Did any Southern Railway 4-6-2s and 4-8-2s ran to New Orleans in the 1930s and 1940s
What else did they have that would pull passenger consists of the required size in those years?
I’m sure someone here is a Southern aficionado and knows the progress of dieselization on those trains, which I don’t, but that’s the only thing that’s a practical alternative. To my knowledge Southern never even considered larger or more modern passenger steam power than Mountains once there was a diesel alternative… even some of the fairly wonky types that Southern acquired in the '40s.