Welcome to Lee A. Gautreaux's Home Page
Okay, back to freight cars! This gorgeous spring weather has inspired me to get some photos uploaded and pages created that I have been having on the back burner for a while. Specifically, I've started working on expanding my D&RGW and Western Pacific freight car pages. I've added some of my old images along with a pile from my friend Jeff Guidry. Stop by and take a look. Remember, submissions are always welcome! This image of a D&RGW 50' double door box car from series D&RGW 63300-63499 was shot by myself in Lafayette yard when it was still the SP during my years at college at USL. I guess I may have gotten better grades if I would have spent less time down by the yard photographing freight cars...... Yeah, like that was ever gonna happen!
SP Freight Cars - Vol. IV now available!
Howdy! Well, congratulations, you have managed to stumble across a rather different web site! Yes, this site is different by design. I wanted it that way. You won't see any animated characters or scrolling banners or any of that glitzy stuff here.
You see this site is a front door to a few of my favorite areas of interest. I happen to be a huge fan of railroading. I seem to have always had this fascination with the flanged wheel on steel rails. I got my introduction to this hobby (obsession?) when I was 5 years old. My parents took me on a restored steam train excursion from New Orleans, LA to Hattiesburg, MS and back. This train was the Southern 4501, a beautiful green, red and silver Mikado (2-8-2 wheel arrangement) locomotive. That cemented a life long love of trains. The excursions became yearly family traditions until the Norfolk Southern stopped running the trips in the mid eighties.
Well, it didn't take long for me to seek out the local rail line that ran near my house in Houma, LA. The Southern Pacific railroad had a branch off of their New Orleans to Los Angeles "Sunset" main line from Schriever to Houma. At the time, the mid 70's, this line was bustling with activity. The Southdown sugar refinery was busy grinding cane into "white gold" and the oil industry was busy drilling for "black gold." During my "bike years," I got to know the folks who worked the branch and fell in love with the little grey and red EMD switch engines and GP-9's that powered the branch local.
Fast forward a few years after joining the Crescent City Model Railroad Club, meeting a great friend and fellow Southern Pacific fan, Bill Klope, somehow managing to get my Mechanical Engineering degree, getting married to the right girl, going to work for McDermott and learing how to lift BIG HEAVY stuff, buying my first house and having a wonderful daughter, learning to vote Republican, learning how to pick out a little bit of music on the old six string, getting a great job at BellSouth (now AT&T,) having our youngest child turn eight years old this December and surviving both hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Whew! That's where we are today. I'm planning my first real layout now. I'll be building a two story garage with my layout on the second floor. I already have a design for a portion of the Lafayette Division around the walls in the fashion of one of my big influences in the hobby, David Barrow. The setting has changed a little, however. In the beginning, my focus was on present day railroading. Well, present day railroading ain't what it used to be! The retirement of those beautiful GP-9's and switchers, the merger mania that claimed my beloved Southern Pacific as a victim and the new corporate culture at railroad headquarters have all contributed to my officially changing my modeling era to the early 1960's. To me, that must have been a magical time. The freight cars and locomotives wore brightly decorated paint schemes designed by artists, not lawyers and accountants. Little boys looked up with wonder at the engineer in the cab of the passing train and dreamed of taking the throttle one day themselves.
Anyway, come with me as I try to take a trip on the rails of the past. I have a large volume of information avaiblible on my web site. It certainly has been a wonderful meeting place for so many great folks. So, come on in, the water's fine, and check back often.
If you would like to contact me, drop me an e-mail.
Golden West Service Freight Cars Page.
Western Pacific Freight Car Page.
Model Railroader 70th Anniversary Box Car Page.
Private Owner/Shortline Freight Cars Page.
Louisiana State Police - The Enemy!
Lisa Park G/T class 1975-1979.
