[Do you think Jimbaux’s faking . . . when he tells you he loves you?]
Yes, I know I’m behind on replying to e-mails; please be patient!
Then She Told Me She Had A Gun
Back in April, Amtrak’s northbound Crescent struck a truck trailer just before its first station stop in Slidell, Louisiana, derailing the two locomotives and several cars and injuring some crew and passengers. If you dig through the pictures at that link and read the captions, you’ll see that Ellis Lucia (or some copy editor) of The Times-Picayune apparently doesn’t know the difference between locomotives and cars.
Anyway, somehow, the locomotives came to New Orleans sometime between the wreck and now, and as of a few days ago, they’ve been placed on flat cars, presumably for shipment north to be repaired. Yesterday (Monday 20 September), five months to the day after the wreck, thanks to a hot tip over the weekend from my whoadies Greg and Walt, the latter being a journalist himself, I took advantage of an opportunity to get some pictures of these things on the flat cars near New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.
That track was once the Illinois Central Railway mainline prior to the completion of Mays Yard. Now, it’s just a wye stub.
You can see in the above picture that rods were actually welded to the locomotive to strap it to the flat car.
Y’all need to check out Judy B’s great pictures of the wreck back in April. She actually lives somewhere nearby, and she’s something of a latent foamer. Please tell her that Jimbaux sent you!
Coincidentally, in the few minutes that I was taking these pictures, Amtrak’s southbound City of New Orleans arrives and turns on the wye, about the only time during daylight that something like this would happen this day. I swear I didn’t plan this.
See the train approaching in the distance in the above picture? The City of New Orleans is Amtrak’s daily passenger train between Chicago and New Orleans, and you can also see it behind the damaged goods below.
Below is a closer view of the welds made to the bottom of the locomotive. I guess after they arrive, the welds will be burned out and sanded.
It looks like this nose needs to be rebolted. Oh, well.
I’m not the only one who is wondering why it has taken five months to prepare these things for departure. Anyone know anything more about that?
Y’all might recognize this as the location where I caught not only the KCS business train turning on the wye, but also a confused The Times-Picayune photographer David Grunfeld foolishly risking his life for a picture of a subject he didn’t understand (and see comments section for what I mean by that).
Parts of Xavier University can be seen in the far background on the horizon in the below picture.
That’s really enough of that. I hope that you liked the pictures. If anyone else has information on this move, please share.
Must Be Something On Your Mind, Something Lost For Me To Find
(You’re not listening to today’s song?) And while I was “lost” on my way north, I noticed a train parked at Marconi, which called for a slight deviation to get a picture at this classic location.
This was the daily train from the CSX to the BNSF in New Orleans, and it had several cars of these odd loads, one of which is seen here next to a new building at City Park.
There; I found another train. That’s enough of pictures on Monday.
More? What about 9/11?
Hey, yes, I’m too busy to make separate posts for this stuff; so, in addition to showing you above what I shot yesterday, I will show you below what I shot today (Tuesday) after I made my ritual check of the area around Gouldsboro Yard in Gretna. I was just telling someone yesterday that although I’ve gotten several shots recently of the New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway’s street-running on 4th Street in Gretna, it’s been several years (probably five) since I’ve shot the slightly-less-common street-running on the branch on Madison Street. Well, that changed today!
Foaming On Tuesday
Here’s the head end of the daily (I think) train from Belle Chase a few blocks from arriving at Gouldsboro Yard (where, if things are still like they were five years ago, he’ll merely run around his train and take it to Westwego for UP interchange), taken with that non-focusing piece-of-junk lens, the 15-85mm/f3.5-5.6 IS. Can you tell that I really miss my old 17-40mm/f4?
I suppose the inclusion of the yellow crossing warning sign is a creative touch, but it makes it slightly less a picture of a train. Hopefully, I’ll get an opportunity to change this in the near future.
When you consider that this train had only 10 cars today, it seems a bit overpowered with three GP7s! You can see the 2180, the former “Barney” locomotive now in NOGC colors like seemingly every other unit on the roster now. Yeah, this railroad is not nearly as colorful as it was a few years ago.
She Told Me That She Used It . . . Once Before
Here’s the end of the train with a better view of Madison Street.
And that’s all the pictures we have time for today. Yeah, I know, it’s a relief for me too.
9/11, Jimbaux?
Here’s the news on my 9/11 photo essay. Hopefully, Part 1 of probably five parts will be the next thing that you see on this site. I’ve completely finished processing all 68 pictures, and it’s just time to write the post and publish it.
Also, remember, you can send me your 9/11 pictures at this address:
I’m eager to get these 9/11 pictures out. I can tell you that while I personally find some of the content of the 9/11 pictures to be interesting, they are far from my best photographic works. As you probably already understand, though, on 9/11, photo quality was not really important; the mere ability and right to take the pictures was.
Remember, too, if you want to keep up with what’s happening on Jimbaux’s Journal, the best way to do it is to join the Facebook fan page.
Joining (by clicking “Like” on the page when logged-in to Facebook) will mean that new updates will appear in your Facebook news feed, maybe thrice weekly.
Oh, and did you see the cell-phone pics I took at a recent family wedding?
Site News
I keep forgetting to post the site stats for the month of August. Just like for July, we’ve set a record. First, here are the July stats for both the NOLA Post and Jimbaux’s Journal (combined) once again.
6,987 Page Impressions
3 Ad Clicks
$1.72 in ad revenue
Now, here are the August statistics:
7,512 Page Impressions
7 Ad Clicks
$3.78 in ad revenue
So, we set a new record in August, and with 5,252 page impressions already for September, we may meet or break that record this month. I still have yet to bother to take delivery of any advertising revenue; I won’t do it at that low amount. So, yes, this continues to be a labor of love for me; please support the advertisers of the site, and recommend the site to your friends. Most of all, thanks for helping make Jimbaux’s Journal the success that it is, even if you just read and look at the pictures and don’t comment. Regardless, I thank you, and I hope that you continue to find this site as educational as you find it entertaining as you find it thought-provoking.
Jimbaux
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Why are there no flashing signals for the NO & Gulf Coast (last 3 pics) going through a populated area? Too little traffic or do they think those signs are enough?
Just wondering.
gg
GG, The static signs are enough. Remember that the track here is already in the middle of the street in the first place, meaning that the few trains that move here creep down the track at a very slow speed. The biggest problem here is when the long grain trains arrive in Gouldsboro Yard, they have to be sawed in two to fit through the yard, and it requires two crews and two sets of locomotives, one on the front of the train as it arrives in the yard and the other in the yard to pull the cut out from the other end once the train is broken.
Thanks for sharing. Great job.