Bradshaw

Trains brought freight, passengers, and practical jokers

Lafayette became an important rail hub once trains began running between New Orleans and Houston in the 1880s and grew even more important once the Southern Pacific line stretched all the way to California, but not all of the trains using that hub ran on that straight and fast transcontinental line.

Until the Great Depression and Huey Long’s road-paving program did away with them, little trains scooted all across south Louisiana.