Jimbaux is telling the same old story, doing the same old song and dance.
Today is Wednesday 5 February 2020.
The impeachment acquittal, it was a joke, happened today. Yeah, maybe you could try him for so many more things, things that actually matter far more than something that was indeed impeachable that he did with Ukraine.
Five days after permanently moving out of New Orleans, I caught the Abbeville Branch train and got my first post-New-Orleans-life SLR pictures.
So, the LDRR 1703 has arrived in town with the two cars seen at right and is starting to run around those cars before going to pull the two cars seen at left at the mill.
As you can see here, and as you will see from the rest of the images from today, today was wet.
So, I at first imagined that “Rain Song” by Led Zeppelin would be appropriate for today’s song.
However, the rain today, at least when I was outside getting these images, was more mist than drops, which made me think of another Led Zeppelin song: “Misty Mountain Hop”.
I didn’t use it, but it provided the inspiration for the title of today’s post!
I ended up picking “Same Old Song And Dance” by Aerosmith because that song is in my head because I was working on shots for the 24 Feb 2008 post, which used that song, earlier this week!
Hey, look, it’s Peartree!
And, below, there is CV protecting the carless shove toward the rice mill to grab the two cars there.
I like this.
You can see the remains of the recently-dismantled store at the far left of the image.
I wonder about this line’s future, now that trains have become so short and so infrequent here.
The two cars that the crew and locomotive are grabbing were brought here on Thursday, and I happened upon that train and got some photographs of it.
So, the train that you are seeing here now is the first train here since the equally short (in both directions) train of six days ago.
Here is CV riding the cars being pulled from the mill.
That’s a good view of a railroader at work.
I don’t remember much from today, actually.
I guess that water is falling off of the SSW 70107 as the car is going up an incline by South State Street.
Now, it’s time to shove the outbound cars to the inbound train to grab it to spot the one car bound for the mill.
CV is checking the southern approach on South Jefferson Street.
I wish that I could have seen this place when it was more happenin’.
Now, you can see the 1703 with both the two cars that it came here to get and the two cars with which it arrived.
That unused structure in the background was part of a hull loading operation, when the mill would ship rice hulls by rail.
Now, CV is protecting the shove of the inbound cars to the mill.
I wish that that car still had the serif reporting marks and the big “COTTON BELT” lettering on the side.
So, all four cars, including the two just pulled from the mill, are shoved to the mill to spot that one hopper car barely seen in the distance.
I hate graffiti.
Hey, look at the police car!
He just saw a telephoto lens pointed right at him; is he coming for me, coming question me?
No, he did not.
Here comes CV riding the tank car after the one hopper car in the distance.
What, I wonder, does the future hold?
So, the train left.
Erroneously thinking that there was graffiti on the southern side of the cars, I elected to not do the Greenbriar shot, which was unfortunate, because that would have been a good shot, which I discovered last time, when those same cars oriented the same way passed there!
So, my next photo location was at South Grosse Isle Road.
The train is passing Coastal Chemical, but it wouldn’t set out the tank car, which is destined for there, there.
I really like this view.
This is a great cloudy-day photo location.
I also love the jointed rail.
Hey, there is Peartree!
I like the going-away view, too.
So, the reason that the tank car wasn’t spotted at Coastal Chemical is that there were a blue flag on the track there.
So, here is my Mack shot.
I really like the “punch” factor and the “swooshy” factor of this view!
I imagine that I am the only human being to ever do this view as a photograph.
So, the tank car would be set out at West Erath, which is just behind me here.
Do you get a sense of motion from this set of images?
I like how these could be just pictures of automobiles passing on the highway with a train happening to be there!
If I cared more, I’d go and try to trim that vegetation between the highway and the track.
I would liked to have seen this view back when the trains through here looked more interesting.
I really miss the CF7s; the 1500 is the last one, but it doesn’t come here.
I like the geometry here.
There was a relatively warm non-misty mist, if that makes sense, happening.
Here is a shot that I shouldn’t have taken, given the graffiti, but it’s a shot that can’t be done with a train longer than this!
The crew set out the tank car in the West Erath track.
Now, I don’t usually do shots well into Erath like this, but I am making an exception today!
That’s not bad, I guess!
Again, with such a short train, you can do shots like this.
The next decent shot is on the other side of the Delcambre Canal, the train has to stop to lower a lift bridge, traverse the bridge, and then raise the bridge behind it, and I was hungry; so, I stopped at the Subway in Delcambre.
These shots aren’t great, but they tell a story, and this wide view is a way of minimizing the graffiti on this side of the cars.
Nineteen minutes later and satiated, I am about a mile to the east as the train, having crossed the canal, leaves Delcambre.
I got to Leleux Road, and the dude living on the southern side of the track didn’t get closer to me than about 12 feet, but the cigarette stench was overwhelming and long preceded him before that. Gosh, Why in the hell do people do that? Put that obnoxious thing down before you walk up and talk to people.
I don’t know if it’s that people who smoke cigarettes tend to be obnoxious or if it is just that people in general are obnoxious and it’s more obvious with a cigarette smoker.
Moving on, at Poufette, I caught the train again.
This area here is basically the end of civilization; south of where I am standing is some residential property, and south of that is fields and then swamps and then a bay and then the gulf.
I like this view.
I got to Rynella to set up for a new shot and had to deal with a really annoying barking dog.
I guess that the shot is okay, and we are just north of I&V Junction; so, now, you can picture a train here coming from the salt mine at Avery Island.
I like dogs, but sometimes they are just really obnoxious. Just shut the hell up.
Actually, most everyone just needs to shut the hell up. At least you are reading my rants by choice.
The lighting in the below image is problematic, but I like the composition, with those trees and with a nearly-broadside view of a short train.
Two-car trains are way, way better than one-car trains.
I made my last stand at Creighton Broussard Road.
This is okay.
Well, that’s it for the pictures, and I call this a good chase.
At the interchange yard in New Iberia, I saw an empty CNW hopper car and saw the LDRR 1500 and the LDRR 2009 at the shop. I didn’t see the Union Pacific Railroad local train. CV talked about how work has been really slow, talked about how it has been slow since 2008.
I guess that we need a Job Guarantee or a UBI or something, especially a Green New Deal.
Okay, that’s all for today.
Peace.
Jim
