Steam & Excursion > Red River and Gulf RR happenings

Saturday was a big day for the Southern Forest Heritage Museum and the Red River and Gulf RR.  The frames of cabooses #1 and #5, long rusting away at the Long Leaf Jct. yard were recovered and moved to the Long Leaf shop for rehabilitation and rebuilding into excursion cars for Santee River Hardwood #3.   A huge step in the goal of having an operating steam railroad at Long Leaf.

See: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0zWk8SDRLKHQNdMNKp5jrwgDwm5BL9TLKWTyTJ7tpWW57QBk1NVLwKcLiW7QvxYbtl&id=100064143879111

A couple of photos from the move

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A big undertaking.
Probably mentioned before, but that's a terrific slogan!
 

Some assembly required!

Long Leaf, LA sounds like an interesting place

Camp Claiborne claims to be the birthplace of U.S. Army Airborne service.


https://forestheritagemuseum.org/tours/exhibits

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Camp Claiborne, 5 miles from Long Leaf, was where they split the 82nd division (the All America Division) into the 82nd Airborne and took the other half and created th 101st Airborne (The Screaming Eagles).   Split and activated the 82nd in the morning and the 101st in the afternoon.  Omar Bradley was the commander of the 82nd at the time, and arranged for America's most decorated soldier of the First World War, Sgt. Alvin York to come and speak to both units as they were activated.   York had been a member of the 82nd in that war.
It was also the home of the Army built, Claiborne-Polk Military Railroad, where the army trained railroaders for all theaters of the war.   Claiborne also was the home of the 34th Infrantry Division, which was the first National Guard division activated for the war, basically opened Camp Claiborne, and fought its way through the Torch landings in North Africa, and Sicily and up Italy for the duration of the war, making it one of the only divisions that was in the war from the first landing in Europe to the end of the war.   Claiborne trained multiple artillery and tank units including the famous 761st Independent Tank battalion (The Black Panthers).  It also served the function, working closely with the Crowell Sawmill at nearby Long Leaf of training some of the least known troops of the war, the army forestry battalions, who were responsible for scouting out and preparing logging operations for lumber to build facilities from the jungles of New Guinea and Southeast Asia to the heart of Europe.  Add to that the fact that the Crowell mill at Long Leaf was one of 5 Louisiana sawmills who cut 90% of the timber used in the WW-2 landing crafts, the LCP, LCVP, LCM etc that collectivelly became known as "Higgins Boats".  Almost 30,000 of these craft were built in New Orleans, with the lumber for between 9000 and 10,000 coming from the Crowell mill at Long Leaf, all by itself.  

Alexandria and the Camp Claiborne area were also home to the  1941 Louisiana maneuvers, which was the largest peacetime war game in U.S. History and by training more than 500,000 troops, began the process of getting the US rArmy eady for World War 2.

Definitly a most interesting area and a focal point in U.S. History that most people today have never heard of. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/26 10:47 by elueck.

Very interesting history, thank you.

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For the record, here is cabose #1 in service at Long Leaf in 1950.

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