| This view was facing west near the end of the ICG Shore Line District on the west side of Covington, Louisiana. The track on the left was the south side of a wye, and once connected with a rail line from Baton Rouge via Hammond. This connecting line was completed into Covington in 1908 by a subsidiary of the Illinois Central, the Baton Rouge, Hammond & Eastern. The IC abandoned the track between here and Hammond in 1934 and subsequently sold it to the Gaylord Container Corp. so it could operate pulpwood trains from Hammond to Bogalusa via the GM&N. Gaylord became Crown Zellerbach, and the track was removed in 1972.The track curving off to the right is the east leg of the wye. Up until 1932 this was the main line north to Folsom, seven miles; but now it was just a short stub serving Poole Lumber Co. There was no run-around track in Covington, so the locomotive on the Shore Line local had to use the wye to get onto the opposite end of its train. The track here was abandoned in 1991. |