| A crewman on Gulf Mobile & Ohio train No. 33 was catching a set of orders in the crook of his arm as he passed Southern Railway agent-operator R.L. Lott at the Slidell, Louisiana depot. The trainman was repeating a procedure that took place on railroads all across North America for over 150 years, in this case obtaining authority for his train to operate over 28 miles of the Southern from Slidell to OLIVER JUNCTION in New Orleans. The device Mr. Lott was holding was known as a HIGH-SPEED TRAIN ORDER DELIVERY FORK and the orders were held in place by a piece of string. Mr. Lott went to work for the Southern when he got out of the Navy following WWII, retired around 1982 and passed away on 19 September 2016, at the age of 90. (approximate date of photo) |