Weekend Whoadification Won

by Jim on 2014/09/27

Jimbaux knew that they could never tear us apart.

Or can they? whoever “they” are?

Some New Orleans Non-Frontin’ Frontin’

This is the first day of a special weekend.  In positive ways, it was something of a taste of the past and simultaneously a likely taste of the future; this weekend is a mountain in the middle of a valley as much as it might be a valley in the middle of a mountain.  The previous weekend was coincidentally similar in a very different way.  Time might only tell what I mean by all of that, but the great news then is that, finally, more than a year after recording our song, Waylon Thibodeaux and I began shooting our music video on Sunday.

Six days later, I am in New Orleans taking these pictures.  These aren’t that great, but they are a preview of tomorrow’s pictures, which will be much better.  Yes, in case you haven’t yet figured it out, I recently began the practice of creating and publishing an empty blog article on the day that I take the pictures that go into the article, allowing the date in the URL to match that of the pictures; this also allows my writing to be written as if it was made just after I took the pictures on that same day, but the reality is that this almost never happens.  So, the reality is that although these pictures were taken “today,” Saturday 27 September 2014, the text ‘was’ written after today; this also means that there will be few or no more instances of “hey, here are some pictures that I took last Tuesday” inside of blog articles.

These pictures today are okay, but tomorrow’s pictures will be much better; now you know why I already know that!  🙂

Let’s Get Started

A typical train that one can see in New Orleans at this time of day is CSX’s daily transfer to and, more specifically, from the Canadian National Railway’s Mays Yard.  For some reason, this train was called the “Y205” today, even though we’re still before what I thought second trick to be.

Anyway, here it is at Alvar Street led by a former GP30 converted into a slug.

I hadn’t seen a GP30 body in a really long time, several years, at least.  Those things are cool!

That is a CSX-to-Union-Pacific train passing on the other track, and there you can barely see a freshley-painted Ferromex boxcar; that’s cool too!

On that CSX-to-Union-Pacific train was this old Ashley, Drew & Northern boxcar.

I didn’t think that any ADN-painted boxcars still existed!

The train gets closer as it has to stop for the switch out of which the westbound train is passing, and this is a better view.

The need for the train to stop to wait for the other train to clear the switch gave me a chance to scurry down the overpass in order to get some ground-level shots of the same train.  Oh, and I should mention that this is the first time that I climb an overpass since my August surgery, though that would have happened earlier were it not for the heat; today was breezy and less warm.

Anyway, here’s a view on the way down, the quality of which is aided by the existence of and shape of these plate steel cars.

Ah, yes, a GP30 body and bulkhead flatcars in one picture is a good thing, my friends.

As is often the case here, the conductor has to get out to realign the switches left open by the previous train.

After this, I headed back west, and while passing through City Park, I encountered an eastbound military train.  I think that I should photograph this.  I quickly realized that this was the same train to which one of my moles had alerted me seven days earlier when it was passing through Nevada; that’s an odd routing for a train, but UP has had some recent problems with flooding in southern Texas, which affected the Sunset Route and which may be a reason that this thing moved via the Overland Route only to go south to Kansas City and then further south from there to New Orleans.

I figured that I couldn’t beat the SHRNO – from Herlong, California – to either Elysian Fields or maybe even Frenchmen Street; so, I had to settle for this fairly lame and poorly-lit shot of the train on the CSX at NE Tower.

At 12:48, when the SHRNO was starting from a stop at St. Anthony on NS trackage, the conductor reported that the crew would go on the law at 13:05; the above picture of the train grinding to a stop at NE Tower was taken at 13:05.

After this, it was time to take it to “the house” for a little while.  After some rest and the performing of some chores, I went back out again in the clouded shortly-before-dusk skies, and, in my efforts to get some non-railroad New Orleans pictures, I took pictures of a few houses.

The houses seen in these three pictures were taken in southwestern Mid-City; note the “We Won’t Be Railroaded” signs, a protest against the proposed Middle Belt railroad line.

I’m glad to see this part of town coming back; it looked horrible after Katrina.

Well, that was interesting.  Let’s see what is happening by the track while we still can; let’s see some action on the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad at France Yard.

Well, that is all for pictures today; well, that’s not true if we include cell-phone snaps, like this one, where I did not see Walt Pierce!

Now, that was a real treat – and in many ways!

Photographically, that’s how today ends, and it is a reflection of how today really ended, but tomorrow will (or would) be better, both photographically and in other ways.  Stay tuned.

Jimbaux

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Phillip Serviss October 3, 2014 at 18:40

Love the pictures of the houses! They would make great structures for a layout.

Reply

2 Charlie Kilbourne October 4, 2014 at 06:51

It has been a while since I’ve seen a AD&N car … looks like she is on her last legs.

Your shots of the local houses are a pleasant diversion.

Reply

3 Randy Knaub October 4, 2014 at 09:52

Nice photos! Love the (rebult?) GP-30 on the point. My favorite diesel. Thank You.

Reply

Cancel reply

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: