Small trains scooted across area

By Jim Bradshaw
Until the late 1930s, when the Great Depression and Huey Long’s road-paving program did away with them, little trains scooted all across south Louisiana carrying both passengers and freight.
The small trains that ran daily from Lafayette to Alexandria and Baton Rouge were a far cry from the Sunset Limited, but they got the job done. These trains consisted only of an engine, a combination mail and baggage car, and two coaches.
The Baton Rouge train actually stopped at Port Allen on the west bank of the Mississippi River and passengers were ferried across to the Capitol City. That route was undone by the Flood of 1927, which washed away the railroad bridge across the Atchafalaya River.
Another train left Lafayette at 7 o’clock every morning for Midland in Acadia Parish, where it turned south and continued on to New Iberia. It stayed in New Iberia until about 4 in the afternoon, then returned via Midland to Lafayette. In later years, the train was replaced by a so-called “Doodlebug,” a motorized coach that required no engine.
In addition to the passenger runs, there were several regular freight trains running from, to, or through Lafayette. Freights ran from Lafayette to Alexandria six days a week. During the cotton and yam harvests, they regularly made what was called the “Washington Turn,” running from Lafayette to Carencro, Sunset, Opelousas, and to Washington, where the train turned around and headed back.
A so-called “hot shot” train hauled perishables to Alexandria at night. “Mixed trains” that combined freight and passenger service, ran from Mamou to Midland, Port Barre to Cade, and Cypremort to Franklin.
Besides the regularly scheduled runs, a number of “specials” operated from Lafayette during the 1920s and 1930s. Some of them were so- called “excursion” trains, that made one-day trips for events such as football games, but there were also scheduled specials,
New Orleans stores held big sales on Wednesdays and Fridays, so a “shopper’s special” left Lafayette at 5:30 a.m., on those days, picking up people all along the route to New Orleans, and arriving at Union Station just about 9:30 a.m., when the stores opened their doors. The train left New Orleans at 5:30 in the evening for the return trip.
When SLI (ULL) let out on Fridays, an eastbound “student special” was waiting at the station. It left Lafayette about 3:30 each Friday afternoon, dropping kids off at the various stops along the way to New Orleans. It returned to Lafayette on Sunday evenings, bringing the scholars back to school.
Railroading was serious business in those days, but not everyone was always serious minded.
Years ago, long-time railroader Sam Walker told me about Walter Elmer, who ran the switch engine in the Lafayette yard, and who was an accomplished ventriloquist. He delighted in “throwing” his voice into a heavy iron tool box that sat next to the tracks. As kids on their way home from school neared the box, they would suddenly hear cries for help coming from it. “Help! I’m in the box and the lid has fallen on me! I can’t get out! Help! Help!”
The lid was too heavy for them to lift, and more than one youngster dashed, panic-stricken, to the depot to get help, another victim of Elmer’s ventriloquism.
Sam may have been one of those kids. He told me that when he was a kid he liked to watch the trains pull in at the Lafayette depot, where it took only six minutes to service them and get them on their way again. The engine pulled up to the water tower that was “just shy of Jefferson Street” and got a load of water for the boilers. Other crewmen oiled and greased the moving parts.
In hot weather, ice was loaded onto bins on the tops of the passenger cars and big fans were used to circulate the cool air inside the cars. Two men hauled a cart of ice from one car to the other. One of the men climbed onto the top of the car and the other threw the blocks of ice up to him.
While they were doing this, “butcher boys” peddled cakes, newspapers and sandwiches to the passengers, mail and packages were loaded aboard, and new passengers said their good-byes to family and friends who were there to see them off.
Then it was “All aboard!” and the Southern Pacific was on its way again.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.