KCS, New Orleans, Ferromex – 24 August 2007

[And Jimbaux wonders, still he wonders, who’ll stop the rain . . . ]

Long As I Remember . . .

I need to post something here so that y’all won’t think I died or gave up or something, but it feels like both have been true lately.

Here are some pictures taken on Friday 24 August 2007 of railroad action in New Orleans.  Two days before I took these pictures, I took for the first or second time a shot on the north leg of the wye at the Kansas City Southern Railway yard with the New Orleans skyline in the background, a shot that became something that I did again several times including on this day, as you will see below.

First, though, we’ll start in Audubon Park in New Orleans, and we’ll remember that for two years after Hurricane Katrina, the KCS crews in New Orleans, when using the numbers 53 and 54 to refer to trains, were referring not to the southbound and northbound, respectively, trains of CSX interchange traffic between Shreveport and New Orleans that they were before Katrina and have been since September 2007, but, rather, to short transfers between the KCS New Orleans Yard and the New Orleans Public Belt Railway’s Cotton Warehouse Yard and back, respectively, with the CSX interchange traffic.

So, here we are with the 54-Local having just emerged from NOPB Cotton Warehouse Yard on NOPB rails here at Audubon Park behind the KCS 2910, one of those wide-nose Canadian GP40-2LWs.

That track in the foreground is the beginning of the spur into the Henry Clay Avenue Wharf, and it’s also where the Louisiana Steam Train Association puts its train for Steam Fest.  Today’s train had a mere 18 cars.

To L&A Road . . .

Next, we haul some serious tail to the KCS yard along L&A Road – named for KCS predecessor the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway – in Metairie to set up for my new (then) shot with the skyline in the background.  Two days before, I got this shot of the train preparing to leave in the other direction, and now we see a shot of a train here in the opposite direction, arriving in the yard.

Check out that Great Lakes Carbon hopper!

Compare the above shot and below shot to each other.  Consider that we are not only standing atop the truck (there have been some recent questions from readers about why I do that), but that we are standing in the same place for both shots; therefore, consider it a lesson in telephoto photography as compared to shorter-range photography.  If you don’t believe me, note that there is no change in the orientation of that little stuck near the old spur by the road compared to the spur.  Note, too, in the below picture, that standing atop the truck puts us at about the middle of the height of the train, meaning that the top of the train and the bottom of the train, as represented by lines, would be at roughly equal angles from the optical axis.

Do you see the little white yard car in both pictures?  The conductor is on his way!

Here, we see KCS engineer Tim Loebig adjusting the mirror so that he can see the trainmen working on the ground as he prepares to decouple from his train.

That’s right, SP Chip isn’t the only railroader whom I photograph, and to drive the point home further, look below, as we see our pal Rueben!

More recently, Rueben has also served as yardmaster here at KCS New Orleans Yard, still called “West Yard” by the crews.  He seems like a good dude, but I haven’t seen him in a long time.  If you see him, tell him hello for/from Jimbaux, a’ight?

Note the emptiness of the yard in the below image and the flood-damaged track, something that would all change a month later!

In case you don’t know or don’t remember why things changed, well, I’ve already obliquely mentioned one of the two big factors that changed, but I’ll try to remember to post the pictures next month of the other big changes that took place here once those anniversary days come.  Speaking of which, are y’all enjoying the “five years ago today” stuff?

Anyway, here’s the view of the front of the New Orleans Museum of Art as Jimbaux burns more gasoline.

That’s a place where I’d love to be able to spend more time now.  Oh, well.

El Fin Con Ferromex Hermanos

A couple of FXE brothers (4626 and 4648, in case you keep score of such things) were the power on an interchange train (probably from the CSX) waiting on a UP crew at I-10.  This is a shot that I rarely do, but the old Southern Railway bridge over I-10 is interesting.

Yes, this is the crew change location recently featured here on Jimbaux’s Journal in the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth images in the Gluttonous Sunday Sermon.

That’s all for now, my good netizens.  Thanks for checking this out.  I hope to have something else for you before the end of August, but that may not happen.

Merci,

Jimbaux