AMY SZPARA

PHOTO: RECALLING THE PAST, Junius “June” Duhe, who is the last living conductor of Godchaux Locomotive No. 3, shows Danny Duhe of Marathon Ashland, L.L.C. the ropes on the historical engine that was recently restored on the front lawn of the old Godchaux House in Reserve. (Staff Photo by Amy Szpara) RESERVE – A gleaming piece of Reserve history, a polished-up locomotive that used to run through town carrying sugar cane, now sits shiny and proud in the front yard of the historical Godchaux House on River Road. Godchaux Locomotive No. 3 was brought back home a few years ago from an out-of-state museum that had housed it since 1984. After two years of restoration by members of the community, the little engine is completely finished. The locomotive, in use from 1898 to 1958, was cleaned up and refurbished with help from Marathon Ashland, Highland Fabrications, Inc., Environmental Coating Services, Stephen Guidry and Francis Guidry Sr. St. John Director of Economic Development Julia Remondet said, “We are really quite proud to have this little piece of history back,” as she thanked the sponsors at an unveiling ceremony Monday. Junius “June” Duhe, the last surviving conductor of Locomotive No. 3, was at the unveiling to see its restoration and reminisce about days gone by. “I remember when I first started,” he said, looking at the lustrous engine, “they would tell me to clean it so much. Sometimes I’d shine it so much, I’d be blacker than the engine.” The 86-year-old retired conductor spent 15 years with Locomotive No. 3. He began working on the train firing coal, placing the coal into the machine to power the engine, then eventually became a conductor. June started working in the railroad business in 1939. “My daddy did it all his life. I just wanted to follow in his footsteps,” he said. After the ceremony, June sat in a lawn chair and admired the piece of his past brought back to life. “He talks about that little train all the time,” bystanders said. The little engine’s history began shortly after Leon Godchaux decided to centralize the grinding and refining on his sugar plantations and realized the railroad was the best way to achieve that. Believed to have begun in 1890, Godchaux started using a tramway to haul sugar cane from the fields to the refinery. In 1895, Godchaux bought his first steam locomotives, Locomotives No. 1 and 2, and he established a roadbed that extended 20 miles. Locomotive No. 3 was added in 1898. Other locomotives were added in the years to come. In 1958, the Godchauxs sold their mill and refinery to the National Sugar Refining Company, and the railroad was closed down. Danny Duhe of Marathon Ashland, who said that he is distantly related to June, was instrumental in getting the little engine restored. “Everything on it was rotted,” he said. “The stacks were gone. Everything on it is original, but we had to fabricate some of the parts like the light.” According to Danny Duhe, a lot of people put a lot of their spare time into the engine. “We would do a little bit then back off for a while,” he said, adding that after painting, they would have to wait for the right conditions to continue the project. “Members of the community pulled together to bring it back. People who remembered how it was helped us put it back together,” he said. Another man who spent years working on Locomotive No. 3 saw the engine return home a few years back, but he didn’t make it to the unveiling of the renovated piece of his past. Arto Morris, who repaired the train often, was killed almost two years ago in the Mother’s Day crash which claimed many lives in the LaPlace/Reserve area. He and June spent a lot of time on the old engine. According to Remondet, some people don’t connect the house to the refinery, so the locomotive was placed in the yard to remind them that the Godchaux House was owned by a man who was a large part of the sugar refining industry. The parish is now working on getting funds to restore Godchaux’s old home. “It has a lot of sentimental value for this area,” she said.