New Orleans
Great Northern Railroad

he New Orleans Great Northern Railroad was incorporated in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi in 1905 by the owners of the Great Southern Lumber Company — builders of one of the largest sawmills in the country, at the new mill town of Bogalusa, Louisiana. The new railroad bought the East Louisiana Railway in June of the same year: a shortline from Pearl River west to Mandeville and Covington. Building on that base, the "Nogan's" full 250 mile mainline was completed from Slidell to Jackson, Mississippi by 1910.

The new regional road advertised itself as "The Ozone Route," a nod to the southeastern parishes of Louisiana which were advertised at the turn of the century as rich with ozone and therefore offering quality air for vacations or health benefits. Westward branchlines of the NOGN included runs from Rio, Louisiana, to Tylertown, Mississippi; and the Shoreline Branch: Slidell to Covington and Folsom, with an additional line coming back east as far as Pearl River. From Slidell south, the NOGN utilized trackage rights on the Southern Railway to cross Lake Pontchartrain and access the city of New Orleans. NOGN's operations were based in Bogalousa.

The expanding regional Gulf, Mobile & Northern, based in Mobile, acquired control of the otherwise failing NOGN in 1929, and officially leased the road in 1933, giving it access to a second port city. Later, the route of the former NOGN would be Gulf, Mobile & Ohio's well-used mainline from Jackson (and numerous points north) to the Crescent City. The Illinois Central Gulf merger in 1972 caused many GM&O mainlines in the south to be abandoned or deprecated to secondary trackage, including the NOGN's north-south route. The ICG forfeited GM&O's trackage rights over the Southern into New Orleans in favor of the former Illinois Central mainline. Despite a major upgrade in 1980, the Shoreline Branch would be abandoned by 1992; the western portion of the right-of-way has been preserved as the Tammany Trace walking trail. Today, all of the NOGN's main and branchlines south of Bogalusa have been abandoned. Canadian National (Illinois Central successor) still operates the former NOGN main between Bogalusa and Wanilla, Mississippi, using the former Mississippi Central line west to Brookhaven to connect to its national network. The northernmost NOGN segment — Wanilla to Jackson -- is abandoned.