Railfan in Shreveport - General Discussion (Trains.com) - Trains.com

The best spot to railfan in Shreveport is underneath the !-49 bridges just south of its junction with I-20. This will put you alongside the KCS Meridian speedway, the ex-Louisiana and Arkansas to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the South Wye leg onto the KCS mainline to south Texas and Mexico and the UP mainline from Chicago and St.Louis to Houston. The latter is the old Cotton Belt Shreveport Subdivision and the former SP "Rabbit" line from Shreveport to Houston.

Be sure and get out to the KCS Deramus Yard, General Offices, Customer Service Center and locomotive and car shops. Take Murphy St. from the Shreveport City Hall (corner of Texas and Murphy) to its dead end at Hearne Ave., turn right on Hearne and then left at the 3rd stop and go light. This will be the Shreveport-Blanchard Hwy. or maybe Hilary Huckaby as there was some talk of renaming the road. Deramus Yard will be on your left approximately four miles out of town on this road, The main KCS locomotive shops are adjacent to the road and you'll see loads of KCS power on the ready and service tracks including slugs, GP's still in Mid-South and Gateway Western colors along with a mix of leasers.The General Office building is Hq. for the four different KCS operating divisions , the central dispatching center for the whole system as well as other operating, engineering and maintenance departments. Look closely behind the General Offices and (unless it's out on the road somewhere) you'll see the Southern Belle business train parked on its siding.

The UP has two yards in Shreveport. The one downtown along the Red River at the end of Commerce St. This is a former joint yard of the Cotton Belt and Esspee. The larger UP yard is known as Hollywood Yard and is located on thesouth west side of the city. This is an ex Texas & Pacific/MoPac yard on the Dallas-Marshall-Shreveport-Baton Rouge-New Orleans main. Take I-20 west from downtown to the Jewella Ave. exit then south on Jewella which crosses over the north end of Hollywood Yard.

If you have time you might want to drive about 35 minutes west of Shreveport on I-20 to Marshall, TX. Marshall is a hotspot of UP activity and is also the location of the old T&P shops where they built their own steam locomotives. At Marshall the Shreveport line branches off the main line from Houston and Dallas to Texarkana-Little Rock-St.Louis. This is the route of the Texas Eagle and the Amtrak station is a good place for train watching. Should you be interested in seeing it, the northbound Eagle is scheduled to stop at Marshall at 8:01pm and the southbound at 9:35am.

Good luck with your railfanning. Let us hear about your trip.

Mark