The Bernadotte Yard contained a roundhouse for Southern Railway.
(x-posted to neworleansrailroads.com)
Southern Railway Roundhouse
Section of a Sanborn Fire Map for Mid-City New Orleans, from 1950-1951, showing a roundhouse and turntable facility. The roundhouse stood inside Southern Railway’s Bernadotte Yard, in the block bounded by N. Scott, St. Louis, N. Cortez, and Conti Streets. The yard tracks ran (more-or-less) from Canal Boulevard, across from Greenwood Cemetery, following St. Louis Street to just past Norman C. Francis Parkway. The tracks merged into a single pair, heading along St. Louis St. to Basin St., where they turned into Terminal Station at Canal and Basin.
The yard serviced a number of industrial sites in Mid-City. On one side of the roundhouse stood Inland Steel Company’s plant, with a Sears, Roebuck warehouse on the other. American Can Company operated their factory just two blocks away. So, this part of New Orleans was heavily industrialized. This limited the size of the residential areas of Mid-City, going into the 1950s. The New Canal, now I-10) to the West and the railroad to the East. Canal Street served as the main street in the neighborhood. So much industry along railroad and canal enticed families living in the French Quarter, Marigny, and Treme towards the lake.
Engine facilities
The railroad required a parking and maintenance facility for its equipment in the yard. Additionally, locomotives for Southern’s passenger trains required a facility. While the passenger depot stood at Canal and Basin Streets, there was no room for parking. So, Southern Railroad constructed a turntable and roundhouse for both. The map shows three tracks connecting building and turntable, but a note says “full of tracks.” It looks like there were six or eight tracks going into the roundhouse. Two tracks approached the turntable from the lake side, with a single through track and a siding on the river side.
Little trace
Google Earth screenshot of the location of the roundhouse.
In spite of the heavy industrialization of this neighborhood during and after World War II, few traces of all these operations remain. Most of the factories and warehouse were demolished or re-purposed. The area now features a mix of commercial strip malls, warehouse, and houses. We’ll add on to this exploration of the Bernadotte Yard going forward. I have little information on this facility behold the map. If anyone can point me towards more details, please drop me a note.
Citation
Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana. Sanborn Map Company, – Jul 1950; Vol. 2, 1951. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn03376_026/.
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