The railroad was constructed and initially operated under the leadership of William Buchanan, a prosperous timberman with extensive investments in southwest Arkansas and northwest Louisiana.

[1] During the late 1920s, a group of investors led by Harvey Couch began acquiring Louisiana & Arkansas stock.

These investors owned electric and telephone utilities in Arkansas and Louisiana and believed that railroad ownership in their service area would also be profitable.

It also leased and later acquired the Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company, which operated a marginally profitable railroad between New Orleans and Shreveport.

A second named passenger train, The Hustler, was added to provide overnight service between Shreveport and New Orleans, beginning on July 2, 1932.

In 1948, in a letter to Ernest W. Roberts, Harry Truman described the difficult working conditions for certain black workers employed by this railroad.

[3][4] 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.

[citation needed] The identity of the Louisiana & Arkansas gradually disappeared in the 1950s and 1960s, as the Kansas City Southern name was adopted for all properties.