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Here is a photo of a remaining abutment of the BayouTeche bridge where the “133” accident happened, from another website, along with the non-railfan-commentary that went with it.
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Missouri Pacific railroad bridge.
(Photo by author)
Still in the vicinity of Charenton, Keith and I canoed past a large cement structure [29.881543, -91.521699] on the east bank of the Teche. At first it reminded me of a World War II-era bunker or pillbox, but as we canoed closer I noticed a few wooden crossties atop the structure: it was a piling for a now-abandoned railroad bridge. I thought perhaps it had served a “dummy line,” one of the narrow-gauge railroads that many local sugar plantations used a century ago to carry harvested cane to the mills. At Patoutville [29.903721, -91.729066], for example, Enterprise Plantation — located not too far from the Teche — operated its own dummy line and still possesses three vintage locomotives in storage. (Two other Patoutville locomotives underwent restoration and today transport fun seekers around the Six Flags over Texas amusement park.) I checked an old quad map, however, and found that the bridge in question had belonged to the Missouri Pacific Railroad, whose line over the Teche had long since been ripped up.
