The SUE LINE RAILROAD was created by Dr. Richard Kamm, Sr. in Bossier City, Louisiana in the late 1970’s and was named after his wife. After building several versions (1 thru 3) of the railroad in Bossier City, Dr. Kamm moved to Blanchard, a community just north of Shreveport about 15 miles away from his previous residence. In 1986 construction began on a new 26x48-foot layout in a new building in his back yard. This layout was known as SUE LINE 4.0; then, in 2001 the layout was enlarged to 42x48 feet, creating SUE LINE 5.0.  

The modeled portion of the SUE LINE represented a railroad which ran from Shreveport to Alexandria, Louisiana (about 90 miles) with connections to Kansas City on the north and New Orleans on the south. At its greatest extent, the layout had over 10 scale miles of mainline, two major yards and four industrial switching areas. The railroad featured through trains, locals and turns. All train movements were dispatcher controlled via a CTC panel and trackside signals. Radio communication was used for track and time, and train assignments were done via digital message board. Car routing was done in real time via a dispatcher (traffic control) using the RailOp program.

For more than 30 years the SUE LINE RAILROAD ran an intensive operation-oriented session every Thursday night of the year (except for Thanksgiving and when Christmas fell on that day). There were several innovations on the Sue Line that were the test beds for early electronic projects including CTC-16. Dr. Kamm was the much appreciated self-appointed "benevolent dictator" of the SUE LINE. He opened his home up each week to a group of operators from all walks of life who left that all behind each Thursday at 6:30pm to enjoy the hobby of model railroad operations. Like other great layout owners around the country, he would inspire more than one generation of new layouts and model railroad operators with their own passions.

Richard Kamm had a photographic memory and a brilliant mind mixed with creative juices and a few strong opinions. Richard was forever working on the SUE LINE no matter the hour or location. He was building CTC signal cards in his office at all hours of the day and night, putting in scenery, and mastering operations along with the help of Mose Crews from Minden, a city 40 miles east of Bossier City. They were heavy adopters of flexibility in operations with a bent towards extracting the fun part of railroading for the sessions and leaving the more mundane tasks to the 1:1 crowd. The railroad was constantly being worked on for upgrades, from the installation of new DCC to LCC upgrades to signals to cameras to LED lighting of structures. But the biggest draw was always the operation.

Dr. Kamm passed away on 24 January 2021 at the age of 73, after an unexpected but brief illness; but the Kamm family allowed his friends to keep running trains until the property was finally sold. After almost 40 years of operation, the last operating session was held on 30 March 2023. Fortunately, David Colvin – a member of the operating crew – had purchased the layout from the Kamm family, so it was cut into sections and relocated to a temporary storefront location in Shreveport where it was lowered to chair height, rewired and reassembled into more of an urban scene. Thus, was born SUE LINE 6.0. Gone were the signals and the long runs, but even heavier urban switching themes emerged.  

But the Sue Line story will not end here. Forty years after the creation of the operating group and literally tens of thousands of operating man hours, in 2025 a brand-new building has been constructed to house a railroad that will carry on the SUE LINE tradition for decades to come. Those newly minted SUE LINE boxcars from Home Shops LLC will be the backbone of a new era, we like to call SUE LINE 7.0, of model railroad operations in Northwest Louisiana.  Come see us!

Owner Contact Information: 

Phone: 318-347-2933

Email: djc148@comcast.net

Website: https://sueline.kamm.us/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SueLineRailroad

Here are two links, one to a video and the other to a slide show, that provide more in-depth information on the SUE LINE:

Louisiana Rail Productions (LRP): The Sue Line: Model Railroading at its Finest!

Dr. Kamm’s layout at Blanchard, LA. (Version 5) 

6 minutes 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqOjGA18pnk

Sue Line Railroad Photo History Pt1: A comprehensive slide show on the history of the Sue Line. (Versions 1 thru 5)

47 minutes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9SRTEPwSDE