between Kansas City and New Orleans, and on September 2, 1940, a new KCS-L&A diesel powered streamliner, the Southern Belle, was inaugurated to connect the two cities. 1940s In 1948, in a letter to Ernest W. Roberts, Harry Truman described the difficult working conditions for certain black workers employed by this railroad. 1950s The worst wreck in the history of the L&A occurred on August 10, 1951, when a northbound L&A troop train collided head-on with the southbound Southern Belle just north of Lettsworth, Louisiana; Lettsworth is located approximately 55 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, on a segment of the Texas and Pacific Railway over which L&A trains had operating rights. The troop train was traveling 40 mph (64 km/h) and the Southern Belle was moving at the maximum speed limit of 55 mph (89 km/h) when the collision occurred on a long curve where vegetation obscured visibility. Thirteen people were killed, and another eighty-two were injured. It was determined that the accident had occurred because the troop train had overlooked a train order to wait in a siding at Lettsworth to allow the passenger train to pass. 1950- 1960 The identity of the Louisiana & Arkansas gradually disappeared in the 1950s and 1960s, as the Kansas City Southern name was adopted for all properties. By 1966, all reference to the Louisiana & Arkansas had disappeared from the annual stockholder reports of Kansas City Southern. The Shreveporter, once the pride of the L&A, was discontinued on January 24, 1962, and the Southern Belle was discontinued on November 2, 1969, ending all passenger train service on the former Louisiana & Arkansas. 1990s In 1992, Kansas City Southern dissolved the subsidiary Louisiana & Arkansas Railway, although the former L&A route continues to be a major component of the Kansas City Southern. References Bibliography External links Texas Handbook Online-L&A Ry. Interstate Commerce Commission Accident Report No. 3419 Former Class I railroads in the United States Defunct Arkansas railroads Defunct Louisiana railroads Predecessors of the Kansas City Southern Railway Railway companies established in 1902 Railway companies disestablished in 1992 Defunct Texas railroads