Back Sabbath

Jimbaux is taking a sentimental journey.

Hello.  Yesterday, you ‘enjoyed’ pictures from Acadiana, and, today, we are “back” in Whoadieville.  I have some pictures for you because, as I said recently, despite my decreased interest in taking pictures, it’s about all that I can do right now.

We start with this stopped eastbound BNSF manifest on the eastern slope of the Huey P. Long Bridge.

Yeah, okay.  Moving on, we see a rare Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive on the Canadian National Railway in Louisiana, at the head of this grain train the ownership of which is opaque.

The BNSF locomotive and the fact that plenty of CP locomotives are being used on the BNSF lately might make me think that this train came from the BNSF, but I don’t know of BNSF grain trains that have been interchanged to CN in New Orleans in several years, and if the train came online at Memphis, it would not need to come to this location.  Oh, well.

Here’s something different.

I had heard NS train 393 getting permission to enter the Back Belt, and it seemed to have a yard crew aboard.  Climbing an overpass was not really an option in my condition today and as of late.  So, I decided to settle for the Bayou St. John shot, and I did so accordingly.

Something is wrong with this picture.  It is fuzzy, and it did not turn out like I had hoped.

Check out that new UP SD70AH leading the train!  It’s not my style (or my substance) to take locomotive pictures, but I just had to get something close of this as it passed my position.

How’s that?

Later, I saw the QLIHL moving toward Gentilly, and the below shot that I got of two of its cars at Frenchmen Street along with the 393 pictures are my only action shots of the day.

Something about that MoPac boxcar and that bulkhead flatcar said something to me.  I don’t know what, and I have never really understood it, as this train obsession is indeed that: an obsession.

Finally, over by Oliver Yard, I spied an increasingly rare gem parked on the Chalmette Branch.

How about a high-nose GP50!  Oh, and look; the above picture is also a self-portrait.

Note below that the control stand is on this side of the locomotive, indicating that the long hood is the front of the locomotive.

What I found odd about this train is that nearly all of the cars were UP cars.

The track in the foreground in the below picture is the long-unused lead to the intermodal ramp.

There apparently is not enough intermodal traffic here to justify its continued use, as the intermodal trains just shove into the ramp from the other direction.

Here is one more shot before we leave, and I really like this view for some reason.

Well, now, it is time to make a quick run to the nearby New Orleans Public Belt Railroad local yard to see what is there.

That is all, and that that is all is a good thing.

Good night.

Jimbaux