Early-Mid 2003 Pictures – And A Preview Of Coming Attractions

1 September 2023

In this photo essay, published in September 2023, I will do two things. The first is that I will share some scanned film, scanned 35mm color slides, that I took in the first seven months of the year 2003, two decades ago this year, minus the June 2003 trip (because those pictures are already in […]

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August-September-October 2013 Sampler

1 August 2023

Greetings, and welcome to the August-September-October 2013 Sampler essay.  Major change was happening right at this time, though it was also major sameness, as indicated at the end of the “July 2013 Sampler” essay. There is so much more that I want to say here.  My pattern of not taking train pictures locally in the […]

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July 2013 Sampler

1 July 2023

The first and foremost question that confronted me in how to incorporate the few pictures that I took from July 2013 to October 2013 inclusive into my pattern of “sampler” essays is whether to include them in a July-October post or whether to split them into a July post and an August-September-October post, because there […]

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June 2013 Sampler

1 June 2023

Jimbaux is feeling miles away You think he’s got it made He doesn’t belong here. I Don’t Belong Here Greetings, and welcome to the June 2013 Sampler essay. As sampler essays on this publication go, this one is actually rather significant, though not because of either the quality of pictures or the quantity of pictures […]

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May 2013 Sampler

1 May 2023

Greetings, and welcome to the May 2013 Sampler essay. There are plenty of images in this essay, meaning that I took my DSLR camera out and made at least one presentable image with it on several days in the month of May 2013. This was a strange month for me. I came off of medical […]

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April 2013 Sampler

1 April 2023

Greetings, and welcome to the April 2013 Sampler essay. Many of the nine images shown here have a very “spring” feel to them. Thursday, The 4th I was on my way between Bayouland and Whoadieville when I made this grab shot in Paradís. I wish that I had shot it in RAW. Monday, The 8th […]

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March 2013 Sampler

1 March 2023

Greetings, and welcome to the March 2013 Sampler essay. This one will be brief. I was, let’s say, “going through some things” at the time, with a worsening back situation while also stuck working on a job that I felt that I had, for lack of a better characterization, outgrown. This was the month in […]

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February 2013 Sampler

1 February 2023

Greetings, and welcome to the February 2013 Sampler essay. As described in the “January 2013 Sampler” essay, 2013 was a tumultuous year for me. February was largely uneventful except for worsening back problems and a weekend event that foreshadowed what would become my new reality in the coming years. Let’s get right to it. Sunday, […]

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January 2013 Sampler

1 January 2023

Greetings, and welcome to the January 2013 Sampler essay.  For me, this was the beginning of a strange year, though, for me, most years could be said to be strange.  Still, this was the first full year that I would know that I would eventually be losing my home for the most embarrassing of reasons […]

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Exploring – Opelousas Alternative, Acadiana Nonetheless

20 December 2022

Jimbaux hears records in his head everywhere that he goesHe’s got records in his head spinning out of controlThey go round and around and againRound and around and againRound and around and oh yeahRecords in his head. Something Different Well, today was a good day! I explored places that I had not before explored. The […]

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Surfacing For Degradation

5 December 2022

Jimbaux searched for form and landFor years and years he roamedHe gazed a gazeless stareThey walked a million hillsHe must have died aloneA long, long time ago. A Hot Mess Family fragments, and I fragment with it. This probably was inevitable. I probably never had a chance. I read the story in the newspaper that […]

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December 2012 Sampler

1 December 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the December 2012 Sampler essay.  After the difficult and lengthy “November 2012 Sampler” essay, this one will be mercifully brief. As I wrote near the end of that essay in the description of the November 25 images, I wouldn’t take out the DSLR camera again until midway through the month of […]

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Really, I Just . . .

16 November 2022

Schriever Is Boring This was just a strange day, which means that this will be a strange post. If you’re seeking brilliant railroad photography, then close out the page and come back later when I have something else to post. This was an emotional day, not surprisingly, because I returned to my homeland to go […]

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November 2012 Sampler

1 November 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the November 2012 Sampler essay, which continues to document a time of transition, as did the “September 2012 Sampler” essay and the “October 2012 Sampler” essay. As stated in the October 2012 essay, my grandmother died at the end of September, and we funeralized and buried her in early October as […]

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October 2012 Sampler

1 October 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the October 2012 Sampler essay, which documents a time of loss and transition in my life.  As told in the “September 2012 Sampler” essay, my paternal grandmother had just died, and the funeral would be in early October.  I was actively pursuing a plan to get myself back to the New […]

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The Journey Was The Point

29 September 2022

Jimbaux knows it’s everybody’s sinYou got to lose to know how to win. Laura Delta Ian A Sanity-Restoring Expedition These are far from my best photographs, but that doesn’t really matter, because getting good photographs was not the point of this outing. As often happens this time of year in my life after the years […]

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September 2012 Sampler

1 September 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the September 2012 Sampler essay.  As readers of the “August 2012 Sampler” essay would have seen, the defining story at the end of August 2012 was Tropical Storm or Hurricane Isaac, and it would be the story of the beginning of September 2012, too.  The end of the month, however, was […]

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August 2012 Sampler

1 August 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the August 2012 Sampler essay, which will largely follow the pattern of the “July 2012 Sampler” essay, which itself largely followed the pattern of the “June 2012 Sampler” essay. That pattern includes the Wednesday-and-Friday Chip routine.  I had a job near the western limits of the Chip Local, the Union Pacific […]

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July 2012 Sampler

1 July 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the July 2012 Sampler essay.  This one follows a pattern similar to that of the previous month, particularly in the fact that it covers the area from Saint Mary Parish to New Orleans inclusive, with pictures of the Chip Local and other trains on the Lafayette Subdivision and pictures of trains […]

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‘That’s All I Got’ – Peartree’s Last Day On The Railroad

15 June 2022

A Happily Anticlimactic Ending This is it. This was Peartree’s last day railroading. Today is Wednesday 15 June 2022. Forty-nine years ago today, Peartree went to work for and on the Southern Pacific Railroad, the railroad where his father was employed. Today, Peartree worked his last day railroading for the Louisiana & Delta Railroad, where […]

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Peartree’s Penultimate Day On The Railroad

14 June 2022

Now Jimbaux is here, and he’s all aloneStill he knows how it feelsHe’s alone again. Peartree’s Last Day Working The Ground Today, Tuesday 14 June 2022, was Peartree’s second-to-last day railroading and his last day working the ground. Yesterday, I got many pictures on his third-to-last day railroading. We start by the depot in New […]

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Peartree’s Last Monday On The Railroad

13 June 2022

Jimbaux knows that you just don’t get it, you keep it copaceticAnd you learn to accept it, you know you’re so patheticAnd you just don’t get it, you keep it copaceticAnd you learn to accept it, you know you’re so pathetic. Born To Be Down This, 13 June 2022, is Peartree’s last Monday as an […]

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Peartree’s Last Friday On The Railroad

10 June 2022

There is not much here. There was nothing new or interesting at the port. This was Peartree’s last Friday railroading. I got to the depot in New Iberia just as he and CV were arriving to tie up for the day. Peartree started railroading in 1973 for the Southern Pacific railroad. He was away from […]

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June 2012 Sampler

1 June 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the June 2012 Sampler essay, where you will see one example of the photographs that I took on each day of June 2012 on which I took pictures.  As explained in the “April 2012 Sampler” essay, in April 2012, I began the practice of traveling from Morgan City to New Orleans […]

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No Joy On Pipe Movement, Armour Yellow At The Interchange

26 May 2022

Jimbaux is crawling back to the start. Unceremony My experience this morning reinforced the perception that foaming is a thing of the past, even though I got a promising shot late in this morning. This post is also a follow-up from yesterday, in which I, among other things, scoped out the Port Of Iberia hoping […]

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Jacked By Julie

25 May 2022

Jimbaux knows that it’s hard to hold on when there’s no one to lean on. It’s Hard To Be Strong When There’s No One To Dream On This whole damn day was jacked, really. The hospital room was nice. It’s so damn tragic that such an accomplished woman has suffered as she has. So, I […]

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Like Old Times

18 May 2022

Jimbaux believes that his soul is on fire. Hey! Hoo, boy, do I have a heck of a show for you today! Today has been a memorable day with some great scenes that I was able to record. I had to go back home for my twice-yearly visit to the dentist, and I made the […]

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May 2012 Sampler

1 May 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the May 2012 Sampler essay.  The “April 2012 Sampler” essay was unusual in that it was published on the eight of the month of April 2022 so as, explained at the beginning of it, to avoid interfering with the flow of publication of the decennial retrospective blog posts of my spring […]

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Photographs Are Money

28 April 2022

Maybe It’s More That Photographs Can Be Currency This is the story of debt and of settling a debt, though maybe also establishing further credit, using photographs. I really cannot share the details now, but I hope to do so at some point, because it’s supposed to be about a pleasant surprise for someone. After […]

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April 2012 Sampler

8 April 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the April 2012 Sampler essay.  The circumstances surrounding this post make it different from any other of these “sampler” essays that I have published before. Let me tell you why.  All of these sampler essays are published on the first day of the month in which they are published, but this […]

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Day 10 – Easter – Heavener, Rich Mountain, Ashdown, Haynesville, and Jackson – 8 April 2012

8 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Day 10 of 10 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Road Trip.  These pictures were taken on Sunday 8 April 2012, Easter Sunday.  It’s great that this is finally about to be over.  It’s the beginning of the end, and […]

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Day 9 – Animals, A Street Sketch, The Rainbow Bridge, and Nocturnal Trains – 7 April 2012

7 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. On the previous day, I started in Omaha, Nebraska, went through the southwestern corner of Iowa, spent time exploring flood damage and the BNSF Railway’s Saint Joe Line in northwestern Missouri, and then crossed the Missouri River into Kansas before landing at a […]

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Day 8 – Omaha, Pacific Junction, A Natural Disaster, and The St Joe Line – 6 April 2012

6 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Day 8 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Road Trip, Friday 6 April 2012, Good Friday. This day was both anticlimactic and emotional.  Done were the big train-hunting days with huge catches, like Day 6, two days before, and done, […]

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Day 7 – Omaha Environs And Logan To Fremont – 5 April 2012

5 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Day 7 of Jimbaux’s 2012 Spring Break Road Trip, Thursday 5 April 2012.  On the previous day, Day 6, Wednesday 4 April 2012, we had a very intense and memorable day with plenty of pictures, hence my decision to […]

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Day 6 – Chasing Trains On The DM&E Line – 4 April 2012

4 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Day 6, Wednesday 4 April 2012, of my Spring Break 2020 Road Trip. Day 6 of the trip takes place in southwestern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, a day after a friend and I traveled there northward from Omaha […]

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Day 6, Part 4 Of 4 – The DM&E Railroad and The Corn Palace – 4 April 2012

4 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Part 4, the final part, of Day 6 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Road Trip, the last of many, many pictures made on Wednesday 4 April 2012.  Part 1 started with us in Brookings, South Dakota, and heading our […]

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Day 6, Part 3 Of 4 – The DM&E Survives In Minnesota And South Dakota – 4 April 2012

4 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Part 3 of Day 6 of Jimbaux’s 2012 Spring Break Road Trip.  Part 2 ended with Canadian Pacific Railway train 277 moving south of Lake Benton, Minnesota, on its way to Huron, South Dakota, and we start right here […]

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Day 6, Part 2 Of 4 – Chasing A Neat-Looking Train From Cavour To Lake Benton – 4 April 2012

4 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Part 2 of Day 6 of Jimbaux’s 2012 Spring Break Road Trip, 4 April 2012.  In Part 1, we started at Brookings, South Dakota, and headed west, almost to Huron, until we intercepted an eastbound Canadian Pacific Railway train […]

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Day 6, Part 1 Of 4 – Brookings To Cavour, Intercepting A Train On Jointed Rail – 4 April 2012

4 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Part 1 of 4 of Day 6 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Eastern Great Plains Road Trip. This day was essentially the climax of the trip, for many reasons.  It is appropriately at the midpoint, or the day before […]

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Day 5 – Iowa, South Dakota, and Minnesota – 3 April 2012

3 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Welcome to Day 5 of Jimbaux’s 2012 Spring Break Road Trip.  On this day and all of the following day, none of the drive was in an automobile in my name (even rented), I didn’t do any driving, I entered a US state […]

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Day 4 – Southeastern Nebraska – 2 April 2012

2 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Greetings, and welcome to Day 4 of Jimbaux’s 2012 Spring Break Road Trip, which – Day 4, not the trip – starts in Lincoln, Nebraska. On the previous evening, I arrived in Lincoln after spending the morning in Kansas, a few dozen miles […]

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Day 3 – Eastern Kansas and Southeastern Nebraska – 1 April 2012

1 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Welcome to Day 3 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Eastern Great Plains Road Trip, which followed the trek from the Ouachita Mountains to southeastern Kansas on Day 2, which followed the initial northward journey through Louisiana to Oklahoma on Day 1. Due to the […]

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Day 3, Part 2 Of 2 – Northeastern Kansas and Southeastern Nebraska – 1 April 2012

1 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Welcome to Part 2 of Day 3 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Road Trip. After spending the morning foaming the old Santa Fe Transcon west of Kansas City and then paying a visit to the Midland Railway Historical Association, as seen in Part […]

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Day 3, Part 1 Of 2 – Eastern Central Kansas – 1 April 2012

1 April 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Welcome to Day 3 of Jimbaux’s 2012 Spring Break Road Trip.  On Day 1, I stopped at the Kansas City Southern Railway yard in Shreveport, ended the day in Heavener, Oklahoma, and got some pictures between the two places.  On Day 2, I […]

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Day 2 – Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas – 31 March 2012

31 March 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Welcome to Day 2 of Jimbaux’s Spring Break 2012 Eastern Great Plains Road Trip, which follows the initial northward journey through Louisiana to Oklahoma on Day 1. Due to the large size of the quantity of photographs made this day, Saturday 31 March […]

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Day 2, Part 2 Of 2 – Northwestern Arkansas and Southeastern Kansas – 31 March 2012

31 March 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Hi, and welcome to Part 2 of 2 of Day 2 of Jimbaux’s 10-day Spring Break 2012 Road Trip.  In Part 1, there were scenes of a chase of a train up Rich Mountain from Heavener, Oklahoma, into Arkansas, visiting Rich Mountain, and […]

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Day 2, Part 1 Of 2 – Heavener, Rich Mountain, and Page – 31 March 2012

31 March 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. Welcome to Day 2 of my 10-day Spring Break 2012 Road Trip.  This is Part 1 of two parts for the pictures taken on Saturday 31 March 2012. As we ended Day 1, we started Day 2 in Heavener, Oklahoma, right next to […]

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Day 1 – Shreveport To Heavener – 30 March 2012

30 March 2022

This is part of the Eastern Great Plains Spring Break 2012 Road Trip series. So It Begins So it begins, on Friday 30 March 2012, I began the last substantial-sized road trip of what remained of what could, by then, loosely be called my “youth.” Since the transmission of my truck failed a week or […]

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Twenty, Not As Funny

16 March 2022

There was a very specific point to today’s outing: photographing the LDRR 1709, presumably in action, on this specific date, today. For reasons that I learned only today but that could easily have been foreseen, the “in action” part was not to be, though I did photograph the locomotive with other action happening proximate to […]

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March 2012 Sampler

1 March 2022

Welcome to the March 2012 Sampler essay, which, with 24 images, is the largest-ever (by measure of quantity of photographs) monthly sampler essay that I create, suggesting that March 2012 may have been some month of great consequence for me, which it was, even though I should note that months in which a photographer does […]

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Color The World

26 February 2022

Jimbaux does have to live like a refugee. Today was an emotional day, and this will be a long post with plenty of pictures.  I went to the homeland.  As I was driving back westbound to the homestead, I heard the song “Bitter Sweet Symphony” by The Verve, “Jumper” by Third Eye Blind played shortly […]

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I Got 99 Problems, And The 1717 Ain’t One

23 February 2022

Missed Telephoto Opportunity Okay, this is weird. There is not much to see here, but there could have been. I forgot – or, perhaps, neglected – to bring my DSLR-camera equipment with me on my outing today, perhaps because there was a much more important thing to do on this outing.  Therefore, all pictures in […]

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The Width And The Depth

18 February 2022

Jimbaux is fighting hard to hold his ownJust can’t make it all aloneIs holding on, can’t fall backIs just a calm ’bout to fade to black Is beggin’, beggin’ youPut your loving hand out, babyI’m beggin’, beggin’ youSo, put your loving hand out, darling. New Iberia just sucks. Also, I don’t particularly like that song, […]

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Successful Deductive Reasoning At Harbor Yard And Ancillary Miscellany

11 February 2022

Jimbaux wishes you were here. It Finally Happened I finally got a smartphone!  Yeah, I have been accomplishing plenty with my tablet computer thing that is essentially just a really large smartphone that does not fit in some pants pockets and fits awkwardly in others, but I had a separate telephone that I used for […]

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February 2012 Sampler

1 February 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the February 2012 Sampler essay. Wednesday, The 1st There were still a couple of weeks left in my final hopeless quest to pursue an engineering degree long after what would have been the optimal time for me to do it, and that’s why I was heading north of I-610 in New […]

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End Of Cane

21 January 2022

What’s up?  So, as you saw from yesterday, I have been trying to photograph the final movements of sugarcane across Bayou Vermilion for this sugarcane-grinding season, going toward the mills around New Iberia and Patoutville. Of course, the little problem with this agenda is that, not knowing when the end of the harvest will be, […]

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Cold Cane

20 January 2022

It was weird to be essentially foaming by the track today, even though there were no trains on this track and even though I had no expectation or even hope that there would be one. I wanted to get shots of the last of the sugarcane trucks coming from west of Bayou Vermilion, where the […]

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Fly High, King

7 January 2022

What can I say?  Not much.  It’s a new year, I have not really photographed anything since November 18, and no pictures that I have made this month or will do for the rest of this month will match even a sample of my photographic output from 10 years ago this month or even of […]

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January 2012 Sampler

1 January 2022

Greetings, and welcome to the January 2012 Sampler essay. This is the start of what may be the last year for which I do these “sampler” essays, as I hope to resume all-out all-good-pictures-from-every-day postings in 2013, which I think is possible since I took much fewer pictures that year, which would give me a […]

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Downtown Lake Charles – 27 December 2020

27 December 2021

I don’t know. I seem to recall that, on this day after I went foaming in nearby Beaumont, Texas, The Duke was going to Walmart downtown and dropped me off in downtown Lake Charles with my camera. Don’t ask me what these buildings are. You can look them up on Google satellite view. In retrospect, […]

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December 2011 Sampler

1 December 2021

Greetings, and welcome to the December 2011 Sampler, an almost-welcome anti-climax to the “November 2011 Sampler” essay. This one will be relatively brief, particularly for a set of images that I made in the month of the winter solstice, and is an anticlimactic way to end a tumultuous year. Thursday, The 1st All of the […]

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Wacky Weather, Eunice And Crowley

18 November 2021

Jimbaux was never really wild but was young. Yesterday, I heard that “The Wild And The Young” song, perhaps first time that I ever heard it!  It sounded like a song from the 1980s, but I wondered why I had not ever heard it. Today, I went to Eunice and then Crowley to photograph the […]

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Friends Are Greater Than Trains

13 November 2021

I was hoping to bag some good train shots today, but friendship won out, thankfully, as I returned home for the first time in only three days!  I really didn’t understand friendship until the Trump Era, though.  I did get some railroad pictures and even photographed one moving train, though. I learned about Rock 97.7. […]

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Storm Light And Visions At The Westside Dwelling

11 November 2021

Thoughts of sugarcane trucks and cement hopper cars, as well as centerbeam flatcars, passed through my mind as I watched these actual loaded sugarcane trucks pass me under dramatic skies at an undisclosed location where I have been stuck for a while and am likely to be stuck for much longer. Notice that the light […]

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Friends And Trains In The Post-Ida Homeland

10 November 2021

Jimbaux knows that we’re told this is the golden ageAnd gold is the reason for the wars we wage. I left the house at about 7:39ish, but only at 7:52 did I start moving from a position a mile from the house due to being stopped by maritime traffic at the bridge, something that won’t […]

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A Constrained Past In The Present

6 November 2021

Right after I got to the depot in New Iberia, I heard horns off to the east.  I at first assumed that this was the westbound Sunset Limited approaching, but it quickly became apparent that this was not a passenger train. Obviously, this is a westbound BNSF Railway manifest train. The train had just one […]

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November 2011 Sampler

1 November 2021

Greetings, and welcome to the November 2011 Sampler, with 21 pictures from as many days (one from each day, following the pattern), and I believe that this is the largest sampler essay that I have ever done. Because I took the unusual step of adding a few retrospective blog essays of October 2011 pictures after […]

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New Iberia Noise And Nostalgia

30 October 2021

Sometimes Jimbaux feels he’s got toRun awayHe’s got toGet away. I had some gumbo. I also went to Whataburger in Lafayette today. Fifteen years ago today, Doc and I left Rich Mountain. I am in New Iberia. Here are LDRR 1702 and LDRR 1847 moving westward. An hour and 24 minutes later, here are LDRR […]

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Life – 29 October 2011

29 October 2021

It’s Saturday 29 October 2011, the day after the funeral and burial of Marie Anne Ory Dupont, around which I got some pictures and had some thought. She died on October 23, and I read her obituary on the 26th. So, on this day, the 29th, with life and death on my mind, I just […]

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Rie’s Funeral – 28 October 2011

28 October 2021

On Sunday 23 October 2011, a friend suddenly died as I just so happened to be out taking pictures not only near her home but of trains on the railroad where her father worked. In that essay, I wrote about the concept of “significance” and tried to find meaning to it all. Five days later […]

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Either Or Neither In The Saddle Or Or Nor Saddled

23 October 2021

Jimbaux wonders what the hell he is doing here, He doesn’t belong here. The Mid-City Marine, a great friend whom circumstances have prevented me from seeing for a few years, and I had scheduled to meet at Schriever this weekend, but the weather was too damn warm. I suggested that we meet in Hammond, where […]

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Bricks And Paper

19 October 2021

Today, Tuesday 19 October 2021, was The Duke’s follow-up appointment after his major surgery. After the appointment, we returned to the brick place, where we were yesterday before we saw the Louisiana & Delta’s BR job returning to Lafayette from the salt mine at Breaux Bridge. Just like yesterday, I neglected today to bring my […]

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Bricks And Salt

18 October 2021

Today is Monday 18 October 2021. The Duke and I had some construction-related errands to run today. Hopefully, this will become more common in the future, without The Duke. Yesterday, in New Iberia, I noticed that there was no UP local train, and I got worried. According to Perry, the train didn’t run, because no […]

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October Arrives At The Ides Of October

16 October 2021

But The Humans Make Too Damn Much Noise The cool weather finally arrived overnight; so, today, Saturday 16 October 2021, I decided to celebrate by making a bit of a Saturday sermon by hanging out by the track in New Iberia. That’s plenty of “by”s in one clause in one sentence! I saw the LDRR […]

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NOGC Happenings And Memories – 14 October 2011

14 October 2021

It was both a sign of the times and a sign of one’s reactive male youth, albeit fading, that prompted the outcomes from the incident on the afternoon of Friday 14 October 2011, and it was also an “it had to happen” thing. The pictures started during a break from workplace that morning, probably to […]

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October 2011 Sampler

1 October 2021

Greetings, and welcome to the October 2011 Sampler essay. October 2011 was, like the four months that preceded it, especially memorable for me. I took many pictures. Saturday, The 1st The passage of time has a way of getting you to reassess events. When I took this picture of Canadian National Railway train A419 crossing […]

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Chop Suey

11 September 2021

Jimbaux knows that Life is a waterfall,We drink from the river,Then we turn around and put up our walls. Today is Saturday 11 September 2021, and you know what 20-year anniversary today is, but it’s also a 10-year anniversary of a large set of pictures that I made on a big picture outing that I […]

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September 2011 Sampler

1 September 2021

Greetings, and welcome to the September 2011 Sampler essay, which will be one of the biggest sampler essays – and may be the biggest, but I don’t care to go back and look at the others to verify – that I have ever done, which simply means that there were plenty of days in the […]

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‘Big Boy’ UP 4014 Visits Southwestern Louisiana

19 August 2021

They told Jimbaux to run, but just how far?Can he go wearing the black mask of fear? At first, I wasn’t going to go out in the heat to chase a steam locomotive among a bunch of other people photographing it, but I decided a few days ago that, today, Thursday 19 August 2021, I […]

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Closing Day

11 August 2021

Getting to know Lake Charles and environs over the last three years was enlightening, even though that place mostly sucks, but today, Wednesday 11 August 2021, is the day to officially end all of that, even though I’m sure that I’ll occasionally find myself there for other reasons. So, we had to go there today […]

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August 2011 Sampler

1 August 2021

Greetings, and welcome to the August 2011 Sampler essay, which neatly follows my “July 2011 Sampler” essay that documented my last days in the Washington area and then my first days back home and which (this essay) will foreshadow the direction – almost literally there – in which my life would later go. At first, […]

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Sunday Trip Up The Potomac River, Compilation – 3 July 2011

3 July 2021

On Sunday 3 July 2011, I made a trip up the Potomac River from Washington on the Maryland side of the river to explore the area. I got several pictures, especially in the areas of Brunswick and Hagerstown, and I entered the state of West Virginia for the first time in my life. A few […]

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July 2011 Sampler

1 July 2021

Welcome to the July 2011 Sampler. “Just come home,” Dad wrote to me on the afternoon of 29 June 2011 in response to my description of my situation and my options. So, I relented and, less than a month later, came home, and it was such an obviously correct decision in retrospect. So, this post […]

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This Is A Test

30 June 2021

This is a test. What about this? This was a test. Jim

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Life, Death, And Forgiveness In Iberia-Vermilion in 2021

16 June 2021

Today is Wednesday 16 June 2021, and, today, as I make my last train pictures before I put away the camera – or, more accurately, stay away from the track, because I am sure to take more pictures of personal things – for a while, I reflect upon a vivid dream that I had 10 […]

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The Brown File Cabinet

4 June 2021

If Jimbaux doesn’t listen to the talk of the townThen maybe he can fool himself. Today, I went to Lake Charles to get my brown file cabinet, the storage vessel for some of my oldest irreplaceable personal items, a sign of the end of the brief foray there, and I’m relieved that my future is […]

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A Storage Surprise – 1 June 2020

1 June 2021

Okay, this set of pictures, being not of an actual train or anything “action” related, was not included in the real-time posts from 2020 here. So, it is being included one year later, and it requires a little bit of background information. So, as you may recall, the rice mill in Abbeville, Louisiana, closed in […]

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June 2011 Sampler

1 June 2021

Welcome to the June 2011 Sampler photo essay. It was this month in which I had a big psychological breakthrough. Thursday, The 2nd This was the hood at The Heights. I don’t miss it at all, and you know how much I miss so many places. Friday, The 3rd Here we are in Front Royal, […]

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May 31 ‘Federal Property’

31 May 2021

Today is Monday 31 May 2021, Memorial Day, and I tried to get some quiet meditation by the track for the last time until the weather cools off in the fall, but it wasn’t that great. Yesterday was rather cool, and I perhaps should have tried to do this yesterday. Six months ago yesterday was […]

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Heat, Light, and Wind

26 May 2021

At 08:00 today, Wednesday 26 May 2021, it was already very hot and very bright as I was out by the Port Of Lake Charles. Billy Navarre Nissan gave me a crazy price on repairing the air conditioner in the truck, and we really have to think about this. Shortly before 09:00, the engineer told […]

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It’s Never Enough

24 May 2021

Today is Monday 24 May 2021, and I had to meet with the folks right before my departure for the track, which made me miss the outbound Port Rail train from the port this morning. I got gasoline, apparently after realizing that the train was arriving into the interchange yard, and then to Gerstner just […]

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Englewood And Rain

22 May 2021

Jimbaux tears his heart openHe sews himself shutHis weakness isThat he cares too muchAnd his scars remind himThat the past is realHe tears his heart openJust to feel. This Could Be The Start Of Something Big And Special Today is Saturday 22 May 2021, it was a really long day, and I went to Texas […]

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May 2011 Sampler

1 May 2021

This one will be brief and insipid, less interesting than the previous month’s sampler essay. Saturday, The 7th I was on my way to do a photography project at the 1920 Club in Washington, DC, when I grabbed this image along 14th Street at Swann Street NW. That was really the best part of the […]

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Delete Your Account

22 April 2021

One year ago yesterday, the last train from the Planters Rice Mill in Abbeville pulled the last railroad car with a shipment from the mill and left the mill for New Iberia. I left the homestead later than I had hoped and got to Gerstner in Lake Charles just in time to see this. For […]

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Much Lumber, Little Drama

14 April 2021

Today is Wednesday 14 April 2021, and I got a few shots of some Port Rail action in Lake Charles this morning. The rainstorms today were dramatic, with the lightning and the sound of bowling above, but this storm caused some fatalities, as, tragically, a boat in the Gulf Of Mexico near Grande Isle capsized. […]

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Holy Saturday April Third Westbound And Eastbound

3 April 2021

Jimbaux is not and simultaneously is a 21st Century digital boy. The Train Was Westbound, While I Was Eastbound Well, look at this! It’s an out-of-order post, done so because it is short and easy. I climbed up the bridge for the train and noticed that the sign had fallen. April 3 has often been […]

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Light And Wind

1 April 2021

Today is Thursday 1 April 2021, one year to the day after I got my “Just A Fool To Believe” post, and, today, I got the kinds of pictures that I had hoped to get yesterday. Two days ago, I got a memorable “hat trick” of Acadiana Railway action on the branch from Eunice to […]

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April 2011 Sampler

1 April 2021

Greetings, and welcome to the April 2011 Sampler, a glimpse into a time that simultaneously was important and was unimportant. Each of the images in this set is from either the US state of Virginia or from the adjacent District Of Columbia. Sunday, The 3rd Here is a westward view along North Carolina Avenue in […]

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Beginnings And Endings – A Variety Pack

30 March 2021

Today is Tuesday 30 March 2021, and I came today to Lake Charles for the first time since February 10. Beginnings And Ends I left the homestead right at 07:00 CDT, bound for Eunice. The sky was overcast, humid, and cool. It’s beginnings and endings. I’m trying to get her off of my mind, I […]

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This Means Something

22 March 2021

Today is 22 March 2021, and these pictures were taken at or near the rice-mill structure in Abbeville, Louisiana. The rice mill closed almost a year ago, and this area has been dormant since then. These views are looking west toward Bayou Vermilion, which is just past those trees, and this railroad line from New […]

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