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The New Iberia yard on the NI&N was always full of covered hoppers loaded with rock salt from the Jefferson Island mine. Salt traffic was the mainstay of that branch and when the mine flooded in 1980 it didn’t take long for that branch to die.
A loaded train ran every night except Sunday north to the old NOT&M main line at Port Barre La. A former engineer told me once that it was 50 or more loads nearly all the time. As kids we never saw this train because we had to be home by the time it left. If only I’d had the sense to ask for a caboose ride between 1966 when I turned 18, to 1980 when the mine flooded.
There were little piles of salt between the rails everywhere that had escaped from the bottom of those cars, a nice modeling touch.
