In Louisiana, T&P had two parallel branches on each side of Bayou Lafourche running southerly from the Donaldsonville area. On the east side of the bayou, the T&P built from Donaldsonville to Laurel Grove, 22 miles, in 1900 and from Laurel Grove to Thibodaux in 1901, an additional 9 miles. On the west side of the bayou the T&P built south from a point about half-way between Donaldsonville and McCall, to Napoleonville in 1903, a distance of 15.50 miles. The junction of the Napoleonville Branch with the main line is sometimes referred to as Geary, but in recent years it has been listed as McCall as it physically switched from the main at the east end of the McCall siding.

The two lines were never more than about 2 or 3 miles apart, and at Napoleonville they were less than a mile apart. Napoleonville sits on the west side of the bayou, and the small community of Ratliff sits on the east bank. The June 1921 Official Guide lists the two branches as separate lines with their own trains, each having a single round trip each day out of Donaldsonville. At some time, possibly in the 1930’s, the T&P decided to build a short, s-curved connector track with a bridge across Bayou Lafourche to connect the two lines. That allowed them to abandon the line between Donaldsonville and Ratliff, connecting the southern portion of the Lafourche branch with the Napoleonville Branch. Also at some point the combined line became known as the Thibodaux Sub-Division, as it showed in the Oct 23, 1955 Louisiana Division timetable #12. When the Lafourche Branch was abandoned between Donaldsonville and Ratliff, about a mile of track was retained at Donaldsonville along with the wye trackage and this became the yard there, that still exists today.

The line operated thusly as the Thibodaux Branch or Subdivision up through MoPac ownership. Abandonment started in 1984, when 22.9 miles were removed from Westfield to Thibodaux, including the crossing of Bayou Lafourche at Napoleonville. In 1989 an additional 4 miles were abandoned between Lula and Westfield. In 2000, UP leased the remainder of the line from McCall to Lula to the Acadiana Railroad, but their operation ended a few years later when the sugar mill at Lula quit using rail service. Although the track has not been removed yet, it appears quite overgrown with little hope of ever being reactivated.

One interesting survivor of the line is the bridge across Bayou Lafourche at Napoleonville, which has been re-decked and fenced to serve as a pedestrian crossing for the nearby Assumption High School.

Does anybody have any information on the date of the abandonment of the Lafourche branch between Donaldsonville and Ratliff? Or can anybody help narrow down the date through timetable changes showing the consolidation of the branch?