Jimbaux is a man who thinks, not a man who drinks.
So, please let him live his life.
Today is Friday 5 February 2021; one year ago today, I made a big Abbeville Branch chase in misty skies, and, today, I made a chase of the Port Rail job in the mist!
I have to say that I really, really, really miss the action on the Abbeville Branch, but I do love this Port Rail line as something of consolation. In some ways, it’s more interesting than the Abbeville Branch.
Yesterday, I saw the GMTX 2134 move, which was the first time that I see it move, but I didn’t see a train move out of the port yesterday. So, I figured that, today, I would.
I did.
This is a new shot at which I arrived with no time at all to spare and somewhat underexposed due to not having time to get the exposure right, but these two images still are presentable.
This is a neat-looking little train!
I had to alter my plans for the next shot because there was a truck backing up a trailer in the middle of the street. So, I got to Creole Street in time for this next series of shots.
That’s interesting. It’s dark, but this works.
I wish that the port people would clean that locomotive, but it is still okay.
I guess that the short length of this train shows part of why there was no train (or none that I saw) yesterday.
Next, I am at 4th Avenue, where the original Missouri Pacific Railroad yard was.
Below is a cropped version of the same image from above.
I’m grateful to have this opportunity in the year Two Thousand Twenty-One to photograph a train that looks like this in locations like this.
I could go for some old-school railroad logos on all three of these pieces of rolling stock, but this is cool.
Next, we are at Highway 14, and that’s the former MoPac freight house at right, now a UP Maintenance-Of-Way location.
The train enters Harbor Yard.
Whoah, what is that? Is that a centerbeam flatcar in this yard? that is in the track for port-bound cars?
It is! What is a centerbeam flatcar doing on this line? This is exciting!
Not wanting to risk not getting ahead of the return trip to the one location where I knew that I’d be able to get the farthest away from the track and still be able to show most of the train in the picture, and wanting to do a logistical experiment, I went south to Interstate Highway 210 and took it westbound to Lake Street.
I got there with plenty of time to spare.
I like how this shot really shows the layout of the street lanes with the track in the middle.
Check out the trainman riding the platform on the GMTX 2134!
There is some action here!
This is a really good-looking train! I love how the orangeness (or yellowness) of the centerbeam car helps balance out the blueness and greyness of the rest of the image, and maybe the red lights, too, help.
This is my shot of the day, and I love it!
What do you think? I hope that you like it, since I got rather wet for it!
Next, we are at the entrance to the port.
That two-story structure in the background is the administrative office of the Port Of Lake Charles.
I haven’t watched this operation enough times to know the normal patterns, but it seemed unusual for the police officer to be back that far from the gate and talking to the crew.
The train entered the port on the southern part of the loop.
As Officer Chris talked to me, I soon figured out the reason that he was still there at – and outside of – the gate.
He didn’t tell me, but I figured it out for myself, both from observation and from studying the satellite view of the port.
Because of the nature of the tracks at the part of the port where lumber is offloaded, on the northern edge of the port, inbound cars must be shoved there basically from the west.
That meant that, after dropping off the rest of the inbound cars, the crew and locomotive had to come back outside of the port so as to shove the car around the loop into the lumber area.
So, this was fun.
Finally, in our last picture of the day, the GMTX 2134 is shoving the centerbeam flatcar around the port just after pulling it around the port in the same direction on the same track.
That’s all. I hope that it was all good, hope that you liked it.
While riding around near I-10 a few minutes later, I heard that old 1980s song “Rumors” on the radio, and that is why it is today’s song; I hadn’t heard that song in years.
Oh, I see that the Democrats are doing stupid means testing in the middle of a demand-shock recession? Gosh, these lunatics will never learn, and they’re going to enable Trumpism to return soon enough, meaning that we’re all doomed.
With friends like these, who even needs enemies?
That’s all for today.
Peace.
Jim
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