For over 150 years trains have been traveling the historical tracks that connect New Orleans with Jackson, MS., leaving behind a legacy of civilization that has been engineered into one of the fastest growing parishes in the state.
Dating back to the 1850’s, Tangipahoa’s railroad system has seen changes come to the parish that would inspire a new generation of agriculture and industry, as well as make way for the new wave of changes in the latter half of the century.
According to the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, “It was the coming of the railroad that insured our town’s existence, prompted land speculation and brought many new people to the area.” This is also reportedly true of the other municipalities in the parish.
Toward the end of the century, a large amount of the lumber in the vicinity of the tracks had reportedly been cut down and hauled off, transforming the once wooded area around the tracks into “cut over land.” “The downtown became a shipping center for the prosperous timber industry,” Chamber officials said. As the years progressed, so would the diversity and shipment revenues from other sources.
According to the Hammond Centennial Committee, “After the railroad hauled that timber, it needed to find a new source of freight business. The Illinois Central, successor to the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad, began in 1886 to convert cut over land into high traffic producing territory by fostering truck farming.”
This endeavor led to the inception of many of the industries and agricultural projects that Tangipahoa Parish enjoys today, including strawberry farming and dairy farming, which are staples of parish life. With this growth coming, in large part, as a result of the rail industry in the parish, Illinois Central decided to capitalize on this fact by promoting Hammond and the business opportunities and accommodations in the area.
While still very modest at that time, there was evidence that the rail system was providing steam for the expansion of Hammond and the other municipalities that had started springing up throughout the parish.
By the turn of the 20th century Hammond and the parish had seen remarkable growth and the rail system was no doubt bringing more with each passing year.
J.F. Merry, Illinois Central’s Assistant General Passenger Agent at that time, compiled a number of letters written by “northern farmers” in the Tangipahoa area. Those letters made it clear that by this time all the trains that were passing through the area were stopping in Hammond to refuel and refresh their passengers.
According to Merry, during this period there were industries such as brickyards, carriage manufacturers, and woodwork factories that used the rail system to haul their goods. However there was no comparison between these industries and the agricultural industries that were taking advantage of the tracks and boosting the local economy.
In the early 1900’s it is reportedly estimated that there was over $100,000 worth of produce shipped from Tangipahoa to the adjacent cities of New Orleans and Jackson. In the time since then, the rail system has seen its ups and downs but still continues to play a role in the future of the parish.
Moving full steam ahead into the future, Illinois Central built an addition to the rail system that was already in place within the parish.
Rail Historian Tom Davidson said that in 1906, Covington was linked with Baton Rouge by way of a new track system that passed through Tangipahoa parish and united all the towns along the railroad. However, in the 1930’s the stretch of rail that linked Hammond with Covington was abandoned by the Illinois Central.
This in turn opened the door for other companies to move in and develop further business uses for the stretch of tracks. “It was leased for several years by some of the lumber railroads and later purchased by Gaylord Container Corp.,” Davidson said. “It remained in service until 1969 for hauling pulp wood from Hammond to Bogalusa.”
After the infamous Hurricane Camille blew through the Gulf Coast that year, the rail system took on a relief mission aspect in addition to the commerce and travel that had highlighted its existence to that point. “Gaylord started picking up downed timber in Mississippi and in 1972 and ’73 they abandoned the railroad and took it up,” he said. “And that is basically what we got out there,” he said.
As the technological revolution of the 20th century continued the influence of the rail system diminished. Following its peak in the 1950’s, transit by train in the parish was slowly replaced by alternate forms of transportation that were faster and more efficient. This has also forced the rail system to adapt in order to survive. “The railroads have gone to the unit train concept where they haul a solid train of grain or a solid train of coal,” he said. “They don’t serve the individual businesses like they used to.”
In addition to this change, where once there were manned train stations throughout the parish in Amite, Kentwood, Hammond, Ponchatoula, Independence, and several others, there is now only a manned station in Hammond that sells tickets to Amtrak clientele. “You’ve got the same maintenance crews based here, but they are much smaller,” he said. “You don’t have the shops in McComb which used to employ 800 to 1,000 people and many of them from Tangipahoa Parish.”
All of these factors have seriously diminished the economic impact that the rail system has had on the parish in the latter years of the 20th century and now into the 21st. However, Davidson does see the possibility for the rail system to one day take another prominent role in the economic future of the parish. In order for that to happen several prerequisites must take place. “If the oil prices go up and stay up and if there is some kind of government assistance or tax break for them,” Davidson sees the possibility of rehabilitating the train system as a viable business for transportation and commerce. Short of those things happening however, he does not seem to believe that the rail system in the parish will ever make a comeback to its former glory days.
Amtrak officials would seem to agree with this possibility in the fact that they reportedly saw a spike in the number of passenger tickets sold during the summer of 2008, when gas and oil prices were soaring.
However, since that time the use of trains as a source of freight shipping and transit has once again returned to pre 2008 lows. Davidson said that traffic is still continuing to drop from levels the rail system enjoyed just two years ago.
He said that two years ago there were two trains that came to and from Baton Rouge around 6 a.m.; two trains out of Geismar came through the parish in the afternoon, and two other trains that came through in the evenings. In addition to those, both the Baton Rouge and McComb local trains also came through daily.
Now that number has been cut in half as he says that there are only about three trains that come through the area on a regular basis and only two or three times a week will anyone spot the Baton Rouge or McComb local train.
From its peak in the mid 20th century Davidson said that the passenger trains coming through Hammond have diminished from about eight to what is seen now and the freight industry has been derailed, going from 25 to 30 trains a day to the smattering that comes through on a regular basis.
He attributes these vast differences, even in the past few years, to the growing amount of alternate transportation and the failing economic climate.
However, despite these unfortunate turns for the rail system in the parish, the fact that Hammond is now the only stop between New Orleans and Jackson, allows it to stay viable in a limited fashion.
There are still reportedly about 75 to 80 passengers that board the Amtrak daily as well as the fact that the train depot in Hammond itself has become a historical fixture. This, along with some other perks, allows the rail system to still have something of an economic impact on Hammond and the parish. “The city of Hammond owns a rail spur that goes from the mainline track out to our industrial park,” says Hammond Mayor Mason Foster. “A number of businesses that are in the industrial park are totally dependent on the railroad for supplying them with the raw materials that they need. Two examples are liquid Container and Home Depot.”
In addition to rail system still being important to Hammond, it is also reportedly still important to the parish as a whole. “I think it’s very important for the parish,” Parish President Gordon Burgess said. “The railroad was there and that’s what really made Tangipahoa parish what it is today. I think it is a vital link with the rest of the nation.”
Burgess said that even though the rail is slow-moving it is even more reliable than it has been in the past. The parish government also considers it a good selling point for Tangipahoa. “You can go to Chicago or you can go to New Orleans on the rail system,” he said. There are also pockets of economic impact throughout the parish, such as in Arcola and Roseland, even though the rail system does not have a great impact on the parish as a whole.
Burgess also sees the rail system as an alternative to the increasingly congested interstate system that most commerce and travel now comes by. This provides an option to this mode of transit and also takes some of the pressure off the interstate system. “The highways are so filled today, almost anywhere you go today the roads are full of 18-wheelers,” he said. “That has slowed down the flow of traffic in these interstate systems. If we did not have the rail I think we would have a great increase in truck traffic. We have just about as much as we can take now.”
Despite the fact that the rail system’s glory days do seem to be a part of history, government officials and businesses still can see the value of this time-honored mode of transportation. As the 21st century continues to unfold there seems to be no doubt that the Tangipahoa rail system will persist in providing invaluable services as well as supply a continued track back to the rich past the parish has in its heritage.