Mystery NI&N building

[bargetanika]

This was in a private email but I thought it might be of some interest to some of the MPHS members…..

There was a little building in New Iberia next to the roundhouse, it shows in A E Brown’s 1949 photograph in MoPac Power. It stayed yellow and brown to the end in the late 60’s. It had a semaphore order board by the 1960s, the wall mounted turning lantern/ target order board had been replaced, I don’t remember it.

Never knew what that building was for, it was empty and wide open, we went in it many times. We could have asked what it was for, but kids don’t think of that kind of stuff. The order board was always a big mystery, the track the building faced led down to the Bayou Spur where the freight house was (and still is.). We thought it might have had something to do with the mixed train, but that was gone in 1935, and MP modernized the order board almost 20 years later.

Back in those days there was no vandalism or grafitti. It had a paint shadow of a gone railroad clock on the wall, and a sign still below it that said “standard clock.”

Oh the pictures we could have taken. I need to write a narrative of all of this period time stuff for the Eagle.

[peggyrothschild]

Pat
Could be a telegraph cabin; did you look in the Condensed Profiles?

[bargetanika]

That is probably what it had been. The telegraph/telephone pole right outside had two cross arms, with one right below the other at a 90 degree angleif I remember right. The wires were on green and clear glass insulators and led down into the building.

Some other wires went from there down the bayou spur to the freight house which had a similar pole outside.

I’ll look in my profiles and in the MOW standards as well, thanks for reminding me.

[Author]

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