SP steam in Texas and Louisiana - Classic Trains Magazine

As the other poster sugguested, if this topic is of much interest to you, spend the $70 and get A. D. McLennan, Texas & New Orleans: Southern Pacific's Lines in Texas and Louisiana (Signature Press 2008). It will answer most, maybe all, of your questions, some in great detail. I have the book, and it's pretty good, even if the author is an Aussie who makes some mistakes (like putting the Louisiana purchase in the wrong year).

The last regular SP-system revenue steam run in Texas or Louisiana was probably around 1957 or maybe 1958. Common locomotive types included 2-8-2's and 2-10-2's for freight. Yes, they came to New Orleans; the eastern end of the Sunset Route / SP system was in Algiers, which is the part of New Orleans that sits on the west bank of the Mississippi River, athough trains of course got transferred to the east bank over the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad's Huey P. Long Bridge (1935) and the connecting tracks of other carriers.

There is at least one operational steam locomotive from SP's eastern operations, No. 745, a class Mk-5 2-8-2 built in 1921 at the Algiers shops (see ); my avatar is a picture of it running in 2006. Another, Mk-5 No. 786, was operational some years ago and is undergoing a major rebuild through the Austin [TX] Steam Train Association.