Lake Charles is located in the southwest corner of the state, about 30 or so miles from the Texas border. The KCS, UP, BNSF, Amtrak, and the L&D all visit the area. The KCS operates west of town in Mossville, which is close to West Lake. Lots of train traffic can be spotted along the old SP mainline through Lake Charles with the UP having trackage rights over the BNSF's mainline to Houston. The KCS runs north to Shreveport or west to Beaumont over their own tracks through the city of DeQuincy.
This page was updated on March 2, 2000

For the past three years the L&D has been running the "Cane Train" from the sugar cane fields around Lake Charles, LA to Baldwin, LA. Open top 20' containers are loaded and shipped over the BNSF main to a sugar mill near Baldwin. In this Dec 1, 1999 photo, ML 14 with the L&D 1500, and L&D 1850 have just stop at the I-210 overpass on the east end of Lake Charles. The rear end of the train has just cleared Mallard Jct and will back through the switch and to the loading area a couple of miles to the south. Being set-up for push/pull operation, the train does not have to be turned on each trip. (Click on image for full size view)

The KCS had to be trying out some new wide cabs that came south on a BN coal train as seen in this April 4, 1998 photo taken on the north end of Buhler Siding just north of the Gulf States Power plant in Mossville, LA. I found it very unusual to see BN Mac70's on a general merchandise freight.
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Lots of BN power comes south on the KCS with coal trains. This April 5, 1998 shot, one day later than the previous shot, is of a full coal train tied up at the south end of Buhler waiting to unload at the power plant just down the tracks from this location. Coal fired power plants are rare in Louisiana due to the abundance of natural gas, so coal trains are just as rare for us down here.
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Heading north at Buhler on April 5, 1998, is the Lake Charles/DeQuincy local on it's way to deliver some "hot" cars to a freight it will meet in DeQuincy, LA. This matched set of GP40M's were around Lake Charles for quite some time and have been spotted as far west as Beaumont, TX.
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This eastbound BNSF train waits at Ryan St for clearance to pass through the UP yard at Lake Charles. Lake Charles is a bottle neck and to eliminate some of the delays, the UP has just completed a run-around track bypassing the yard. This train is stopped at the location of the new Amtrak "mini" station in Lake Charles. Several large telephone poles have been installed at the site of this photo making it very difficult to repeat this picture.
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This SP local is headed east over the backwaters of Lake Charles in this January 11, 1998 photo. Chemical cars are sorted and rounded up at the Rose Bluff yard in West Lake and then are delivered to the UP yard in Lake Charles, just across the lake. The KCS also shares tracks in the Rose Bluff yard with the UP, but heads north from the yard and not over this trestle.
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DeQuincy is the place to go to catch some KCS action, as well as UP traffic. A beautiful station is located in the middle of town and is situated in the middle of the KCS "Wye". This April 5, 1998 shot shows the Lake Charles local delivering those hot cars to a Texas bound train waiting on the north end of the wye. A cool place to watch trains from is the Iron Horse Tavern located just out of the picture, across the tracks and to the right.
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North of DeQuincy is the town and KCS siding named Singer. This April 5, 1998 shot has a northbound empty coal train waiting for a southbound coal that will arrive shortly. As you can tell by the dates of this and the previous pictures, there is a lot of activity on the KCS.
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Most of the UP traffic that passes through Kinder, LA either is headed west to Houston or east to Lavonia. When cars have to go to Lake Charles or when traffic get congested on the northern route to Houston, trains can be routed south over the UP's upgraded north/south line. The line runs south to Iowa Jct. This southbound UP train approaches the town of Iowa (pronounced Eye-O-A) in this February 20, 1998 photo. Naturally lots of chemical traffic, tank cars and hoppers, are found on freights on this line. Traffic is moderate to slow at times.
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