Friday #1 And Chip Local

[Jimbaux will speak no more of his feelings beneath.]

Actually, that’s not entirely true, but I’ve said plenty that I’ve needed to say and address in the last year, and now that I’ve faced it and it’s out there, some of my old coyness would not be a bad thing.

Anyway, today’s song is a hauntingly beautiful one penned by Layne Staley that I’ve liked as long as I’ve known about it since being little myself.

Arrival

Here are a few pictures I took Friday.

Below, in a very compressed and cropped view, we see the headlight of the westbound Sunset Limited well over a mile away as he approaches the east end of Schriever.

The tank cars peeling off to the left are on all that is left of the old Napoleonville Branch.  I really miss that line dearly.

Departure

After picking up a few passengers at Schriever, here’s the #1 blasting out of town.

BNSF has installed so many new signals and radios for them here.

The Chip Local

As usual, after the #1, it’s time for my favorite train on the line, the Union Pacific Railroad’s LLS51 out of Avondale, the Morgan City Local, The Chip Local.  Here it is at Chacahoula rounding the curve, where there once was an intermediate signal that was recently removed.

Yes, I shot this train on Monday too, and the train then consisted mostly of open-top hoppers then.  Today, it has nothing but nine UP-family open-top hoppers.  If you look back through my old pictures of the train, you’ll probably see none of these.

I like this train much better when it’s just bulkhead flatcars!

Here’s the last car on the train, for anyone who is interested.

Oh, gosh, do I really miss the D&RGW too!  I’m grateful to at least have the Chip Local, like I’m grateful for so many other things.

Interpretations Of The Return

Regarding recent writings, please notice that none of my writing included any forms of the word “liberal” or “conservative,” which, like “terrorist” and “racist,” are convenient  little labels we put on things to mask much bigger problems.  Notice that people use these words – like terrorist, racist, conservative, or liberal – to end debates, as to label someone with one of these words is to completely discredit anything that he says, ever has said, or ever will say. These words are so loaded that they are, paradoxically, empty.  Does that make sense?

Merci,

Jimbaux