SP 745 At Steam Fest III and Returning Home – 5 October 2008

You saw an NOPB passenger special on the first day of Steam Fest III yesterday, and now you actually see the SP 745 – actually see steam – here on day two of the festival, Sunday 5 October 2008.  First, on the way to the festivities, we see some streetcar action on St. Charles Avenue.

Well that was okay, wasn’t it?  Once we are at Steam Fest at “The Fly” at Audubon Park, we encounter rapper and photographer, our woadie and head tr’igga, The Cajun Porkchop, as we shoot each other.

We hang out for awhile, but then he had to leave.  Eventually, something really bizarre happened.  Two females who had been chasing me for a few weeks both happened to show up at my ‘invitation,’ and I wondered what each one of them thought about the other’s presence; I was not seriously interested in either of them as romantic partners, and I didn’t lead them on to think such, but they were still after me.  This – having two women interested in me and in each other’s presence – is simply something that just does not happen to me!  So, I just did not know how to deal with it.  They seemed to have fun taking turns making fun of my foaminess.  I think that the LASTA guys seemed a tad, for lack of a better word, ‘impressed’ (which made me feel even more awkward about the whole thing), especially since yet another good-looking woman had accompanied me there (actually came with me) the day before!  This was all just too weird; like I said, this had never happened before, and I didn’t know how to handle it.  Both of them eventually ended their pursuits of me, one by just either figuring out that I wasn’t interested or losing interest herself, and the other having to actually be told by me that I wasn’t interested; her showing up unexpectedly at my place of employment kind of freaked me out!  I don’t keep up with her anymore, but the other one is a great person whom I call a friend.

Anyway, here is a portrait of Keith.

The festivities came to an end, and the NOPB 2008, which you saw the day before passing by this location with the passenger cars, comes into position to couple to the SP 745 and pull her and her train back home.

How about that?  We’re on the track to the Henry Clay Avenue Wharf.

So, now, it’s time to get ahead of the train to get a picture of it as it moves along the NOPB mainline riverfront trackage on its way to the LASTA yard.  The two ladies with me were a bit freaked out as a I quickly got out of the truck and hoisted myself atop the truck to get this shot, rocking the cab in which they were still sitting.

Yeah, it looks like the runners are trying to get away from the train!  Many years ago, there were two other tracks where the runners are; I think that one was for the Illinois Central and the other for the Kansas City Southern.

Speaking of the KCS, our next stop is at the KCS yard, where the train had to go to be wyed.  (For those of you not familiar with railroading or railroad jargo, a wye is an arrangement of track that allows a train or piece or pieces or rolling stock to be turned in the other direction.)  Here is the train at the KCS yard tower after moving into the yard through the south leg of the wye.

The yard tower had been unused since Hurricane Katrina and was demolished in 2010.

That’s all from this memorable weekend; I hope that you liked it.

Thanks.

Jimbaux