The Pictures Here Don’t Match The Headline
I certainly wish that I had found a way to get a picture of a moving train in New Orleans this morning before I rolled out of town on my second-to-last morning awakening in New Orleans, because it would have been the only time ever, probably, that I photograph a train in New Orleans and the Abbeville Branch Train in the same day.
So, all of the pictures in today’s essay were taken more than 80 miles from New Orleans.
I had the strangest authentic experience, an experience that is completely normal for the masses who are uninterested in trains, today. I was driving along Highway 14, after getting gasoline at the RaceWay in New Iberia, for reasons that had nothing to do with seeking trains and wasn’t really looking for trains when I saw the Abbeville Branch train from behind.
It was such a wonderfully strange experience to happen upon – as in, I wasn’t even seeking, hoping for, or really even thinking about – a branchline train, by sight, while, driving, and from behind. I am not sure that that has ever happened before, but, if it did, it wouldn’t have happened since at least the Lockport Branch days when I was working in that area, which means not in more than 14 years.
Trying to get to the usual South Hospital Road shot from the south, I discovered a new photo location that I had somehow not known existed until today.
Wow, this is neat! I love this location!
I can’t believe that this wonderful broadside shot that I just did for the first time has eluded me for all of the times that I have for grab this train and for all of the time that I have been in Abbeville! This is Greenbriar Lane.
Isn’t that neat? I sure wish that I had known about that location before.
Here is the train in town at South Young Street.
Here it is at South Saint Charles Street.
It would then cross South State Street and then be by the rice mill.
I then went to the homestead to unload the truck and maybe rest a bit before returning eastward, not having the time or even much of an inclination to see and photograph the train switching the mill.
An hour and 46 minutes after the prior image, I caught up with the return trip on the other side of Delcambre.
I like this; it’s very southern-Louisiana branchliney.
I hate the graffiti on that Cotton Belt hopper car, but I really like the next pair of shots at the Bob Acres Road crossing.
This is one of the sharpest-angled railroad crossings around.
I wonder what trains of 25 years ago would have looked like here.
I needed to return to New Orleans, but I got off of Highway at around Bayou Sale in order to get a shot of the Union Pacific Railroad’s New Iberia Turn.
On the way there, I photographed this canefield burn at Log Bayou Road.
That’s nice.
Here is the train, making its way back to Avondale.
I guess that that loaded centerbeam flatcar is bound for Schriever.
I didn’t have time to get the telephoto zoom lens on the camera; so, all of the pictures from today were taken with the normal-wide-zoom lens.
That’s all for the pictures for today, and, like I said, they don’t match the title of today’s essay, because none of them were taken in the New Orleans metro area.
I am pleased with the pictures from today, most of which are new shots for me.
I had decided to go to Juan’s Flying Burrito, a place that is central to the fact of my having lived in and been associated with New Orleans, for my last night in New Orleans, but I realized it would probably be too crowded at this time of the day, and I just didn’t want to deal with that.
So, at about 17:45, I went to the Raising Cane’s on Clearview and got a Caniac combo, meaning that the time that I came here a few days ago wasn’t my last time here. Maybe I will go to Juan’s Flying Burrito tomorrow.
This is my last night in New Orleans, and it feels very anti-climactic. I just want to get it done. I guess I’ll be back to visit at some point. Oh well.
I wish that I had something more insightful and more soulful for my last night in New Orleans, but I just don’t have it in me.
Peace.
Jim
