Jimbaux knows that it's hard to hold a camera for a cold November train.
Today is Thursday 14 November 2019.
There was a lonely train on the Abbeville Branch today, and then I got stuck.
The LDRR 1717 came to town without any cars.
That this train, the first train here in about three weeks, came with no cars depresses me.
It gets worse!
So, here, we see, unsurprisingly, the 1717 going into the mill tracks to grab cars to take to New Iberia.
Look at this dude! This guy in a truck decides to stop not only between my camera and the train but almost where the train has to pass just to chat with someone! Get out of the way!
Actually, that view helps contextualize the scene, I guess.
I left some white beans cooking in the crock pot. I hope that they don’t get too cooked while I am out taking these pictures.
So, the crew pulled this one car out and put it here on the eastern side of South Jefferson Street. That’s weird.
It’s cold, but not frigid, and somewhat misty.
I wish that this operation still looked like it did 20 years ago, long before my arrival in this area but right after the UP-SP merger and the UP-CNW merger, when there would have been better-looking cars!
There would have been generally more interesting locomotives, too.
The 1717 then left the mill complex without pulling any more cars!
Wait, what is going on here?
Are you telling me that one locomotive came all the way over here with no cars just to get one car? one badly-tagged car, at that?
That is a sad testament to this branchline’s health and makes me think that this railroad is not long for this world.
It also makes me not want to chase this train very far, but I am going to do it just because I want to see if it stops at Coastal Chemical or, probably more accurately, how many of the three tank cars that are there – and there is no room there for more than three tank cars – it picks up.
Here is the train crossing Leblanc Avenue.
Yes, I found a way to keep graffiti out of that shot.
Here it is at Airport Road.
The engineer, whose face I did not recognize, gave me a wave.
I need to get back to the house, because I am worried about the white beans that I left cooking in the slow cooker! I’m relieved that the train is here and done and that I don’t have to wait for it for probably another week!
Still, I went to Grosse Isle Road, and that is when I had a problem. Options for parking there are limited, and I got my truck stuck in the mud. Dammit!
I spent a little bit of effort trying to work my way out of this jam while the train works at Coastal Chemical.
Here it comes, and I think that this is the shot of the day.
Here is a cropped version of that image.
Here, taken a few seconds later, is the runner-up for the shot of the day.
He got all three tank cars!
That’s fine, I like those pictures, and, now, somewhat mercifully, I can no longer chase the train due to my truck being stuck in the mud.
I searched for some gravel to put under the tires in the wells that they dug while spinning to try to give myself some traction, but this didn’t work. Fortunately, as one can expect in a place like this, someone with the capacity to help passed by, saw me in distress, and offered to help.
Harold Broussard went and got a rope or a chain and then used them to drag my truck back onto the road. Thank you, man!
I feel like gorging after successful train chasing, because it feels like I just hunted and killed, because I didn’t hunt something! I think that that is part of why I have a habit of gorging on something, usually something unhealthy, after a big train chase.
Okay, that is all for now.
Jim
