When reading these blog articles of 2003 pictures published in 2023, it’s important to remember that, as described in the post that previewed the publication of these 2003-2005 images, all of these are scanned slides that were scanned before early 2014. I have other presentationworthy slides from that time, but they are not scanned.
On the morning of Friday 5 December 2003, the crew of the Louisiana & Delta Railroad train SC1, the Schriever Job, went on duty but did not get out of town by rail. LDRR 1507, a CF7 that had been assigned to the job for the last few weeks, burned out its radiator. The crew was deadheaded to New Iberia to pick up another locomotive: Mountain Laurel 14. While there, it picked up the eastbound tonnage bound for interchange with the Union Pacific Railroad, more than 40 loaded carbon black hoppers; it brought them to Schriever, put them in the storage track (east, I think), and continued east to Raceland to serve Raceland Sugar.
I arrived on the scene at around 15:00, just as the L&D job and the westbound Union Pacific Railroad local train, the LLS51, the Chip Local, did. The 51 had the same pair of B-boats that it has been having for the last several weeks, but there was a third locomotive on the point.
UP 1449 – GPsomething (SP patch)
UP 192 – B23-7
UP 215 – B30-7A
This is the first time I can ever remember seeing this train with three locomotives.
After photographing it going west through Raceland at 15:05, I scurried east across the cane fields to the sugar mill. I photographed the ML 14 coming across N4th street at 15:10 going into the mill.
In my post to Rick on Wednesday night, I made mention of how the crew of the UP local train and the crew of the L&D Schriever Job will often talk out via radio about how and where to put the setouts and pickups. This is what happened today.
The UP crew asked the L&D job what it was bringing out of Raceland. The L&D job responded that it was bring four loaded [molasses] tank cars from the sugar mill. The UP crew asked if they could be placed on the west leg of the wye. Often, these cars are left on the east leg of the wye. I’m scratching my head over why this wasn’t done today, since the UP will be picking these cars up on its eastward journey back to Avondale.
I was somehow aware on this Friday evening that the L&D Schriever Job would go to New Iberia again the next day, and that is what happened. I would chase it westward and end up taking pictures in places that I hadn’t before taken pictures.
Stay tuned for a posting of those images.
Jim
