From Orleans Junction (MP 900.8), where a KCS line trails in from the east (having been running parallel to the former IC line) and then heads west-southwest and provides access to the south end of the IC line running along the east bank of the Mississippi to Remy, where there is a large grain transshipment facility for loading ships for export, and Geissmar yard, focal point for chemical plant switching operations, and the main line continues northwest, past grade crossings at Farrar Avenue and Hanson Avenue, Martin Junction (MP 900.5), where the west leg of a wye from that KCS (and thus that IC) line trails in from the south and the speed limit rises to 60-40 again, a road bridge carrying US 61 (West Airline Highway) overhead, east-facing extra track on the north side, the New Orleans Airport to the north, a bridge over drainage, a dirt road grade crossing, a flood wall across the line, and Skip (MP 898.6), where the line reduces to single track (with speed limit 40 mph on the turnout), CTC, and the speed limit rises to 79-60.
There are dual road bridges overhead, Intermediate Signals, a bridge over water, marshes to the northeast, a detector at MP 892.5 at the south end of the spillway bridge, a bridge over a dirt road, and La Branch, where the speed limit is 60-50 on the spillway bridge (a trestle) with signs of an old trestle to the northeast, and then turns gradually towards the north, running alongside the southwestern corner of Lake Pontchartrain, with levees of rip-rap along the lake, passing two trestle bridges over the water, dual road bridges overhead, from running over the water to the east to running on land to the west, the 10,835 ft. siding on the west side at Frenier (MP 887.6, speed limit 50 mph on street crossings), where it is heading due north, two bridges over streams, signals, Ruddock (with more rip-rap levees), where it leaves the lake headed north-northeast, running through low-lying countryside crossed by numerous bayous, and a detector at MP 879.5, and then turns north again, past the 9,845 ft. siding on the east side at Manchac (MP 874.5), and a dirt road grade crossing, and across the outlet from Lake Maurepas, to the west, on an operable bridge, where the speed limit is 40-25 on the through-truss movable bridge alongside a highway bridge on the west side.
The line continues north, past a dirt road grade crossing, a long bridge over water, North Pass, a spur on the east side trailing in, Intermediate Signals, Strader, two bridges over streams, a dirt track grade crossing, a detector at MP 867.5, a bridge over a stream, a dirt track grade crossing, four bridges over streams, a dirt road grade crossing in the woods, Sharkey, a closed grade crossing, a road to the east, three grade crossings, Ponchatoula (MP 863.9), with an old depot and stuffed-and-mounted steam locomotive to the east, a grade crossing, a street to the east, extra track on the east side, a grade crossing, signals in the woods, a road bridge overhead, two grade crossings, a spur trailing in on the east side, a dirt track grade crossing, a bridge over a stream, four grade crossings, and Hammond (MP 859.0), where there is an Amtrak station (platform and brick depot to the west), a line heads west to Baton Rouge and the north end of that line via Geissmar, and a Yazoo and Mississippi Valley line once headed east.