hawkinsrails.net / lagniappe
HawkinsRails.net represents 50 years of railfan photography, shared by a father and son, with special focus on railroad lines in the southeast United States. Here we feature some railroad lagniappe (lan-yap ... Louisiana for "a little something extra"). Locomotives, rolling stock, and location shots from railroad museums, tourist hauling lines, and scale riding railroads all over the United States. And as more and more of our collection goes digital, who knows what else will land on this page! All photographs are by John or Ralph Hawkins unless otherwise noted. See our reprints page to learn more about ordering a reprint or digital file of a particular photograph on this page.
We picked up one excellent word — a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word — "lagniappe." They pronounce it lanny-yap. It is Spanish — so they said. We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in the Picayune, the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth. It has a restricted meaning, but I think the people spread it out a little when they choose. It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a "baker's dozen." It is something thrown in, gratis, for good measure.
Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1883