Classic Locomotives on the KCS in New Orleans – 6 October 2007

[Jimbaux wishes happy trails to you, ’til we meet again.]

The 6th of October 2007 was another photographic Saturday in New Orleans for Jimbaux.

We Begin Where We Will End

That has multiple meanings now, doesn’t it?  Anyway, we’ll start with a rare shot of the front end of a train with a now extinct paint scheme worn by the second locomotive.

I’m not sure what train that is, but I’m inclined to think that it’s the Norco Dodger. It is about a half-mile from entering KCS New Orleans Yard.  Those are KCS crewmen and their yard car there at the crossing, though I do not recall why they were there.  You can see some other tracks right past the KCS track; that’s the beginning of the NS Back Belt.  The original KCS track is farther back down Shrewsbury Road, about even with the tip of the nose of the lead locomotive.

A Yellow Diversion

Other than taking these pictures, I don’t recall what I was doing on this day (and I barely remember taking the pictures), and that’s probably a good thing, but I don’t know.  I somehow ended up at Elmwood, perhaps to go to the gym, where I shot Union Pacific’s KCIAT – the precursor to today’s ZLCAT – descending the bridge.

Check out those old C-beasts second and third in the power consist!

There Is Something Not Right Here

A quick check of LaBarre Road revealed something not the way it is supposed to be.

I’m standing on the road, a fact that I state for any of you inclined to be accusatory.

Back To The KCS, Almost

Okay, yes, this is – or will be – a Kansas City Southern Railway train with classic old TFM power in FNM paint, but we’re actually on the New Orleans Public Belt Railway here; this is perhaps the only time I did this shot, mainly because due to all of the obstructing poles, I only did it because of the neat power.

So, the way it worked back then (which, yes, is different than the way it happens now) is that KCS crews would usually operate over the NOPB as far as Cotton Warehouse Yard.  In this case, this outbound and northbound train – the M-CXSH – was brought here to Eagle Street by an NOPB crew for a KCS crew to pick it up, but, often, the KCS crews would take the train from Cotton Warehouse Yard.

Yes, kiddies, that’s the US Army Corps of Engineers building in the background at right.

Hey, look, it’s another former Ferrocarilles Nacionales de Mexico SDP40!

By looking at the below shot and comparing them to the above three shots, you can see the benefits of darkening a sky when the subject matter in the foreground is not well lit.

Unfortunately, the days of motive power consists like that, especially around here, are gone.  All good things must come to an end.

Eagle Street Itself

Here’s a few down Eagle Street and the little spur track to the Sewerage & Water Board plant.

I think that a trackmobile comes and picks up chlorine tank cars from the NOPB here.

We End Where We Began

You knew that that subhealine was coming, didn’t you?

Here’s the Baton Rouge Turn exiting the yard with what even now is classic old power.  Scroll back up to the first picture, and you can see where I was standing!

Again, the two empty tracks that you see to the left of the train are the beginning (almost) of the Norfolk Southern “Back Belt” line.  Until the early 1980s, the KCS crossed the NS at a diamond right about where the train is curving back on what is left of the old KCS mainline.  The KCS between this spot – Shrewsbury – and Kenner was removed because its proximity to Airline Highway caused major traffic jams when KCS’s two-mile long trains would slowly rumble toward or out of the yard.  So, a trackage rights agreement was made with the Illinois Central Railway.

Here’s our friendly Engineer Stevo saying hello as he crossed Shrewsbury on his way back home to Baton Rouge.

Well, that was a nice Saturday, don’t you think?

All for now . . .

Jimbaux