Hope And Degradation

by Jim on 2018/11/02

Jimbaux is half the man he used to be.

Could It Be?

Surviving

Hey.  I got a decent set of railroad pictures for the first time since August 31.  Yes, I still (occasionally) photograph trains and post the pictures on the internet, and I still post old pictures from my portfolio that few if any have yet seen.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1975707665819775&id=145765538814006

There were a few reasons for this, and only one of them can I reveal in this essay.  I remain, evermore, imprisoned in this rentier, slave society, not allowed to be who I am, just like you, of course, but my own conditions make this general condition far more noticeable and problematic in me than it is in ‘normal’ people.

Presence

Anyway, we start at Elysian Fields Avenue, where the train that I had ‘planned’ to run on this day was indeed running, and exactly when I ‘planned’ it to run.

Yes, that is the CSX Y305 job returning to its home base at CSX Gentilly Yard after making its morningly run to CN Mays Yard to conduct CSX-CN interchange.

I am pleased with how these images turned out, but the greenness of the vegetation this late in the year concerns me about climate change.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1998774823513059&id=145765538814006

I am worried about climate change, you, too, should be, and we need to do something about it right now.

Well, let’s relocate to where this train is going that I really want to photograph it for reasons that I will reveal when we get there.

Borgblocked

I have fallen so far out of railroad/foamer culture that it feels like a past life now, which wouldn’t be bad at all, and would really be very desirable, if I were actually allowed to be who I am now.

Anyway, there was a train ahead of the Y305, a UP-to-CSX manifest train (I don’t know what they are anymore) stopped at Louisa Street.

I went and checked on what was happening at NOPB France Yard, and I was able to return just in time to set up to photograph the UP train.

I Stand Alone

Music?  What ever happened to it?

Yeah, I am just slowly being killed.  I am still not allowed to publicize that music video for a song that I recorded more than five years ago simply because, even though all of it that work is done, I lack a stable source of fuel, making me unable to achieve my potential, imprisoning me – and so many others – in this rentier world.  In this modern world of technological advances, social media, specialization of labor, and uncompensated land theft, more than work is required to survive; you must conform and submit to authority, or you don’t eat.

I don’t know what to do.

But you should really get that book.  It’s free, with free shipping.

Anyway, here is the damned train.

I like bulkhead flatcars, and that Ferromex boxcar is, beneath its tagging, neat.

After another circle around France Yard and Oliver Yard, it was time to return to the same scene for what I came here to do.

Ode To Grandma, And Perfect Timing

Sometimes, I do things that I should not do anymore just because they are habit, and I am a creature of habit.

However bad this may be, I think that I had a good excuse today.  Five years ago today, in my first photo outing after my grandmother’s death, I photographed the Y305 right at this spot, as seen in my big photo essay from that day.

I don’t know if it’s a divine message, or anything, but the time stamp on those images of the Y305 in this spot five years ago today said 12:02.

The time stamp on these images taken today of the Y305 at this spot say 12:02!

Make of that what you will.

Still, Man

The train is still creeping alone, and, now, with the better camera and the normal lens, these images were made, this first one timestamped at 12:04.

I am indeed being repetitive with these shots, and I will try to do better in the future, but I like how that truck and trailer added to the scene, don’t you?

The relatively short length of the train – 22 cars – meant that I was able to get the entire train in the image for these few here.

How is that?  I think of my grandmother, who died five years and about a week-and-a-half before, as I myself come here to slowly die.

Oh, well, at least these pictures will be floating around after I am dead; again, as the title of my August 31 piece said, this is about all that I am really allowed to do anymore.

This is where I should have just put the camera away for the rest of the day, having gotten what I came here to get, but, alas, I am not that smart.

Greed

I had heard the NS 141 get permission to advance southward from NE Tower and do its work in the yard.

I could worry about this any other day, right?  Or I could not worry about it at all?  So, why I am I climbing the Almonaster Boulevard overpass?

I don’t know, but that’s what I did.

While waiting for the train to move, I made a couple of photographs of the area down below, showing the new drainage work along the north leg of the wye.

After another 16 minutes, most of which I spent wondering why I was wasting my time thus, here comes the train.

I really need to stop taking pictures of trains.

The conductor, as you might be able to see above, got out off of the locomotive to break the train a few cars back.

So, the locomotives then take the first three cars into the yard.

I really don’t know what is happening here, or what this car is carrying.

They left the rest of the train not only on the mainline but pulled past NE Tower, blocking the CSX mainline.

What do I do now?

Why Don’t You Just Go Home?

This is all that I can do when I am not allowed to have a life.

So, I come down off of the bridge and take a ride by the NOPB crossing.

Looking south, what’s this new stub track just south of Florida Avenue?

I really should go home.

Almost

I am almost done.  I return to Oliver Junction, albeit this time on the ground, to witness the 141 doing some block swapping, this time with only one locomotive.

Yeah, okay.

This Is How It Ends

This is scary.

After the train backed out of the yard with another block (I guess), Oliver Tower decided to give the train some “head room” on the southbound mainline on the Back Belt.  I guess that I should try the rare Franklin Avenue shot.

That’s it.  That was way too much.

Life has to be better than this.

Commiseration

Other People’s Railroad Pictures

I hardly pimp other people’s train pictures anymore because I hardly look at other people’s train pictures anymore.  So, here are some that you should check out.

I really like Mike Robin’s documentation of the neat Ontario Northland Railway.

I love ONR’s blue boxcars with the yellow or golden or orange ends.

I also like Elrond Lawrence’s pictures from San Bernardino this July.

GP60Ms are cool!

Salvation?  Reprieve?  Hope?

It is possible that my life may be saved and that I may find out over the weekend or at the beginning of next week, but it really does not have to be this way.  Our society needs to stop treating people like circus animals.

https://twitter.com/JedediahSPurdy/status/1020729206936915970

We could have a much better societ if we just decided that we were going to have such a society and take the small steps enecessary to make an actual dignified civilization.

I should learn over the weekend whether I shall be conditionally saved, but, guys, you have to do your part, too.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Demand emancipation and reparations for all.

A Better Way To Receive This Content

This is a good occasion to remind everyone of a different (and, perhaps, better) way of receiving Jimbaux’s Journal content: the e-mail newsletter!

By signing up for the newsletter, you will get an e-mail message only when new pieces of content are posted, which will rarely be more than twice or thrice weekly. Lately, it’s been only one or two messages per month!

To sign up for e-mail updates, send a blank message to jimbauxsjournal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and check your inbox and your spam folder (the latter being the more likely to receive the message) for a confirmation message. Follow the instructions in the message, and you’ll be a member! (It’s basically a closed e-mail group where only the moderator can post.) Once you are subscribed, if you decide that you no longer want to get updates, you can send an e-mail to jimbauxsjournal-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com to stop receiving messages.

That’s it!  That’s a good way to keep up with content here if the Facebook page – or this Patreon page – should suddenly disappear for some reason.

Also, while on the subject, please, again, consider supporting Jimbaux’s Journal on Patreon.

The quality of content here is directly proportional to the amount of patronage, as more patronage means less fear of punishment from gatekeepers for being real.

And there is no way that a man can survive off of fewer than $200/month anyway.

Anyway, thanks for at least considering it, and stay tuned for the December 2008 Sampler.

Peace.

JBX

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