The Railroader: "High Water Heroes on the T&P"

This is Mike's latest write reflecting the life and times of his father who worked for the Texas and Pacific Railroad. His is an insight few have a chance to envision. I do appreciate, as I'm sure you do, the fact he has taken the time to write them out for us, and the fact that I have to constantly prod him to move along. Mike has timed his latest addition perfectly. Dave and I were in that area Saturday and saw the bridge supports that were a part of the T&P. That story is forth coming and can be eventually accessed FROM HERE. Below is Mike's recollection of his father's story. If you can't imagine the feel, or hear the rumbling of a failing barrier to natural mayhem, or know the terror of the Mississippi gone wild, read it again. So many owe so much to the effort of these railroaders:High Water Heroes on the T & P"Everyone remembered 1927. There wasn’t anyone over the age of 20 in central Louisiana who didn’t remember the endless water unleashed by the levee failures on the Mississippi, Atchafalaya, and Red Rivers. Loved ones had been lost, homes destroyed, and the fabric of life along the rivers forever torn and tattered.The Old River Control Structure had been built after the Great Flood, designed to control the diversion of water from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya. Without it, the Mississippi would bolt down the shorter Atchafalaya, and even in low water, flood downriver towns like Morgan City. The structure was built along the lower arm of Old River, just southeast of Simmesport. Old River was an ancient loop of the Mississippi that had been left when the river changed course. It had never been tested by a serious flood.In the spring of 1945, the Mississippi went on another rampage. Levee building all along its course by the Army Corps of Engineers had kept it within the banks, but the weak spot was Old River. As the engineers watched stunned, the river started eating under the wings of the control structure. They estimated it would be only days before the structure collapsed into the swirling waters.The Texas and Pacific Railway crossed Old River on top of the control structure, connecting on the north with the tracks going to Vidalia, La. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and the engineers knew they had to plug Old River, and fast. Bringing fill material by truck would be too slow, and there were no side dump gondolas anywhere near. Mr. R. H. Blassingame, Superintendent of the T & P in Louisiana offered a plan.He wanted to fill gondolas with large rock, move the tracks from on top of the control structure, and align them to run up to the edge of Old River, and shove entire cuts of cars and rock alike into Old River. His plan was accepted by the engineers, and track crews worked 24 hours a day to move the track to the edge of the water. The first time, only six cars were readied, and an all volunteer crew shoved them toward the swirling water. When the time was right, the brakeman opened the coupler on the speeding locomotive. The brakes were applied on the engine, the reverse lever pulled back, and the engine stopped short of the water. The loaded cars sailed out over the water and landed almost upright.Once the plan proved feasible, a coordinated effort brought loaded gondolas up from Baton Rouge, and down from Alexandria. They were made up into cuts of 12-15 cars, and then shoved into Old River. Crews worked with the danger of a coupler sticking and pulling them into the water, but they still made the dangerous run towards the water.After 2 days and nights, there was an unbroken web of steel gondolas and limestone boulders sitting on the bottom of Old River. Water on the other side of the makeshift barrier had slowed to a trickle. If Old River’s concrete failed, there was now a back up in place. The track crews, engine crews, brakemen, and all the support personnel had done the impossible. They had kept Old Man River from rampaging again. After the water receded, the railroad brought in cranes and retrieved most of the gondolas. Some they never found…My father was a young fireman on one of the crews that accomplished this feat. He was proud of his part, and kept a certificate from the U S Army Corps of Engineers thanking him for his service. Almost all those heroes are gone now, but I’m told that every now and then a commercial fisherman will snag his net and bring up a piece of metal that can be traced to a gondola car. It’s a souvenir from a time when heroes were common, and went about their life afterward believing that they had just done their job".