The Blue Mountain & Reading’s former Gulf, Mobile & Northern 4-6-2-425 drifts across the Maiden Creek with a scheduled excursion train. The Pacific, best known by contemporary fans as the blue-painted Reading & Northern, was once part of the greatest episodes of steam preservation and subsequent failure, the Louisiana Eastern Railroad.
Wealthy Baton Rouge mechanical engineer/businessman Paulsen Spence planned construction of an alternate railroad route to bypass New Orleans, and amassed a collection of 37 steam locomotives, including four Nickel Plate 4-6-4’s, to be the road’s power. Upon Spence’s unexpected death in 1961, his second will, which set aside $400,000 for the establishment of a museum to preserve his locomotives, was invalidated due to a technicality. His widow, who did not remotely share his love of the locomotives, soon sold the entire collection for scrap. Only four L&E alumni, including 425, survive. For an excellent read about the Louisiana Eastern, click HERE.
