Jimbaux’s time, is gone today You flirt with suicide Sometimes, that's okay Do what others say I'm here, standing hollow Falling away from me Falling away from me.
Return To Whoadieville
Well, after the intense, great, and memorable day that I had yesterday, I had another intense, great, and memorable day today!
Today, I returned to New Orleans, where I lived for many years in early adulthood, for the first time since February 2020 when I was in a weird phase, and the unpleasant aspects of today were at least education. The pictures that I got today were more numerous and better than the unrelated pictures that I got one year ago today.
Genesis
Today was the first time in the 21st Century that I awakened in my original neighborhood. This is such a spiritual experience.
I would hang out here all the time. Okay, I wouldn’t. I probably would be frustrated with living here if I had never left, but it would be hugely preferable to my current situation.
I am walking up to the track. There is still a track here, though it doesn’t go past the road. This is amazing. My cell phone actually can take some shots here.
I feel so old, even though I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and did not look bad. Wow. Wow, Jim. Amazing, isn’t it?
I’ve been awake today since at least around 03:00.
Whoever owns the house now really did get rid of the art studio. The fact of that art studio, and the combined fact of that both the art studio and my bedroom window faced north there says so much about me. I am seeing something only now that I have never seen before, as I look at it and imagine where those studio windows were, which is that both he and I were looking in the same direction, he, the artist, me, the photographer-railroad-enthusiast who sent Deb an email last night and got one back that said that my pictures are very colorful.
I didn’t bring any gloves. My hands were cold. I had just the black jacket. Ah, there is the sugar mill.
I had a good day yesterday. I really did. I was able to fill most of the time with good activities, and even the time that I was pacing around by the track waiting for a train, even one that didn’t come and even one that I didn’t want to see, was good in a way. It let me clear my head.
This morning, I filled out information for employment for the guild. I just didn’t have my checkbook with me and, so, couldn’t complete the direct-deposit portion, but they have all of the relevant tax information, the Social Security number, all of that.
I remember watching the concrete of a certain street here being poured.
Elaine Leyda’s cat died.
I can see the sugar mill. I can even hear the sugar mill. And, if I stick around long enough, I’ll be able to hear the sugar mill whistle.
The temperature at this time was in the mid-lower 40s.
I think that Dad installed that somewhat annoying light on the lower gable.
The moon is lovely, something between a thumbnail and a half moon.
I wish that those new houses in that old field weren’t there, though I am sure that the people living in them don’t feel that way.
I have some vague memories of how KSJ began to be, for lack of a more forgiving way to describe it, able to fit in better than I could.
Wow. So, very early in my life, I had this notion of my own foreignness, that wrong-planet syndrome. That I had that notion so early was very much aided by having someone of KSJ’s profile in my life. It also makes sense about my own personal experience about being in jobs and then someone new comes and ends up getting along with everyone more than I do, that feeling of always being an outsider.
I am also thinking about settings in which I have gotten along with non-white people better than with white people. Really, in some ways, that is a positive attribute for me, but, in other ways, I gravitated toward those settings because it was a way for me to feel less weird; so, my awkwardness in those situations could be attributed to being white, rather than to being awkward, whereas I feel most awkward around white people, I have only recently realized.
I heard the whistle! I love that sound!
Going Down The Bayou
In an effort to get to New Orleans as early as possible, especially in the hopes of catching a morning eastbound train on the New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway, I then made a trek down a stretch of highway that I have driven at this time of day many times before.
I texted Dad at about 06:12 as I was passing Audubon Avenue, appropriately, asking if he was okay.
I was behind a school bus, a school bus that probably is picking up children on the way to the school where I worked 20 years ago, and 20 years ago today, I would have gone southward either on this same highway or across the bayou, and then made the picture at the sugar mill 20 years ago this afternoon.
I passed by Earl’s Transmission. That guy fixed the transmission in this truck. He is a good guy, I guess. I wonder how he is doing.
I was just thinking about how there was no way that I could have been both a good factory-school classroom teacher and a good parent simultaneously. There is no way possible that, at any point in my life, that could have happened.
I passed the home where one of my grandparents grew up and thought of a recently-deceased sibling of that person.
I passed the house of a school classmate. I wonder how she is doing. She is an interesting concept, let’s just say that. I feel like it’s kind of a waste, but, then again, maybe I am thinking too highly of her. I don’t know! It’s all about the Roman Catholicism and patriarchy, I guess.
This is about exactly the time that I would have been driving southward on this highway to go to work.
I passed a church and a cemetery, “the past”, and, besides making me think of the past, it made me think of a certain priest who is younger than I am.
I passed Commander Cody’s house! He would be an interesting person to chat with today, or maybe he’d be like Mav, anti vaxxer. It’s a certain strain of whiteness. The Trump Phenomenon really opened up my eyes to so much.
There is that old doughnut place. I almost should stop there for old time’s sake, but I also shouldn’t stop there because I am fasting.
I used the newer of the two bridges. It’s possible that I am not driving in any of the spots on which I drove 20 years ago this morning, but, almost for sure, I used at least the stretch between the northern bridge and the post office street. There was so much tension during those times that I now see so clearly.
I got onto Raceland Street, and the ice chest in the back was sloshing around because I don’t have bungee cables and didn’t think about bringing them, because I recently cleaned my truck and had removed them.
So, I got my first SLR-camera images of the day here.
Raceland
It’s a little bit after 06:30 CST.
This appears to be my first SLR-camera image made with the smaller lens on this trip.
Sometime in 2014, these deliveries of some product in these hopper cars at this spot began.
It’s some kind of salt or potash, but maybe potash is a kind of salt.
Next, we go to the farthest active part of the Lockport Branch, the stub where the overflow cars here are stored.
Most of the cars carrying these products are OCCX cars.
Here is Raceland Raw Sugar!
There was a parked eastbound BNSF Railway train at the end of the siding.
I checked out the crossing at Kraemer Road.
I was astounded by what I saw!
The fields here aren’t being cultivated!
Why is that?
This somewhat ruins the view of the track.
As I took these final images, I was also taking a leak.
I needed to direct the attention of any onlookers at my face, rather than at something else!
Anyway, seriously, something about this scene is really bleak.
Also, if it’s bleak, I need to see that.
I just feel like we are doomed.
There was work being done on the junction between US Highway 90 and Louisiana Highway 182 (which is the former US Highway 90.) The fueling station and convenience store near here has a Subway, but I don’t see the old poboy shop here, Bubba’s II. Maybe the Subway replaced it.
Paradís – Vallier
I took a gamble with time. At Des Allemands, I got off of US Highway 90 and took the old highway.
At the discovery gas plant at Paradís, I saw this.
I don’t recall if the plant itself was full of cars, but it probably was.
In the Vallier track were about 20 LPG tank cars plus about five of those MTI hopper cars plus a couple of tank cars that may have been Raceland cars; so, this is where the interchange is happening now. I guess that those cars are for the Union Pacific Railroad local train to pick up, or maybe they are set outs. Maybe there is a mix of both there.
Damn, people on this tree-lined highway are driving without headlights on with the rising sun behind them! Damn, I hate people!
I passed the First Baptist Church of Paradís.
It’s hard to take a picture of a train here without knowing that it is coming, without being on the scanner, and the last time that I photographed a train here, which was a good shot, was just before I lost my scanner.
Boutte
Driving under Interstate Highway 310 reminded me of getting out under the bridge on the side road to pee on my way to that job that I had four years ago that I seriously hated and that made me hate myself.
I still see evidence of the siding that was here.
I had been thinking about taking Paul Mallard Road to River Road and then approach Live Oak from the north, but I realized that I don’t have time for that.
I might go to visit the school where I had my greatest professional success today. I thought about Gordon; I kind of don’t really like him, even though he helped me.
So, I saw the Tasty Creme Donuts next to Domino’s pizza, right next to the Walgreen’s where someone who was interested in Milton worked.
I haven’t been this far east since that 2021 trip to Hammond, and I haven’t been here since February of 2020. I got to know this place even better when I was working at the prison, because I would stop often at that Walmart. Oh, wow, remember the Avondale Subway?
So, after I got onto Highway 90, I noticed something! There has been some extensive tree removal between the highway and the railroad track, opening this up as a photo possibility, but I am more interested in why it happened.
It could be because the railroad wants to build something here, but I doubt it. It could be highway expansion, like an overhead expressway, as that has been discussed for a long time, because this slow drag through town makes this unable to be an Interstate Highway.
It could be to clear up obstacles to railroad signaling systems. It got rid of a bunch of perfectly good trees!
Ah, I see the old Anytime Fitness of Boutte! I would stop there during, I was going to say, my vagabond years, but I have plenty of those. It’s a terrible way to live, but I had no choice. I want to talk about autistic shame.
Waggaman
So, about eight miles to the east, in a different parish and along a different railroad line, I saw more evidence of removal of trees by the right of way since I have last been here.
We are at the Willswood road crossing on the UP Livonia Subdivision, and this, too, seems like a new shot possibility.
Well, yes, it really isn’t that interesting, and, actually, the removal of trees here compromises the shot from the other side of the track.
Avondale
I stopped at Avondale, an interesting place, to photograph some interesting things.
There was this RMEX 6 locomotive here!
What is the story on this thing? Why is it here? Where is it going?
I then got a neat side-lit shot of the neat rear end of a train at Avondale Garden Road.
This is kind of like old times!
Then, I photographed this UP yard job working in the old Texas & Pacific Railway yard, in a view showing the old yard tower along with the RMEX 6.
I didn’t notice until I was processing the picture that there is an NOGC locomotive in the picture! What is happening here? Is NOGC now operating into Avondale Yard?
Jefferson – Central Avenue
I then made a decision that may have cost me the chance to see an NOGC train on the street running in Gretna today, which is a hint about what would happen – or not happen – once I got to Gretna. I decided to cross the Mississippi River to go and check out Central Avenue as quickly as I could. This probably wasn’t a good idea, given my other objectives for the morning, but I did get the urge to do this out of my system.
There was a train descending the Huey P. Long Bridge eastbound crossing Central Avenue.
Likely, the train was coming from the Union Pacific Railroad.
It would have been going to either the Norfolk Southern Railway, the CSX railroad, or the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad.
So, I wanted to get a little something more out of this trip that I probably should not have taken. So, after the train passed and the traffic cleared, I proceeded to the crossing.
I took a few pictures.
Everything looks the same as it did before, even though East Bridge Tower supposedly closed, with UP having taken over its functions.
Central Avenue and East Bridge Junction are the funnel through which all intra-Class-I interchange traffic in the New Orleans Gateway occurs.
Returning To The W’ank
At about 08:19, I returned to the West Bank, descending the Huey P. Long Bridge.
I was hoping to get ahead of the NOGC job in time for it to get to downtown Gretna. I also wanted to find the train first. I had a view of BCCY as I was driving across the river.
Then, on Seven Oaks Boulevard, I passed by these gasoline stations where I often got gasoline in the glory days.
There is still a BNSF sign at the old Bridge City intermodal facility, but it’s getting overgrown.
At 08:22, I entered Westwego corporate limits, and I soon passed the Kinder-Morgan Seven Oaks Terminal.
At UP Westwego Yard, there are bulkhead flatcars, boxcars, and locomotives. That is interesting.
Next to this EMR place, I see big piles of what I guess is gypsum. I wonder why this place does no railroad business, at least as far as we can tell. It’s Gold Bond Roofing Products.
There were a few tank cars at the “bulk liquid storage” place BWC Terminals.
I guess that I need to go to Harvey Yard.
Here I am at this commercial warehouse place. Are there any boxcars here? There are no boxcars on the warehouse track, but there are boxcars further back on the mainline, which makes me think that there is something going on here railroadwise.
I stopped briefly at the Klein Street crossing, where I have been many times before. It would be nice if I could pee somewhere. With that police camera there, I decided to not try to urinate there.
There were about seven boxcars at the western end of a long string of tank cars east of Klein Street, and there was a pair of locomotives at western end of the yard.
Tenaris appears to be closed, like, not just for the night or the weekend, but the business itself closed.
I saw this US Foods place, this new place that I think that I recently noticed on maps. Why doesn’t this place have railroad service? or does it have railroad service and I don’t know it? Maybe this is what those boxcars are doing. It looks like local delivery of food.
Marrero
At the Hunting pipe yard, I definitely saw human activity, in the form of a bunch of automobiles by the office building. There are locomotives on the eastern end of the yard. That is a very good sign. I don’t remember seeing any gondolas there, though.
Wait, there are cars to the east of the power. There are some WTJ locomotives. That might not be a good sign!
These old Celotex buildings are really impressive.
I took a right on Marrero Road, but I knew that I would not be able to see much here. I did take perhaps my first picture here on my last day of checking out the railroads here in January 2020.
I photographed tank cars at Marrero Road.
Dammit! There is another camera here. So, I can’t safely urinate here, either.
“I could take a leak at the Subway,” I said to myself, a claim that would prove to be untrue for quite a shocking reason. Actually, I could take a leak there and also get food before the train shows up, but that’s a little risky.
I went through the sharp curves at River Road, which are so iconic of this place in my time here.
Oh, I had forgotten that I have to take a right onto Barataria Boulevard. The old passenger cars by Barataria Boulevard are still there, and there are plenty of tank cars at that place to the west of here.
Going eastward on 4th Street after I turned off of Barataria, I noticed that the Harvey Canal bridge is blocked. Damn! It’s a good thing I don’t have to pee that bad.
Old Combel’s Customs is still there, and there are a couple of JPSO police cars parked there, for work on them, apparently.
Ah, I saw the old JPPSS riverside complex! I had forgotten about that place.
Harvey
Railroadwise, there doesn’t appear to be much happening at the Kinder-Morgan facility. There are tank cars in some of the plant tracks, but there aren’t any locomotives here. The old yard office is there, but not much else, I guess due to Harvey Yard.
I found a good spot to pee by the track, surrounded by automobiles in Harvey almost in Gretna, but, apparently, didn’t go into Gretna just then.
I then reversed direction and went into East Harvey, and I got a shot farther west.
Actually, I do not recall if I got that shot before or after my urination stop.
Anyway, I turned from westbound Fourth Street onto Manhattan Blvd, while 104.1 FM was playing Christmas music, making me realize how much I miss my New Orleans FM radio stations, 104.1, 102.5, 97.1, 92.3, 95.7, how it’s just more stuff that got taken from. Ironically, I can’t hear Eagle 98.1 well here. So, I am thinking that its tower might be west of Baton Rouge
I saw the JPPSS administration building on Manhattan. I remember the gasoline station on the corner of 8th Street and Manhattan Boulevard, but not some other things around here.
A sheriff’s deputy was driving a sheriff’s automobile with no headlights on.
I drove by WJHS just because I wanted to do so. I was trying to decide what to do. I didn’t know that there necessarily is a train coming. I passed Bên Thành supermarket.
School, the prison that it is, looks the same, just with all of these irritating fences that were there when I left but not when I arrived.
The building of Sweet Sadie’s restaurant was Jerry’s Subs. I got breakfast there often, quite often.
There is still railroad track on Peters Road. It just hasn’t been used in almost 20 years, and I never saw a train on it.
I see Peggy Sue’s, which was Miss Booties. I don’t hate myself like I did in 2019 here. What made me think of that is seeing Peggy Sue’s and the memory of the pictures that I took here on February 2019, when I had that job that made me hate myself to the point of talking about killing myself.
I need to read my text messages from that time.
What I will have to do when I return to the Fishbowl, besides focusing on the day job, is focus on the 20-years-ago-today stuff, the rest of the 2003 blog posts plus the January 2004 images post. I might as well do February, March, and April in the process and schedule them for publication.
Gretna – A Shock, A Lull, A Walk, And A Cat
Here is where things get really interesting. I am glad that I took a leak on the side of the track in Harvey, because I was in for a shock when I entered the city limits of Gretna.
Whoah! Where’s the Subway? Holy crap! The Subway is gone! That whole building is gone! What the hell? Well, so much for my plan to eat at the Subway right by the track in Gretna this morning!
It’s gone! Damn, my old Subway is gone! I don’t like that. Aw, man. You could watch an NOGC train pass there!
Okay, where am I going to get my shot? The whole building is gone.
Well, I am glad that I peed where I peed, because my plan was to be civilized and pee indoors, in a bathroom, at Subway, but it ain’t there anymore!
There is Gattuso’s. Gattuso’s is still there. That’s good to know. It’s closed Sunday and Monday.
Wow! Gretna! I loved you. I missed you. Look at the old Texas & Pacific depot, so pretty.
Pay to park? No, I am not doing that. “resident parking only” “resident parking only” No. I found a place to park for free.
Huey Long Avenue looks nice. It really does.
I got out.
I ate some blueberries.
I walked around.
I listened for the horn.
I wouldn’t hear it.
I started to suspect that I had jacked myself out of the train.
However, I was enjoying this visit to a neat, special place.
Also, I had a visitor!
The Gretna pictures prior to that one are SLR-camera pictures, but these cat pictures and the image immediately below are cell-phone pictures.
Look at how cute this thing is!
It was quite friendly and approached me.
I want one!
This made my morning, in some ways.
This was a neat welcome to the city.
It must live close to here.
It must have frequent visitors.
Now, here’s a neat place that I visited a few times back in the day.
I’d come here with coworkers sometimes.
I then walked to where Huey P Long Avenue meets 4th Street.
This is somewhat the crux of the city.
I had become resigned to not seeing the train and was just enjoying being here in this neat place.
There is, of course, a racist history to this place, but we must take the bad with the good, I guess.
I love the street running railroad track!
I then walked back southward.
I took some time in the shaded neutral ground of Huey P Long Avenue.
I don’t know if this place has a name.
Of course, I got some shots of the Nativity Scene.
That above is a westward view along 6th Street.
Now, we are looking northward toward 4th Street.
I like this place to eat right by the track.
It’s a mix of poboys and coffee!
This was Southern Pacific’s original mainline to and from New Orleans!
I have long been fascinated with this intersection.
I discovered it in 2005, but I don’t quite remember when in 2005.
That matters, because a major life-altering, history-altering event happened here in 2005!
I just wish that the trains that did pass here were slightly more interesting than the trains that move here now are, like give me a few graffiti-free railroad-owned cars with cool logos on them like were common four decades ago.
The depot was originally a few blocks west of here.
I am not sure when it was moved to this spot.
I like that it was preserved, though.
Yes, I got some more images of the Nativity Scene.
Finally, before I get out of here, I want to get a shot of the back of this neat old building.
That building is probably also a source of trauma for many people.
Finally, I left Gretna, bound for the Eastbank. This last image from 5th Street was made at 10:06.
My suspicion is that I missed the train by plenty.
I went to Gouldsboro Yard and saw no activity, but there was a power set there and a small number of cars on the NOLR track by the street. That suggests that I missed the train by plenty.
That Stone Temple Pilots song “Creep” was playing on the radio at some point during all of this. I am half the man I used to be, or am I? Maybe I never was the man that I thought that I was. Maybe I just seem like I am half the man that I used to be in certain contexts and viewed through certain lenses.
I thought about stopping at the coffee shop at Barnes & Noble, because that is an old tradition, but I didn’t want to spend that time or cash.
I was going across the river into New Orleans proper, and I was going to, among other things to do, meet in person for the first time someone I long knew from the internet. I was excited about that and excited to maybe meet with The Cajun Porkchop later.
I haven’t yet photographed a moving train, except maybe that yard job at Avondale Garden Road and that train crossing Central Avenue, today. That’s fine. This is still a good trip already.
New Orleans! Railroads!
I saw that skyline as I drove on the Crescent City Connection bridge into the city.
Here I am, in the city proper, where I lived for several years but never voted or served on jury duty. Where am I going? I guess that I’ll take I-10 east. It looks like there is a new roof structure at WWII museum.
I am not really feeling all that nostalgic except for things that can no longer be, in some cases, things that I tried to pretend to be. I think of an old friend and his entourage.
I texted the person I was to meet to say that I am coming to the east bank.
It appears that the first place that I stopped to take a picture was at France Road where it crossed the Norfolk Southern Railway’s Chalmette Branch, and I took these three pictures.
I wonder where that pipe is going and where the shipment originated.
I guess that it is somewhat cool.
Next, I went to New Orleans Public Belt Railroad’s France Yard, and I noticed that there is something new there!
What is that on the right?
That yard on the right is new!
The yard on the left and that bypass track has been there for as long as I have known.
This new yard is a stub-ended yard.
I would like to know the reason that it was built.
I also would like to know its purpose today, assuming that its purpose today is divergent from the reason that it was built.
Next, I went northward across the CSX railroad mainlines to the “Ideal Side” and saw some interesting things.
There were these boxcars here with some kind of metal in them, appearing to be copper, but I didn’t know.
I would like to know!
There are plenty of tank cars here on the NOPB Ideal Side spur, and most of them have 1202 placards.
It’s good to see stuff happening here at least.
That Phil Collins song “Take Me Home” played some time while I was out here. That is appropriate.
You have to love New Orleans.
New Orleans, however, is often difficult to love, and subsidence and climate change will only make that problem worse.
Well, here is something that is not good. Speaking of the climate, this is like a miniscule win for the climate, but it’s bad for railroad photography! All of this brush which blocks the view of the track wasn’t here when I was last here!
Due to all of that brush, I can’t do this shot anymore!
“I don’t know where to go now,” I said to myself out loud at some point at around this time, and it must have been at around this time, because, at some point, I realized that my truck was pointed northbound sitting in the southbound lanes of Alvar Street at Almonaster Boulevard.
That was the end of checking out the railroads in this part of New Orleans for the day.
Seventh Ward, Mid-City, And Lunch
At some point, the person I was to meet and I talked on the telephone. I ended up driving the routes through the parts of town that I learned well in my vagabondage state here in 2016.
So, here I was, in a different part of my old neighborhood.
I love this neighborhood.
It’s just way too expensive to live here now.
So, here I was.
I had never been in here.
The food was good. I can say that.
It was also nice see an old neighbor who said that he hadn’t seen me in years, to which I replied that I didn’t live here anymore and hadn’t lived here for a while. He said that, other than some slight grey hairs, I looked the same, which I took as a compliment, and he, too, looked the same.
He also had, since I last saw him, gotten married to a high-school classmate of mine and talked about her as if I had known that they were married. I had known.
However, the meeting with the person with whom I actually shared a meal was . . . weird.
I’ll just say that, while my stomach felt quite full after the meeting, socially and emotionally, I felt rather empty after leaving the meeting.
The other person, too, may have felt similarly.
That’s just life, I guess. Some people just don’t have compatibility, but this person may have also come into this meeting with some unfair expectations.
I am just feeling nihilistic.
This has not been or felt like (I am not sure that there is a real difference here) a triumphant return to New Orleans today, and, in some ways, that is good.
I got the urge to do this out of my system, and that is good.
I just want to go home, of course, but, of course, I am legally prohibited from doing that due to actions of people who should have cared the most about me.
Anyway, I then went check out the Bernadotte Line.
While there, I returned a call from the administrator of the guild. At least I have a future there, it seems, but I really can’t trust anyone.
The Bernadotte Line is the same, just still in bad shape.
Well, this building is new!
It’s time to leave New Orleans proper.
The KCS – I mean, CPKC – In Metairie!
So, I left the city of New Orleans and entered Jefferson Parish, stopping first at what I had always known until now as the Kansas City Southern Railway yard.
I hung out here plenty and got to know some people back in the glory days, and got many good pictures around here, several of which can be seen in one of my recent photo albums commemorating the KCS.
I also don’t know what I have to show for all of this but pictures, and I don’t know how valuable that is.
Next, I went to South LaBarre Road and caught a couple of trains, though I didn’t recognize the first one!
Here is a westward view along the mainline leaving the yard toward the Delta petroleum place.
I didn’t realize that I was looking at the rear end of a train there, at least not at first, but that is the rear end of the Baton Rouge Dodger, the head end of which was stopped at Shrewsbury Road.
Here is a moving train, barely moving and barely presentable.
This is the Norco Dodger trying to leave the yard but pulling up to a stop short of the crossing because the Baton Rouge Dodger is in its way.
You can see why I haven’t taken many pictures at this location. It’s not bad, but there are plenty of distractions. It’s an okay shot when I haven’t been here in years, though.
Next, I went over to Shrewsbury Road and caught the Baton Rouge Dodger sitting there.
These two trains were waiting on a signal from the Canadian National Railway, but CN is doing track work, making for a long wait – and, thus, a long night – for these CPKC crews.
Everything that I saw on the old KCS here looks the same except for the new CPKC yard sign and the CPKC logo on the conductor’s yellow vest.
Anyway, these were my first ‘real’ train pictures of the day, and I would get a few more, mostly of one train.
Leaving Via Clearview
So, I left KCS yard on that Earhart onramp, going toward HPL Bridge, as if I was going to the gym or something, as if I was going to the Elmwood Fitness Center. Ha! No! That would be something else, ha? No, I was going to – returning to – the West Bank. I was kind of over this actually. That lunch meeting left me in a weird mood.
I was yawning. There was East Bridge Tower. It’s still there. It just looks like nobody is home. Also, nothing was happening on the eastern end of Mays Yard.
I was yawning so much. I was so tired. Maybe I could go to School. Maybe I could photograph an NOGC train. Imagine that.
There is that Starbucks where I hung out with Sarah. Man, I have to talk to her sister about what is happening with her.
Everything is lousy over here. Railroadwise, nothing is better. Okay, well, there is more traffic and more track on the NOPB Ideal side, and maybe the new France Yard.
I am just cynical. I don’t like that I am cynical.
I hope that Megan gets that job.
Oh, I had forgotten about that Cold Stone place around here. I wondered if I should go. I didn’t, and that’s probably good.
There is a whole new yard of the NOPB almost under the bridge!
Re-Entering The W’ank, For the Second Time Today
I am tired. I had to remember to get in the right lane on the bridge so that I could exit and could again see the place of employment that sapped so much out of me. It looks like there is a new dorm.
I should text my aunt back.
There were no trains anywhere on the bridge.
I was yawning, and I was again thinking that maybe I could get some coffee. Hey! Maybe now, I can go to that Barnes and Nobles place!
Marrero, Again
There was an NOGC job working at that place just west of Barataria Avenue, and it included some tank cars east of Barataria. That suggests to me that there won’t be a westbound train, but how do I know that?
I heard that “Diary of Jane” song on 92.3 a little while ago. That is appropriate, because I think of the eastern bank of Jefferson Parish and the westbound lanes of the Earhart Expressway when I think of that album, especially the “You Fight Me” song.
Harvey
I saw NOGC 1011 and 1009 west to east on the head end a cut of cars.
That suggested to me that nothing else is about to happen. So, I decided that I was going to run to Gouldsboro and then try to go to Barnes and Nobles and maybe try to go visit School.
Gretna
Let me take a picture of the fact that the Subway is gone.
Before the building where the Subway was was demolished, the western side of that parking garage was fully visible from here, but little of the southern side of it was.
The building that was demolished, the building where the Subway was, was where that black space is now.
It was my favorite Subway, and I even got some pictures here!
Gouldsboro Yard – Algiers, New Orleans
I returned to Gouldsboro Yard, and, one last time on this trip, I entered, albeit barely, the city of New Orleans.
And there is a switch job working here!
I think that this area is so neat!
I would think that it was much cooler if there were a customer along this track that got centerbeam flatcars of unwrapped lumber.
Imagine a passenger train that started at Algiers Point and went through – and stopped in – downtown Gretna!
I love the tree.
The locomotive is shoving cars in the next two pictures.
I wish that it weren’t just tank cars, though the fact that it’s only tank cars creates a neat visual unity.
I guess that this is a satisfying end to the day, even though the day is far from finished.
This is, however, my best shot of the day, I think.
That’s all for Algiers and for New Orleans for me today, and, of course, for a long time, too.
Barnes & Noble
So, I went there.
It’s nothing special, except that I occasionally came here during the glory years.
No, I didn’t buy any magazines. I can’t keep up with the reading material that I have.
The coffee that I just had did somewhat fill me up. Surprisingly, it made me less hungry.
School
So, I again rode by school, at around 15:40, and it looked like school was just letting out then, about an hour later than I would have expected.
I was going to try to go inside of the school, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that right now. I might talk to someone I know there first. I would love to just go and walk around inside of the place, one day.
What Do I Do Now?
There was only like an hour and a half left of daylight left, and I wanted to see if I could do something else with it. I was a little bit hungry, but not that hungry. So, maybe I ate one of these bananas. The host was talking about ordering out and having the son come over, and, so, I didn’t want to eat too much.
I definitely didn’t want to go to the Cane’s in Harvey, because I went to the one in Thibodaux yesterday, and that is expensive, plus I didn’t feel like eating that stuff two days in a row.
I went on Highway 541, Destrehan Avenue, the first time today, and I saw the backside or frontside of Kinder Morgan, where it meets with ships. I guess that it’s really the front side. I saw a big container ship.
When I got to the Huey P. Long Bridge, and proceeded westbound on River Road, I noticed that a new shot opened up, a broadside shot looking south toward the foot of the bridge.
Avondale
At 16:04, I was driving westbound by Avondale Yard and heard the acoustic version of “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots, which is a nice coincidence, since I heard “Creep” earlier today.
I stopped at Avondale Garden Road to get some shots.
Off in the distance, that could be the tail end of the train that I photographed yesterday at this time, though it seems that those shiny new VULX hopper cars have been on several trains lately.
I like how we can see the RMEX 6, the yard tower, and whatever UP job with the NS locomotive is working at left in these images.
It was cloudy. I was thinking of going to Live Oak until dusk.
The Drive Back To Bayouland
I went to CTC Live Oak and, somewhat surprisingly but, also, somewhat unsurprisingly, didn’t even stop. I didn’t feel like getting out. I didn’t care.
I guess that that is good? I am glad that I didn’t care to stop at Live Oak.
There are new street light poles along Live Oak from Willswood Road across the track to South Kenner Avenue, but no lights in them.
I took River Road and went through Ama. I remember being in college with some girl from Ama, a plump white girl.
These absolute idiots driving without their headlights on enrage me; the whole animal kingdom is a failure.
I saw that Louisiana & Northwestern locomotive pushing some cars at the Ama grain elevator. There is a regular southbound manifest train passing, as I see cows.
Oh! I think that I might have solved a mystery just after I passed the elevator! I think that I may have figured out due to seeing cows and due to seeing grain cars of a picture that I took 2011-2014 of some UP hopper cars with cows in the front of them.
In Luling, I took Barton Avenue to return to Highway 90. There are no sidewalks here. This society is sick!
I was going to stop and check out the shot at the Lafayette Sub track, the shot that I did only once, in March 2012, but, then, I realized that the cutting of the trees that I noticed when I came in this morning jacked the shot. So, while that tree clearing may have created some new shot opportunities, it killed this one.
I just realized that I might see the UP New Iberia Turn, but that is unlikely and also not why I am here.
I scoped out a new shot near the Walmart and wonder if I’ll ever get to try it.
The same cars that were at Vallier this morning when I passed were still there today, which I guess makes sense if the Louisiana & Delta Railroad’s local train doesn’t come this way on Mondays.
“Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana played on the radio just after I passed Vallier, and an eastbound BNSF Railway manifest train passed. It had an H3 leader and a bunch of boxcars at the beginning.
I have had enough of this. I want to see the UP local train, though, but that’s silly. I know what it looks like.
At Des Allemands, I stopped on the BNSF property, to take a leak and to just be here when the last light of day goes away.
This hasn’t been a “glorious return to New Orleans” day, and that’s actually fine. That’s good, because it means that I got the urge to do this, to break my long streak of not being here, out of my system. It helps me stop objectifying New Orleans and not being able to be there. It is good that today was kind of jading.
Raceland, Again
The same BNSF train that I saw this morning parked in the Raceland siding was still parked there when I passed this evening. Its presence there would have precluded the L&D train from coming here today, but the L&D train probably wouldn’t come here today.
I ended the day with pictures in Raceland as I started it.
There, again, is Raceland Raw Sugar.
Near the beginning of this essay, you saw it at dawn. Now, you see it just past dusk, after the sun dropped below the horizon but before the skies were fully dark.
Traffic in Raceland was thick. I decided to cross the bayou on the south bridge, just because I wanted to cover that territory, then took about four light cycles to get through the Houma Road light on Highway 1.
I have plenty of thoughts here.
I have some memories here, too.
Ending The Day
“Falling Away” by Korn was playing on 92.3 FM before I arrived at the host’s house and, then “Soul To Squeeze” from Red Hot Chili Peppers played; that song makes me think of good high-school memories, the few that I have.
Then “I just died in your arms tonight” played on 103.3FM.
I didn’t see any high-school classmates on this trip, but I saw the spouse of a high-school classmate. It’s just that, the last time that I saw him, they weren’t married, and she was married to someone else.
At 18:09, I arrived at the host’s house to “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” by Led Zeppelin.
This has been a hell of a day, and I am glad that it is over.
Good night. I will try to get some shots tomorrow on my way back west.
Jbx
