The Museum currently has four pieces of operating railroad equipment. Only one of these is designed to carry passengers. The smaller motor cars are used primarily for carrying workers and equipment for track maintenance.
The “Doodlebug” Fernwood, Columbia and Gulf #M-4, built in 1937 by the Fernwood, MS shops of the FC&G to supplement a similar car purchase two years earlier from the Kalamazoo Car Co. of Kalamazoo Mi. In the mid 1950’s the FC&G stopped hauling passengers, and the cars no longer ran on their 40 mile journey from Fernwood to Columbia and back every day. Used after that by the track maintenance gangs, the cars were retired in the 1970’s. The M-4 was eventually sold to Louis Saillard, who donated it to the museum in the late 1990s. First operated at the museum in 2009, the M-4 holds up to 24 people and is the primary railcar at the museum.
Motorcar RR&G #M-1 is a Fairmont S-2 motor car donated to the museum in the late 1990’s; the car has been restored by museum volunteers.
Motorcar RR&G #M-2 is a Fairmont A-4 motor car donated to the museum. When the doodlebug is not available, the M-2 is available for rides for small tours and has a trailer that seats additional riders.
Motorcar M-8 is a Fairmont A-5 Rail Car “Speeder,” which was purchased by Red River Gulf & Railroad (RR&G) volunteers in the summer of 2020 and donated to the Southern Forest Heritage Museum & Research Center for the Red River Gulf & Railroad. It was restored to look like the crew car of the 711th Railroad Operating Battalion, part of the Claiborne-Polk Military Railroad at Camp Claiborne Military Training Base near Alexandria, LA. in the early 1940’s.
