Jim Bradshaw: Trains brought freight, people and practical jokes

Lafayette became an important rail hub once trains began running between New Orleans and Houston in the 1880s and grew even more important once the Southern Pacific line stretched all the way to California, but not all of the trains using that hub ran on that straight and fast  transcontinental line.
Until the Great Depression and Huey Long’s road- paving program did away with them, little trains scooted all across south Louisiana.
I was reminded of that when, going through a batch of old papers, I came across notes from a long interview done 25 or more years ago with the late Sam Walker, who drove big trains and small  as an SP engineer,
He  recalled that small trains ran daily from Lafayette to Alexandria and Baton Rouge, both of them departing at 2:05 in the afternoon.
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 and passengers were ferried across the Mississippi River.
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 a.m. each morning for Midland in Acadia Parish, then continued on spur lines to New Iberia.
It stayed in New Iberia until about 4 in the afternoon, when it returned via Midland to Lafayette.
In later years, the train was replaced by a so-called “Doodlebug,” a motorized coach that required no locomotive.
In addition to the passenger runs, there were several regular freight trains running from, to, or through Lafayette.
Sam remembered that freights numbered 834 and 835 ran from Lafayette to Alexandria six days a week. During the cotton and yam harvests, trains 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 that hauled perishables to Alexandria at night was called the “Mary Jane,” but Sam didn’t know how it got that name.
There were also “mixed trains” that combined freight and passenger service, running from Mamou to Midland, Port Barre to Cade, and Cypremort to Franklin.
In addition to regular passenger and freight runs, special excursion trains regularly ran from practically every town that had a depot to New Orleans for big events such as Mardi Gras and smaller ones such as baseball games, picking up passengers at every stop. 
For example, a special train to New Orleans for a baseball doubleheader in 1938 left Lafayette at 4:15 a.m., stopped at Broussard at 4:25 a.m., Cade (4:35), New Iberia (4:50), Olivier (5:00), Jeanerette (5:10), Baldwin (5:25), Franklin (5:35), Bayou Sale (5:44), Patterson (5:57), Berwick (6:07), Morgan City (6:12), Boeuf (6:22), Gibson (6:32), Donner (6:37), Chacahoula (6:44), Schriever (6:55), Lafourche (7:05), Raceland Junction (7:20), Des Allemands (7:30), Paradis (7:37), Boutte (7:45), Carrollton Avenue Station (8:35) and finally arrived at Union Station in downtown New Orleans at 8:45 a.m.
Sam recalled that Dick Tanner, who was an engineer on the Lafayette-Alexandria passenger train, had been the fireman on the Sabine, the first engine to pull into Lafayette, when the rails reached the city in 1880.
The engineer on the Baton Rouge passenger train was a Frank Poimbouef, as Sam remembered.
After it was retired from the rails, that little engine sat on the grounds next to the Lafayette depot until the 1940s, when it was scrapped so that its much-needed metal could be used for World War Ii  weapons.
Sam also remembered that Walter Elmer, who ran the switch engine in the Lafayette yard, was an accomplished ventriloquist who delighted in “throwing” his voice into a heavy iron box that sat next to the tracks.
The box held the tools used to service engines when they pulled into Lafayette.
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 ventriloquy.
You can contact Jim Bradshaw at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.