pile that is out there. We have at least 10 different types and sizes.

He also mentioned an experience he's had on Weeks Is.

I remember drilling some wells there in the 1970's and getting all lost and running into a water moccassin that wanted to stay between me and my car. Not Cool.

That's why I didn't go through that high grass and I was constantly surveying the limestone cuz in was warm and them suckers like warm.

ME: I really did my best to try to follow the rails down to the mine but it's all fenced since last time. That's probably due to Everett going out there and just drilling around. I've told him he needs to ask first. That kind of behavior ruins it for the rest of us.

I'd done Weeks Island. Now I needed to check on that spur off the I&V Everett had asked me about, the one that goes to the Port of New Iberia.

I checked the GPS and this is what it showed.



First I followed 83 back north through Lydia and onto 83/Freyou Road which is the historic route to the area, that being Lydia Plantation.








Yes, it is the historic route.
And, I've been looking for some of the OLD cane carts. There they were next to a new one.



Next, thinking of all the work Everett and his gang need to do up at Long Leaf, I spied this tool at the end of the line that he'd asked me to investigate. It looked lonely and abandoned. I figured we could get it going and take it to Long Leaf, after all, it had a horn for crossing roads and stuff.



I presented my plan to him and this was his reply:

Could the museum use the Kershaw Tamper? DUH.......

Now, as far as driving the Tamper, using the track would not be a problem. Now, how could we get the dispatchers to card us as a train so we would not get run over by those big bad diesels, going from NI to Laf, to Iowa and then Longleaf? Getting run over could really put a dent in your day.

I agreed.

Next, I loyally followed the rails.



Things were starting to get a little industrial looking. The NI port is huge. The place looked like a bee hive of activity. 4 buck gas, I guess so. Rigs, we got rigs Madame Polo Ski, we can get our country some oil if you will allow democracy to work and let a vote to take place on what needs to be done.






I made it to 329, the Avery Island Road and the I&V line and then followed it back to the port since I'd been off track a bit headed out.







And here's the last two, a picture of contrast and one more old cart, obviously loved and cherished. I related.





That was a good one for me. I'd never seen the Port of Iberia up close and personal. I suggest not driving through there as it is all business. You could get hurt.
I would suggest La.83 from New Iberia to Baldwin, with a side trip to Cypremort Point where you can rent cabins at the State Park. Then there's the Olivier Store on the weekends, check it out. Also, check out the Jeanerette museum, set aside a few hours for that one. Woo, time for a nap. Later, Steve