Jimbaux remembers when the days were long And rolled beneath a deep blue sky Didn't have a care in the world With mommy and daddy standin' by But "happily ever after" fails And we've been poisoned by these fairy tales.
A Rather Insipid Title, I Know
Today was a rather interesting day!
I went to Lake Charles and saw and photographed today’s Port Rail train, met with someone for political stuff, walked around downtown Lake Charles, and photographed a few things on the return trip.
A Lovely Dawn
I awoke today at 01:30 after sleeping for only four hours. I don’t know why. I think that it’s just anxiety, existential anxiety. I could not sleep.
This morning, I worked on shots from two (maybe three) days in January of 2009. I redid all of the blog shots for the 25th, the Bernadotte Line, and I did Bogalusa line shots on January 31. I just did the main shots, not the social-media, sized-down, watermark versions, and I created folders for previous processed images, but I haven’t yet moved anything to them, and I have not checked my work for mistakes.
I took a shower this morning. I should have taken one last night, just like the night before, but, then again, since I am trying to get a haircut tomorrow, it would be okay to keep this cycle going. I intend to meet with Jenny tomorrow. I can’t wait for that. That’s going to be good. I have a lot to do. I have so much work to do. I have plenty of work to do. I have plenty to talk to the politician about.
I rolled out of driveway at 06:25 on an empty stomach, with a protein shake and a very ripe banana, and soon had to stop for a maritime delay. I should have brought my tablet with me. I guess that I don’t need it for the meeting.
I had a heck of a day yesterday.
There were empty sugarcane trucks pointed west at the bridge.
Rich told me yesterday that we won’t meet soon because he goes off-grid this time of year, which reminds me of me 17 years ago and 14 years ago.
Arrival In Lake Charles, Coffee
So, I arrived in Lake Charles.
Here I am at the Starbucks on Ryan Street at 08:14.
This place was interesting, but it was also mostly inaccessible.
The music was a little too loud and bassy, which makes it inaccessible, because other people don’t experience things like I do.
I got out of there with my purchase and hurried to the track.
Real life is so strange.
As would happen, I would have no spare time to get my railroad target.
Train! – Port Of Lake Charles
I got to the Port Of Lake Charles and realized that I had gotten past the part where I needed to park, and it’s difficult with all of that construction on the new track being built north of West Sallier Street. So, from the port, I went all the way around on the lake shore to Barbe Street and returned westward just in time to get the first pictures, getting into position right when the train was leaving, with no time to spare. I think that that happened last time I came here.
Here at 08:37, perhaps the earliest that I’ve ever seen the interchange run leave the yard, is today’s train leaving the port, taken with very little if any time to spare.
Well, that 06:35 departure time was necessary! Actually, it was too late.
The only thing that I added to it was a urination stop on the side of the road and a stop at the Starbucks, which did take a while, which is something to consider if I ever do this with The Mid-City Marine, because he will want to stop and get coffee.
Anyway, there is another job working at the port right as this one leaves, with the GMTX 106 as power.
That was a quick start!
Lake Street
Next, we are at Lake Street.
I was just wondering what that empty centerbeam car was doing there, and it made me wonder if the port had too many such cars and there wouldn’t be outbound lumber shipments from the port for a while. I later learned that it was rejected by the port or the shipper and that such rejections of centerbeam cars there are common.
This is possibly the most interesting Port Rail train that I have ever seen, excepting trains with wind-turbine blades.
Most of the Port Rail trains that I have seen have been led by the GMTX 2134, a few by the GMTX 106, whereas this is one of the few that I have seen made by the GMTX 2607.
I can do better.
Ernest Street
Next, we are at Ernest Street, which is a great shot.
The train had 10 cars.
This is a neat operation that would be neater if there were a bit more variety in the motive power.
We press onward!
There appears to have been an automobile accident by Kirkman Street.
Fifth Avenue
Next, we are at Fifth Avenue, at 08:52.
This was quite an invigorating chase!
The horn on that GMTX 2607 sounds beautiful, in ways that the horns on the other two Port Rail locomotives don’t.
We get the good smile from the engineer!
That is like icing on the cake.
This is about where a small Missouri Pacific Railroad yard was.
I wish that I could have gotten one more shot after the Fifth Avenue shot, but I couldn’t get to the Gerstner crossing in time. That would have been a good shot, but it would have been difficult to make it. I would have to have left Fifth Avenue immediately after I photographed the front of the train, and, even then, I wouldn’t necessarily have made it.
Harbor Yard
Next, I am at Harbor Yard.
For as long as I have watched this operation, the first time being near the end of 2020, I had been wondering why the locomotive switches out some cars right here rather than just taking the entire cut to the port, like why are there cars here anyway if they are not going to the port? I think that I figured out the answer to this, and that the premise of the question is wrong.
Maybe they aren’t leaving cars at the yard. Because I paid close attention to the cars today, I imagined that the port-bound cars are blocked at Harbor Yard, probably so as not to interfere with any switching movements done at the port. So, it’s not that the train switches out cars from a cut here at the port to them take the cars that it switched out to the port; it’s that all of the cars in the cut are taken to the port, but they are blocked out here first.
I really did well by getting to Lake Charles when I did, because I got here in the nick of time to photograph the train leaving the port, and it was at Harbor Yard already by 09:00.
It appeared that the train back to the port would be mostly empty centerbeam flatcars. I was trying to decide where to photograph it. It’s difficult to do with the lighting at this time of the day. My initial thought was that wide-angle broadside at Barbe Street, but then I thought that that was not going to be a good shot with a bunch of empty centerbeam cars in the same way that a train of bright hopper cars or loaded centerbeam cars would be.
The sun was popping in and out, which meant that I was going to have to do that Barbe Street shot, which means that I didn’t need to leave Harbor Yard that early.
A New, Obscured Shot
However, I did, and that allowed me to try a new shot.
Here I am on Celeste Street just west of Banks Street.
I was harassed by a dog and, therefore, its human owner the entire time I was there at this shot. People are such jerks.
I read an e-mail from the boss lady while I was there that disappointed me.
Yeah, so, here is the new shot, with the train!
It was the best that I could do with the lighting as it was.
The lighting is coming from maybe 45º off of the rear of the train.
Would you call that “quarter-lit”?
Do you see how the cars are blocked out?
Now, I really needed to hustle to Barbe Street.
The Last Stand With This Train
“Come on, light, turn green. Come on, light, turn green. Come on, light, turn green, as soon as possible, please,” I said at Lake Street, and, then, after it turned green and I raced the truck into position, I ran out into the field just in time go get these shots.
I was huffing and puffing!
These images aren’t great, but they are what I could do with this quarter-lit train.
It’s okay!
This would be my last stand with this train.
So, the train had six empty centerbeam flatcars, three hopper cars, and two tank cars.
There were “2922” hazmat placards on those tank cars.
I took off my jacket after all of that running!
I went to the office to do some things.
The Rice Mill
Then, almost an hour after the previous image, I am by the Farmers Rice Milling Company.
It was getting close to time for my downtown lunch meeting. So, that’s where I went.
Downtown
The next 11 images are cellular-telephone images, from downtown Lake Charles.
I got there early. So, I took a walk.
This place has potential, but I realize that that is a cliché.
This is a beautiful house that needs plenty of work.
This one is functioning!
I am curious about the work done on that column!
I like how the Capital One Tower is in about the middle of the line of sight of the street.
That’s neat.
The tower’s future is uncertain, as it has been unoccupied since being heavily damaged in Hurricane Laura in 2020.
That looks nice.
What is this?
I wish to know.
That looks nice!
Then, I went to my lunch meeting, and it was great! Restaurantwise, the fish quality was a little underwhelming, but I drank three pints of Guinness. That was good. It was a great place. My interlocutor pushed back on plenty that I said, I pushed back on plenty that he said, I think that we are getting somewhere, though.
I talked to him about how nobody has seen that teacher side of me in years, and I was getting animated with the Guinness, and he was like “yeah, I want to see this” in reference to the presentation that I have in mind, an idea that I shared with him today, and that made me feel good, because there are things that he can do to help me make that happen.
That was an expensive lunch. That was a good lunch.
Back At The Track And Jacked
Next, with that big appointment done, I went to the track in search of the westbound Sunset Limited at a new location, but I got jacked.
First, though, I saw what appeared to be an eastbound BNSF Railway train leaving Union Pacific Railroad’s Lake Charles Yard. There were some BAEX boxcars on the train, like BAEX 7023, BAEX 7045, and at least one more whose number I couldn’t get.
I guess that this job is going to Lacassine Yard. I ought to go there on my way out to see if I recognize any of this rolling stock there.
Then, I got jacked by a human being out of a probably-insipid-anyway shot of the #1 there, and I was really upset at the time by the entire experience, but I have since cooled down and won’t publish much of my thoughts about it here now.
The dude with the cigarette said, “what are you doing?”
I said, “I’m about to take a picture of the #1.”
He said, “about to take a picture of the number 1?” Like, yeah, that’s what I just said.
“You can do that over on that blacktop right there.”
I just stared at him and slowly left. I hope that he is happy with himself.
Consolation Prize?
Maybe my main problem with this is that it happened so close to the #1’s passage that I didn’t have time to relocate to somewhere else to get a shot of it, even though I tried.
I think that it had passed by this time, but at least we can see what appear to be cars for local rice mills, particularly the Farmers Rice Milling Company here in Lake Charles and the Supreme Rice mill over in Crowley, perhaps, too, the mill in Mermentau.
I then left to go back downtown to rest and drink some water by the lake to balance out the alcohol.
It was kind of bright, between the convention center and the lake, though I got a little bit of rest on bench there.
This is a lovely place.
This is Lake Charles, the lake!
I can’t remember what the purpose of that new building is.
After about a half hour of resting here, I left, to head back east to my prison.
On My Way Out . . .
I stopped to get a shot of some cars parked on a port track.
This track makes me think of the stupid reason that I am even here.
Iowa
I got to Iowa a minute or so too late to photograph a westbound train that was coming through.
There was an eastbound train in the siding that looked just like the BNSF train that I saw leaving Lake Charles yard a little while before. I was very tired and decided to not stick around to see what happened next.
Lacassine
At Lacassine, I got this one image.
That’s all for today.
The Ride Back To The Prison
I heard the “The End Of Innocence” song on 833FM.
I feel like I should have stayed and walked in downtown Lake Charles a little bit longer, even though I was getting tired and yawning.
At 17:13, I pulled into the driveway, ready to go inside, eat, take a shower, and go to sleep. I got some good shots today, and I had a great meeting.
Jim
