Saturday Mediocrity

[Jimbaux reminds you that a pretty face can hide an evil mind.]

Do you think that Johnnie Rivers intentionally pronounced the “g” weakly so that people would think that he was saying “secret Asian man”?

Beware Of Pretty Faces That You Find

Here are a few pictures, not really all that great but also not so terrible that I won’t present them, from my drive from bayouland back to Woadieville on Saturday.  Oh, and did you see the pictures of Engineer Sean and the BNSF rock train two days before?

Catching Up On Catching Up

First, though, let’s do a little bit of follow-up from the previous post, which included announcement of Chip’s retirement, pictures of sugarcane trucks exiting a sugar mill, Jimbaux being questioned for taking the pictures, what that questioning reveals about human nature, pictures of train stuff from the New Orleans area, and thoughts on the forced reaction on the Sandy Hook school shooting fomented by the media.

Here’s what a friend writes to me about my last few paragraphs (about the forced, expected reaction to the Sandy Hook shooting) in the last post:

The very last line about outrage is good. Relating to that “obligation to be outraged and show support over something you have absolutely no control over and cannot help”, for the rest of the NFL season after that happened, most (if not all of the teams) sported S.H.E.S. stickers on their helmets and/or patches on their jerseys, etc. And dedicating games, etc. “to those suffering” is only to make you feel good about yourself.  You cannot help that or make those people feel better just by saying that stuff, assuming they even hear or see it.

I wonder if any and how many players on teams that did such maybe didn’t want to do it, or think of it the same way you do? And I don’t have a problem with people memorializing something if they want to – just admit it makes you feel good to do it, not that you are doing it “for them.”

Right.  I wish that more people would see that, but we live in a highly codependent culture, and those of us who refuse to get swept up into the madness are often labeled as troublemakers, as I wrote in this piece accompanying an article about why “anti-authoritarian” people (who are not, as the article states, against all authority) are often labeled as mentally ill.  Putting S.H.E.S. stickers on your helmet when you don’t even know anyone anywhere around the school is just about yourself, but, as my friend’s comment suggest, many of the players probably didn’t have a choice and probably kept their mouths shut about the uselessness and stupidity of what they were doing so as not to appear as jerks to the dumbfounded masses.  It’s about as useful as “Support Our Troops” stickers on your car; unless you actually do something to “support the troops,” and maybe you do, such stickers are only about you.

Pictures, Please

Yes, that’s why most of you are here.  The eastbound Z-train was slowing for a meet at Raceland, and I got there a little bit too late to get some good shots of the MNSEW taking the siding, or did I?

One Man’s Trash Is That Same Man‘s Treasure?

When I took this picture, I thought that it was trash, mainly because the front of the train got too far to the left and got behind that scrub, because I got to the scene with no time to spare.  Even after I got done with all of the pictures from the day, I still thought that this one was a failure.  Now, I happen to think that it’s my best shot of the day.

Well, if that’s the best shot of the day, it means that all shots from here onward go downhill.  You can close out of this window now and quit reading, then.  Anyway, I thought that if I had gotten this shot when this train was about 150′ further back, it would have been much better, but then you wouldn’t have been able to see as many of those cool loaded pipe gondolas, which really make the MNSEW (which you’ve seen here many times before, including August 2011 and last May) distinguishable, not that those N&W hoppers at the front are not cool.

I thought about getting over to St. Charles (the community) to get a shot that I found there 365 days before and have not done since then, but, lately, I’m not at all in the mood for backtracking for pictures.  So, eastward I go.

Live Oak

Comint indicated that eastbound Z-train was to meet the westbound Z-train and the Chip Local – uhh, I mean, the LLD51 – with the LLPX 2209 at Salix.  Do I try to shoot either of the westbounds?  No.  Again, we’re not backtracking today.  So, eastward we go.  I never did see the local, but a text message Sunday morning from The Cajun Porkchop told of loaded lumber cars at Raceland; so, he at least the local had cool cargo (I like loaded lumber cars) with him, making me wish that I had photographed it.

We stop at Live Oak.  I should know better than to do this shot.  I should know that the real shots here is of trains on the Livonia Sub and of trains coming from the Livonia Sub through the crossover to the Avondale Sub, both of which you saw in one episode at the end of November, but, nonetheless, here’s a shot of the ZLAAT – and you can hardly see any intermodal cars, which is why I don’t like this shot – a few feet from exiting the Lafayette Sub onto the Avondale Sub.

I don’t like it either, but one thing that I’ve learned is that my least favorite shot in a set of shots is often some viewer’s favorite shot.  So, enjoy it, if you do.  I just don’t like it because it doesn’t show enough of the train (to show that it’s actually an intermodal train with just a few empty Tropicana reefers on the head end) and doesn’t have a solid enough background of trees below the sky like the November shots in the aforelinked post do.  Still, I consider the shot to be presentable, which is self-evident.

Do you like the music of Three Days Grace?  I do.

An Odd Sighting on the Huey P. Long Bridge

There was a reason why I took this weird shot at the gasoline station where I stopped to purchase nothing.

That’s not why I’m here.  I’m here because of this “GATX CLASSROOM” car on this UP-to-CSX train.  What is this all about?

My guess is that it’s some sort of training car for either railroad employees or those who would load and unload cars, but maybe John West – whose work I have admired since I was a little boy – can tell us.

More New Orleans Public Belt GP40 Pictures

I really didn’t plan it this way, but this is the second consecutive post showing at least one of the GP40s on the NOPB’s roster.  Here, though, you can also see the new roof on East Bridge Junction Tower.

Well, that shot is not that great, and it’s kind of fuzzy, but at least I’ll be able to get a better shot once he gets past that pole and we can see more of the train, right?  No.

Dammit!  He had to come on the close track.  Oh, well.  I need to give up this foaming stupidity anyway, but I’ve been saying that for years.  Anyway, this is NOPB’s daily transfer to the CN, and it includes its own transfer traffic as well as UP and BNSF traffic.  Yes, NOPB has won back a little bit of BNSF’s business.

NS Land

Yes, let’s see what the Norfolk Southern has “to offer” – as if NS runs trains so that we can see them – before we head home and get a life.  First, though, a few blocks south of the track, let’s have a look at a typical New Orleans scene, and I’m sure everyone visiting here for the Super Bowl saw one of these, right?

Welcome to New Orleans!  Yeah, baby!

Anyway, tied down over by Piety Street was an NS train from the Domino Sugar refinery in Arabi, sitting on the NS Chalmette Branch (or whatever it’s called.)

Yeah, I know, this shot is too tight, but this wider shot shows a problem, doesn’t it?

The 5831 has spent plenty of time in New Orleans, and I have many pictures of it in action on locals and yard jobs over several years.

That’s all that I have for now.  I was going to do some “pontificating” (to use the word of a critic in the comment section of the last post) about the media reaction about that stranded cruise ship last week, but I’m definitely out of time.  Until next time, I’ll see you on the Facebook page.

Thanks.

Jimbaux