By Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

I'd like to introduce Brian Allison who hails from Jena, LA, and is a true railroad buff and memorabilia collector of things L & A, LA Midland, Illinois, Central and Gulf, with the line finally reverting back to LA Midland. This last name change took place just before filing for abandonment of this fabled moneymaker of years past.

Even though he's only 32 years of age, Brian already has some noble goals concerning preservation of the L & A's golden years by pushing for the establishment of Railroad/Logging era museum in the Jena area. Meanwhile he's collecting every picture and relic he can track down relating to the railroad line which began in Stamps, Arkansas, and moved south bypassing Winnfield on down to Packton, then turning left and terminating in Jonesville, LA.

Brian was born in New Orleans, with the family taking up residence near a railroad freight yard when he was about three years old. His mother swears the first word he ever spoke was "train", and this infatuation with trains became enhanced at age five when he visited his grandparents who lived near Drew, Arkansas near a stretch of the Ashley, Drew & Northern rail line. His grandfather was well acquainted with an engineer and a fireman who operated one of the line's locomotives and wrangled Brian a ride in the locomotive cab of a real diesel engine, GP-35, on a freight run and the fire was kindled.

Brian graduated from Jena High School in 1993 and decided immediately he wanted some sort of job relating to railroading. He submitted numerous applications but suspects his age and lack of experience was the prime reason he wasn't hired.

In 1995 he decided to pursue a history profile concerning the A, D & N line, which was in the process of being taken up due to lack of rail traffic, which resulted in the line filing a petition of abandonment. While researching some old photos he ran across a photo of a Louisiana Midland diesel locomotive taken on the old L & A line near Jena, resulting in a change in his rail line objectives.

He first made a stop at the old Good Pine Lumber Company office building which at one time had housed a very good museum, featuring a lot of logging and sawmill era pictures, but after pouring though much maltreated and neglected boxes of pictures strewn about, he was able to come up with only two L & A related photos.

Then it was down to the LaSalle Parish Library where a young attendant, when queried about any history or photos of a rail line that used to haul passengers and freight through Jena daily, the library assistant readily admitted that she didn't even know such a line had ever existed.

This is when the stark realization that a memorable icon of industrial development, and an important facet of transportation history, which impacted Catahoula and later LaSalle Parish was in dire danger of being relegated to obscurity.

So, after he acquired a history-unlocking copy of Baton Rouge native and rail line expert Louis Saillard's "Rise and Fall of the Natchez Route", that documentary only served to fan the flames of zealous pursuit of memorabilia concerning anything pertaining to the Louisiana & Arkansas, and subsequent owners.

Brian started off with three lone railway photographs in his collection and now has over three hundred related photos--several railway switch padlocks, and a builder's plate obtained from the front of Locomotive 509 now in residence in Beaumont, TX, but looking for a home near Good Pine. He also boasts some of the L & A's timetables listing arrivals and departures and fare costs, and has some tickets for boarding. The prize of the collection is an L & A embossed spittoon which probably came from a "smoker" car on one of the passenger trains, and proudly donated by fellow railroad buff Donald Powell of Jena.

Brian's goals relating to his crusade are the establishment of an active museum featuring not only railways related displays but of early timber harvesting and sawmilling dioramas. Brian states that his accumulation of pictures, relics and collector's items could not have been achieved the contributions and helps of Louis Saillard.

Brian ended the railway concourse with a very interesting question concerning the lack of tourism affecting LaSalle Parish and surrounding parishes. He emphasized, "They have every kind of Festival and Cook Off imaginable all around the state. Why not acquire two railroad locomotives for a static display and have an Early Railroad and Sawmill Days right her in the Jena- Trout Metroplex?"

He then punctuated the question with a statement taken from a recent popular movie "Field of Dreams", when he said, "If we build it, I believe they'll come."

That's what Eck Bozeman firmly believed!

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