April 3 has often been a weird or memorable day in my life. So, too, was it this year, today, Friday 3 April 2020.
I went to Walmart, to the pickup thing, due to the coronavirus. Then, I went by the rice mill in Abbeville and got three cell-phone pics from the truck.
Yes, it looks liquidy thanks to my silly cell-phone camera.
Yes, those are the three hopper cars that were brought here only two days ago, the other three being at the former packaging plant by the bayou.
I didn’t think that I’d see any movement today, given that the last train was here only two days ago and that this mill is closing, but today was weird, I told you.
At 19:05, as I had been trying to go to sleep, but failing, after having been up since before 01:00, I received a message from Terry: “I hear a train.”
How could this be, only two days after the last train, on this line that has such infrequent trains?
At 19:07, I replied to ask if he was “f**king serious.”
He was.
So, too, was I, despite already being melatonined and tired, hopping in the truck to head down by the rice mill in Abbeville.
I intercepted the train at South Saint Charles Street.
Dammit, that graffiti is yucky!
It was really getting dark. The rest of the views are from the South State Street crossing.
I can’t believe that this dead branch with this dying rice mill got two trains in three days, but I am here for it.
In the below view, you see the locomotive, the one inbound car, the three cars already at the mill, some of the three cars at the packing plant at the far right of the frame, and the crew sedan.
This will not be my best, but you’ll just have to accept that!
The lighting here is interesting, though.
I just wish that it would render better, and it might if I had a better camera.
I guess that he really is grabbing all three cars.
Okay, he is pulling all three cars, and the lighting here is interesting.
Okay, so, it looks like he is coupling the outbound cars to the inbound car and will just shove all four to the mill to spot the inbound car.
As you can see below, that is what is happening, and I rather like this lighting, don’t you?
Okay, this is too dark.
Okay, this is better, and it’s kind of cool.
The middle car was not loaded; it must have been a bad ordered car.
And, then, the train left town and its one lonely graffitied inbound hopper car at the mill and the cars that were brought two days ago at the former packaging plant untouched.
That’s it.
So, the LDRR 1710 came with one badly tagged hopper car, pulled the three cars – the middle of which was not loaded – from the main mill, spotted the one car that it brought there, and then left with the three cars that had been at the main mill, leaving alone the three cars at the former packaging plant by the bayou, but I just said that already, dammit.
There were no tank cars, which actually disappointed me, which is unusual.
The trainman working the ground told me that his cousin works at the mill and that everyone there was laid off.
This morning, I made my second experience at Wal-Mart pickup, thanks to this coronavirus.
I am tired, still not about-to-fall-asleep tired, and now I am again hungry, dammit.
Good night.
Jim
