Mike
Palmieri's
LOUISIANA·RAIL·SITE
SOUTHERN PACIFIC
C44-9W's 8122 and 8121
-- more below --
Benton, Louisiana
31 August 1996
Jerry Sires photo
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With uncharacteristically clear exhausts, a pair of big GE's roll north
through Benton on the Cotton Belt's Shreveport Subdivision. This is
dark territory and the speed limt is 49, but this train is going a
little faster than that! Benton is the seat of Bossier Parish and is 10
miles north of Bossier City. The photo was taken from a northbound
vehicle on Louisiana Highway 3, which parallels the railroad almost all
of the way from Bossier City to the Arkansas state line.
The Cotton Belt's Shreveport Subdivision was 62
miles long, running from a connection with the railroad's St.
Louis-Texas main line at Lewisville, Arkansas to the SP/SSW Shreveport
Yard. There, it connected with the SP's Lufkin Subdivison -- the Rabbit
-- to Houston. Two months after this photo was taken, the Shreveport
Subdivision became an important part of the Union Pacific; and the
following year, the line became even busier when Burlington Northern
Santa Fe trains began using these tracks too.