Godchaux Sugar Company

Leon Godchaux, realizing the importance of the plantation railroad in bringing about the centralization of the grinding and refining on the many plantations he purchased, built an amazing system of tramways. Of all the Louisiana plantation railroads, these were in a class by themselves.

Godchaux-Reserve House Historical Society

As early as 1890, the Godchaux Sugar Company began using rails to bring its sugar cane crops to its south Louisiana mills for processing. Five years later, Godchaux had purchased its first two steam locomotives -- two Baldwin tank engines -- and had track stretching at least 20 miles. The elaborate 36" narrow gauge system was scrapped in 1958 when the mill changed hands, but not before rostering 7 active steam engines, a Whitcomb switcher, over 250 double-truck cane cars, and dozens of miles of trackage all across the plantation fields.

Motive Power

Godchaux Sugar Company #1

collection

Godchaux Sugar Company #1

builder:Baldwin Locomotive Works
arrangement:0-4-4T Forney four-coupled
built:1895, Baldwin #14065
fuel:coal/water
notes:
blt for Reserve Plantation
to C. W. Whitbeck, 1956
to Disneyland Railroad #3, 1957

Godchaux Sugar Company #3

collection

Godchaux Sugar Company #3

builder:Baldwin Locomotive Works
arrangement:0-4-4T Forney four-coupled
built:1898, Baldwin #16200
fuel:coal/water
notes:
blt for Reserve Plantation
scrapped, 1952

Godchaux Sugar Company #5

collection

Godchaux Sugar Company #5

builder:Dickson Manufacturing Co.
arrangement:0-4-4T Forney four-coupled
built:unknown, Dickson #1017
fuel:coal/water
notes:
blt for LaPlace Plantation
to Reserve Plantation, 1909
scrapped, 1942

Godchaux Sugar Company #6

collection

Godchaux Sugar Company #6

builder:Davenport Locomotive Works
arrangement:0-4-4T Forney four-coupled
built:1907, Davenport #741
fuel:coal/water
notes:
blt for Alma Plantation
to Reserve Plantation, 1938
rebuilt 2-6-0 with tender
to Edaville Railroad, 1959

Godchaux Sugar Company #7

collection

Godchaux Sugar Company #7

builder:H. K. Porter Company
arrangement:0-6-4T Forney six-coupled
built:1911, Porter #4969
fuel:coal/water
notes:
blt for Supple Plantation
to Elray Kocke Service, Inc, 1951
to Tally-Ho Station, 1958
to C. W. Witbeck, 1960
to Reno, Nevada, 1962

1955 wreck

In November of 1955, as No. 4 was crossing Highway 61, North of LaPlace, pulling a train loaded with cane to the mill, it was hit by a truck traveling at a high rate of speed and carrying a heavy load of piling. The driver failed to heed the warning by the flagman, and the vehicle plowed into the train, striking the first car behind the tender. The impact was so great it tore the car to shreds, derailed others, and dragged the locomotive and tender into a ditch some thirty feet away. The brakeman riding the pilot beam was killed, and another railroad employee, also riding the pilot beam, lost one of his legs. During the sixty-three years the platation road operated, this was only the second fatality that occurred. The other happened at LaPlace, where a man was killed as he walked into the path of No. 4.

Godchaux-Reserve House Historical Society

LaPlace, La / Jan 1956 / JCH

Correspondence about wreck / 1972

In late 1955 I was a student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Every weekend I drove back home to New Orleans on U.S. 61. In December I passed the Godchaux wreckage several times, each time vowing on the next trip to bring my camera and take some photos. Finally, in January of '56, I stopped and made these photos -- some of the first ones I took with my used 127 twin lens camera I had only recently acquired.

Links / Sources

The Godchaux Plantation Railroads