It’s Not That I Hate The Heat – It’s That The Heat Hates Me
Until yesterday, I had not planned to go out and see the Canadian Pacific 2816 that came through southwestern Louisiana today, that we have known for some time would come southward as part of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited railroad’s Final Spike Steam Tour, but I decided yesterday that it would be better if I had not missed this, and I am glad that I did.
I got some pictures today, as you will see.
I will explain why I decided to go out and get it despite the reasons that I had for refraining from doing so.
The heat was a factor in my initial objection to getting out there for this event.
The heat also made today quite grueling and, at least in large parts of the day, more than unpleasant for me.
I had other reasons to not get out and chase this thing, and I had reasons to get out and chase this train countering my reasons to not do so, but all were balanced with the heat.
Were it not for the heat, there would have been no indecision about this. I would have thought from the beginning that I’d get out and see it.
I came to realize that I didn’t want to miss this, although not wanting to miss it was, strangely, a more powerful motivation than wanting to see and photograph it.
Definitely, there is a social element to all of this!
We are, indeed, social creatures, and that should be obvious.
I shall say more about my decision-making process, more about why I didn’t want to do this, and more about why I ultimately decided to do it in the body of the photo essay.
For now, I will share some thoughts from the past week, since, one week ago today, I made a very memorable and intense train chase of my favorite train, including some thoughts about that chase.
Sunday, May 19th
I wonder how my day yesterday would have been different had I remembered to bring those blueberries and the Power Crunch bar, because I spent, what, $40 on food? It’s crazy. It’s insane. I could have brought turkey wraps, too. I also could have just not eaten until later, although Quizno’s was a good way to break fast compared to other options, and the other thing is that I needed… I knew that I would be chasing a train in the afternoon, which would mean no time to stop and eat, all the more reason that I needed to have the Power Crunch bars and blueberries.
As I suspected, the quantity of pictures that I took yesterday is, by far, the largest quantity of good train pictures that I have taken in one day in 2024. It’s more than double the number of pictures than there are in any other folder, and I was thinking this morning why that makes me feel good when I am always complaining about my backlog of pictures to process.
The answer to that seems to be that what I accomplished yesterday is a sign that I still got it, a sign of my vitality. It’s a sign of, I don’t know, vim and vigor, I guess. Yesterday, I was doing stuff that I did 10 years ago and 12 years ago and 13 years ago. I still have back issues.
So, like, the only thing that I wasn’t doing yesterday that I did 20 years ago and 15 years ago is jump down off the truck, which I should never have been doing in the first place back then. So, that’s not really even an “I can’t do it anymore” thing.
Yesterday was good. It was just good. I am very glad that I went to that funeral. I have no regrets, no regrets about talking to whom I did talk and no regrets about avoiding the people I avoided. I don’t need to feel bad about this anymore. I don’t.
The funny thing is that, in late 2009 or early 2010, I would have approached that questionable dude whom I saw in Quizno’s, maybe. I was kind of riding high.
This UP local train is pretty cool, but it’s not as cool as if UP did run a local train with GPs 20 years ago or even 10 years ago would have been, because the cars would have been better. There would have been rice-mill hopper cars and the boxcars going to the paper place and the salt mine would have had less graffiti, and maybe there would be more pipe cars. I don’t know.
Wednesday, May 22nd
I saw a dude wearing a shirt with a number “9” on the back of the shirt, like a baseball shirt, and it got me thinking about autistic masking and all of this contorting that I do to make myself appear to be just regular well-put-together guy. There is, on the one hand, there is this elation that, oh, I did it! Like, I get accepted into the job or whatever, yeah, I am doing the part well, and I accomplished it; my efforts to achieve this standard have succeeded, but, then, there is also this feeling of, oh, no, now I have to maintain this all the time, which also means hiding who I actually am, and that is where the existential dread comes in. It’s the fitting in that I can’t do anymore. Like, how do people even do that? just conform? just sort of give up most of their identity, to just fit in like that? It’s crazy.
Thursday, May 23rd
I was reading just this morning about the problems that autistic people have with jobs, not with work, but with “jobs”, and that is why I am very, very specific with language and insisting on specifics, that it’s generally not the work itself – not the tasks themselves – with which we have a problem.
Saturday, supposedly, the CP 2816 will supposedly be coming through Dequincy on its southbound journey on the CPKC Beaumont Subdivision, but I am just not feeling that. I don’t think that I will be going. It will be difficult to get a decent shot. Actually, one decent shot could be around that street that crosses the yard. Maybe I will go there to do just that and then find a way to photograph the westbound Amtrak Sunset Limited somewhere afterward. We shall see.
Saturday, May 25th – Today!
Might As Well
Yeah, so, I decided to do it, despite the heat.
One reason is that I have cabin fever. There are other reasons that I will explain throughout the remainder of this essay.
At 07:00, I left the house, on my way to Dequincy. I left kind of a little late or, possibly, way too early. We’d find out.
What I did know was that I was not going to chase this thing. I had one shot in mind in Dequincy, at Frazier Street, that I wanted to do, and I was thinking, why am I driving all of these miles for one shot?
Partly, it’s because I have cabin fever, but another reason that is that I kind of am interested in this train, just not so much to chase it. The thing is, I don’t really know the territory west of Dequincy. So, I wouldn’t know how to chase the train, where to photograph it; the lighting is bad at midday, a few weeks from the summer solstice. I figured that it was not going to be good. So, I don’t really care that much.
Yesterday, I realized that another reason that I am going chase this, to participate in this, is that it is an event, a memorable event, in which other people in the railroad enthusiast community, even though I don’t feel close to most of them, will be participating. I might see someone I know or someone whom I have never met but knows of me from online. It’s a social event. I may not talk to anybody. I may not have a conversation with anybody, because I have one particular shot that I want to do, which is in Dequincy where a street crosses the yard.
So, this morning, while I was brushing my teeth, I was thinking about another reason that I should do this that is kind of related to the one that I just said, which is that, kind of like with that photo album – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 – that I posted last year of 20 years of my photography of the Kansas City Southern Railway upon the merger with the Canadian Pacific Railway, the KCS has been a big part of my adult life; so, this is the symbolic end of the KCS or the beginning of the next chapter of what was the KCS; so, it’s okay and appropriate for me to do this, almost like going to a funeral of an old friend from whom I drifted away, almost like I have an obligation to do this.
“A funeral of an old friend” is too serious of a blog article title; people will think that I am being serious.
Slow Start, But Prepared – Mostly
I kind of had trouble waking up this morning, and I wasn’t at all bothered by that. The alarm clock when off at 05:00, and I proudly pressed the snooze button. I didn’t really get up until almost 06:00; so, before I left the house, I was up for only about an hour. I did wash some bell peppers before I left.
I had my little ice chest with two big Power Crunch bars, and some blueberries. That’ll be my breakfast, probably somewhere in Dequincy, I thought.
Yeah, so, supposedly, the train will change crews in Beaumont, but, where?
Yeah, I am hoping that I will be back at the house early enough today so that I can shower and go to sleep well on time. Maybe I can go to get poboys at my favorite place.
Why
This is a ceremony for the cycle of life of the Kansas City Southern Railway and, now, for the CPKC, but, in a sense, it’s a ceremony for my cycle of life, too, being in a different period of life, thinking of railroads differently than I did before and just thinking in general differently than I did before.
It would be nice if this steam locomotive went into New Orleans and Gulfport and Artesia and Dallas on its return trip. By that time, the weather might be cool.
I was thinking that I would go and find Amtrak’s westbound Sunset Limited afterward somewhere.
I anticipated that, for the distance that I would drive today, I was not going to be taking that many pictures, and, especially, not zinger pictures. I imagined that, at best, I would get one zinger shot today. I figured that I might not get any zingers today, because the lighting wouldn’t be good for the shots that I had in mind, unless clouds roll through.
I Am Tired
I was feeling a little bit short of breath, which reminds me that I ought to have some frozen Gatorade. I ought to make some Gatorade and freeze some of it, but, then again, the amount of time that it takes to thaw is probably too long for that idea to be useful. What I may have to do is buy like a regular pre-made bottle of Gatorade and have that in the refrigerator for emergencies.
I am so tired. Why am yawning? I didn’t really go to bed last night until 22:00, and I guess that it took me a while to go to sleep, but once I was asleep, I was asleep. Oh, I had a dream about someone, but it was like she was a different person in the dream, and maybe that is kind of what the whole thing means; she looked different, talked different, and did different stuff for a living.
At 08:35, I was at the center of the span on the I-10 bridge on the Calcasieu River. The drive here was uneventful. At or just before 08:47, I took a big leak on the side of the road at the scary place where I shot the M-SHLC a few years ago, and I did so while “Youth Of The Nation” by POD was blasting at full volume from my speakers on “Big Dog” 106.1 FM in southeastern Texas.
Interesting, But No Pictures
At Buhler, there was a string of empty container-well cars in the storage track, and there is a string of cars that looked like grain hopper cars and some more empty container-well cars in the siding. I did not see any locomotive or any end-of-train device on the northern end of the cuts of cars. So, it looks like that is just storage.
Let’s see, it’s May, and there is no grain traffic here anyway. So, that’s kind of strange, I guess. I haven’t come here historically often enough to know if that is strange, but it’s interesting. It’s nice to see those old “Heritage” hopper cars, as we should call them; I don’t like that “Southern Belle” name.
A Strange Visitor Encounters A Strange Visitor
Just after 09:00, I rolled into Dequincy, and I saw something that I had never seen before, which is a Union Pacific Railroad train coming through Dequincy. I first spotted it when I was crossing the CPKC Lake Charles Subdivision on the highway crossing south of town and looked north toward the diamond, and, then, I was at the highway crossing rolling to a stop, because the train was blocking the crossing.
So, what we know is that the CP 2816 is not coming through right now, that’s for sure, and probably not in the next 30 minutes. I saw some boxcars in this train, some Norfolk Southern coil cars; I didn’t see any locomotives. It had the usual lease hopper cars and tank cars, and it has AOK 918222, which is a coil car, ROIX 60144, that’s a hopper car; there are a bunch of ROIX hopper cars. The last car of the train is ROIX 58994. Do with that what we will.
I might have to get a coffee or something somewhere. I ought to buy at Walmart one of those little packaged, premade coffees things for times like this, but they are expensive.
I arrived at the depot, and, as I expected, there were plenty of people there, and there were plenty of tripods there, too.
Okay, so, that tells me that the train ain’t here yet.
I went ride to scope out my shot.
Well, So Much For That Idea
Dammit! There are cars in the yard, apparently, stored grain hopper cars. That fouls my shot. I had initially planned to get the shot at South Frazier Street, crossing the yard. I decided to go CS Junction, then.
Well, I took a risk. That Frazier Street shot is the shot that I had planned, and, now, it’s ruined. I don’t think that I can climb on top of the cars without getting in trouble. I can definitely climb on top of the cars, and that would be a great view.
I wasn’t in the mood to hang out at the depot, particularly with the heat and the crowds.
There was not much in the UP yard. There are three empty centerbeam cars at the western end, and there are a few hopper cars further into the yard. These shipping containers will screw up the shot.
Yep, I knew that this was going to be my shot but that it will be insipid.
The Neat Depot
I decided to return to the depot.
Some dudes at the depot – I didn’t recognize any of them, they didn’t recognize me or ask who I was – said that the steam locomotive is two hours away.
So, good, the light will swing around and be better at CS Junction, especially if it gets cloudy, but it’s going to be hot.
So, I was thinking that I might have to go to McDonald’s or something to just hang out in the AC.
It’s so cool that an event like this is bringing so many people so much joy.
The problem with photographing trains at the Dequincy depot is that, even as neat as the arrangement is, the depot is on the outside of two curves, meaning that, without a drone, you can’t show much of the train in an image if you also include the neat depot.
Also, I didn’t want to get the same shot that dozens of other people were getting. I would have nothing to add to – I would not improve upon – what others are doing.
Let me move to the east a tad bit.
Sneaky Tank Car Train
I was checking out the North Dequincy Wye, and a southbound train snuck up on me. I wasn’t able to get the traditional coming-at-you shot of the front of it. I could only fire off a few shots of it after the head end passed me.
At 09:30, I saw and sort of was barely able to photograph a unit train of tank cars southbound.
I screwed up the shot of this train, because I was sitting here thinking that I would hear a horn before the train showed up and because my lens was fogged and because that problem with my lens led to me not snapping right and not having a good light reading.
I didn’t see any placards on it. So, I am wondering what it was carrying. I am trying to think of what a unit tank car train with no placards on the tank cars would be carrying, maybe corn syrup, but that would be strange. Is there is some new rule that doesn’t require them to have placards for hazmat loads?
So, the first shots that I attempted to fire at the front of the train did not shoot, and it wasn’t until the front of the train passed me that I was able to get some shots popped off, but the only good shots would have been of the front of the train. It’s a decent shot of a boring-looking train.
It was actually briefly kind of cool out here; there was a little breeze, and it was a little cloudy, but I didn’t know what to do now. Do I stay here?
It appeared that the sun was about to come back out; so, I figured that I probably would not stay here.
Fast Food And Air Conditioning
I decided to go to Burger King and sit in the cool air for a while and get some food.
Even when I was done eating, I just sat there reading stuff on my mobile devices while soaking up air conditioning.
Eventually, of course, I left.
Back Out There
I like this view of the depot along North Pine Street.
I then returned to CS Junction and, on the way there, took some pictures of the cars stored in the yard.
It was really hot out there at CS Junction.
I returned to the depot, and, on the way there, I got another shot of the stored hopper cars.
The depot is neat.
I love this view to the west from the outdoor waiting area of the depot!
DeQuincy Study Club? What is that?
This is the track on the southern side of the depot that connects with the Lake Charles Subdivision from the west.
I decided to return to my shot location.
Suffering In The Heat, And An Unexpected Treat
I returned to CS Junction and, at 11:30, was sitting there in the truck with the engine on, the AC up, and cracks in my window so that I could hear horns, because it was so damn hot; I was thinking that I could be there for a while, I didn’t know how long, and there is no shade out here.
I was still the only person out here, other than the automobiles just passing through, and I was hoping that it would get cloudy soon. Supposedly, there was a relief crew for this train called in to Beaumont for 12:30. They may be getting to Kendleton pretty late, I imagined. They were supposed to get to Kendleton at 18:30, but, at the rate that the train was moving, I doubted that. Supposedly, the train broke down somewhere.
This shot is lousy, but so is every other shot around here. That’s why I say that this place is conceptually neat.
Yeah, I had the engine on with the air conditioner blowing, and I had my camera hanging off of the driver’s side mirror outside so that I didn’t get a lens-fog problem from the AC, but I was in a bit of a precarious position, because there is not really a shoulder on this road, and my left tire was actually on the road; so, automobiles going east here had to skirt around me.
I need to hydrate more. Come on, Jim, drink, especially after that dehydrating food that I ate at Burger King, which reminds me that I ought to eat those blueberries right about now.
I was just kind of nervous about all of this, really.
This is just going to be a bad picture.
That Doesn’t Sound Like A Steam Whistle!
At about 11:39, I heard a loud horn to the east!
A horn? Not a whistle? Is the horn from one of the diesel-electric locomotives behind the steam locomotive?
I grabbed the camera equipment and mounted the truck.
Wait a minute, that is a UP train! and it’s on the UP track!
Yes, so, the train that I had come here to photograph would be using the track that is barely visible at the far left of these images. This is, after all, CS Junction, where this UP line meets the CPKC mainline.
The engineer, even after he cleared the road crossing, was honking the horn at me!
This is actually a decent shot given the way that the lighting was! Ha! This is so cool!
I think that these are my best pictures of the day, even though I would catch the steam locomotive coming through here afterward.
UP 4044, an EMD SD70M, was the sole power on this train coming off of the GCL mainline; it’s amazing!
The throttle seemed to be up on that locomotive.
I got a decent train shot today, finally.
Oh, check out that block of loaded centerbeam cars!
Is this product from one of the industries served by the Kinder local train?
Let’s have a closer look.
It’s better than badly-graffitied boxcars and hopper cars.
I waited out there for another 20-plus minutes, but, eventually, I had enough.
At 12:07, I was moving, back to the depot, and, before I left CS Junction, there was a woman who came up to me and asked if that train passed yet, and I told her that, no, it didn’t, that it was running late. That was the first time that someone out there knew of the train that, that I was able to tell.
According to what I read on Facebook groups, particularly the KCS group, the train was held up somewhere around DeRidder, which is terrible, because I am suffering in the heat, and I have the engine running out there, and the air conditioner was starting to fail; it would recover when I would press the accelerator.
This delay is good for one reason, though, which is that the light will get better for my shot.
So, anyway, I headed back toward the depot with the idea that I would go back inside the museum and get some air conditioning.
Left Inside, Left Confused, Left Cool, Left Off Guard
So, I went into the depot, which is a museum, to get some air conditioning, but, then, a couple of strange things happened.
Damn, it’s hot. There were some jerks with cigarettes right by my truck.
Rich Sampson posted nine minutes before that he heard that the train was stopping in Singer to address PTC issues, that he was here in Dequincy and the train isn’t here yet.
This was frustrating, because we can figure out kind of where it was but not where it is. So, now, it was stopped in Singer. We had one person saying Singer, we had one person saying DeRidder, and it’s kind of irritating. So, it was difficult to know what to do.
I went inside and tried to keep a low profile, which ended up actually being too low! I was feeling quite weary.
There seemed to be several autistic-type people there at Dequincy, and I was faced today with that feeling of crapping on my own kind, like that internalized ableism, I wouldn’t say Pickmeism.
I was beginning to feel quite weak, and, at some point, I ended up sitting on the floor.
That may have been a factor in the first of two related weird things that happened.
While there were other visitors in the depot when I got there, I later noticed that, eventually, I was in there alone.
I then heard the sound of people outside trying to open the door to the place and being unable to do so.
Whoah! I eventually inferred that the employees left the place and locked the door behind them. They left me and, apparently, only me in here!
So, what do I do? I can’t let people in when I don’t have authorization, but I also can’t really let anyone know that I am here. I was left inside, and it was not my fault; so, while I don’t need to leave, if I do leave, I would not be able to return, even if the door wouldn’t lock behind me.
So, what do I do? If I am here when the train arrives, that would be too late, and I also can’t advertise that I am in here.
Well, since I was feeling so weak, I was lying down on the floor.
I kept checking the foam groups for any indication that the train was getting close, but I saw none.
I heard a woman shouting outside, and that should have been a sign to pop up, get out of there as fast as possible, and get to CS Junction as fast as possible.
I then heard a whistle.
Dammit!
From Sedentary To Frantic In No Time
Well, this is a completely bad and embarrassing situation.
My convalescing body sprang up.
It darted out of the door.
There was a line of people on the southern side of the depot.
As fast as I could, I ran to the truck, started it up, and darted out of there. I recklessly drove the truck to my spot and got there with no time at all to spare to climb atop the truck with no time at all to spare to get this image.
I think that it’s important to remember what actually happened today. I was essentially forgotten inside of the museum, and I was thinking that David Perkins was going to post something about when the train left Singer, but he didn’t. And, so, I was caught off guard. I ran. I boogied out of the museum, and I got to my shot with no time at all to spare. There was a line of people on the western side of the depot close to the road, and they may have seen me buck out of there.
Each of them got a similar picture to that made by everyone else there. By contrast, no one else got the views that you see here, because I was the only one there to witness and photograph this.
I was laughing! I mean… the train was going fast, too fast. Wooooooow.
Okay, so, that doesn’t look very good.
That’s amazing. That’s amazing. The picture turned out okay. It almost didn’t happen, though. That was kind of crazy, but I would have just had to sit out there in the heat with no shade indefinitely, waiting for the train to show up with almost no warning.
In retrospect, I can see that that seemed like an impossible task anyway.
The Aftermath
I returned to the depot, and I also checked out the UP yard, but I don’t remember which one I did first; it probably doesn’t matter, because I wasn’t long at either one.
Wow, the parking lot at the depot got empty fairly quickly. Wow!!! People are gone. Are they going chase this thing? Or did they just go home and get out of the heat? It’s like there is nobody here except for those study-club people.
There were some trees growing over those UP hopper cars, seven UP hopper cars, in the UP yard; they look like the same ones that were here when I was here two years ago.
The light is going to get better, but I don’t know that area west of here. So, no, I am not chasing it.
Yeah, I am really not inclined to go and chase this thing, out in the heat, but I was hoping that somebody on one of those Facebook posts would alert us when the train was leaving Singer, but that didn’t happen. Maybe that David Perkins guy doesn’t actually like me and wanted to mess with me or something. Maybe I am being paranoid. I probably am.
Now what? I need to call Julie, Amtrak’s automated agent, to get an update on the westbound Sunset Limited.
Okay, it’s 13:48. Now what? What do I do? I would not be surprised if something comes off the UP. I would not be surprised if an eastbound train was sitting at that siding west of here.
Oh, I know what I should do! I totally should go south and possibly catch the CPKC local train. I wouldn’t be surprised if it already passed through here. This is where I need a scanner, dammit.
I mean, I just wanted to return to the house, really. I don’t care about photographing this lousy stuff in these awful conditions.
Yeah, I am definitely out of it. I definitely am not a train chaser anymore. I mean, I am one. I chased a train a week ago today and did an impressive job, I think, getting nine shots of it. It’s just that I knew that particular territory very well, and I really don’t know this particular territory. It’s hot, it’s bright, I am yawning. I need to eat my blueberries, dammit. Let me get south of here, and I can do that. I should just do it now.
I left town, passing the VFW post going back south the same way that I came here. Oh my god, that was crazy.
Westlake – A New Shot
Well, there isn’t much distance between Dequincy and Mossville, and I am hot and tired. So, while I would have chased that CPKC local train northward if it had passed me before I got to Mossville, I didn’t see it, and I wasn’t waiting for it.
I ended up here, at a place where I had not ever taken a train picture (or any picture) until today.
Julie said that the #1 would be here soon; so, when I heard a horn, I got set up for a shot of the #1, with this being the result.
Yeah, obviously, that ain’t the #1, but I’ll take it, especially since I am here and since this is a new shot for me.
So, now, today, I have photographed trains of three Class I freight railroads.
Fifteen minutes later, here is the #1.
The locomotives were AMTK 168, AMTK 824, and AMTK 194. I suppose that that third locomotive is in transit.
Yeah, check out the old track at that old warehouse at right.
It’s time to get out of here. I need a shower and a nap. I am pretty strong; I can hoist myself atop the truck. I didn’t do it for the last shot, though, that one just now. I did it from atop the bumper, because I wanted to compare the top-of-the-truck shot of the BNSF train with how the view looks from the bumper; so, that’s what I did.
I wonder if that BNSF train that I saw earlier was like a transfer run to CPKC.
This KCS track looks almost like street running.
There is plenty of what looks like debris out here, like trash, like construction trash on the side of the road. I guess that that is from recent storms. It’s pretty sad. At first, I was thinking Hurricane Laura, but I think that there were two just this year that came through.
If I had seen that DeRidder local train or Leesville local train, I would have chased that, no doubt. Forget the #1 and BNSF and UP and Port Rail.
Lake Charles
I had the AC on at full blast. I can’t take this.
I went check out the railroad to the Port Of Lake Charles, but, as I expected, there was nothing happening there.
Here is a caboose at the UP facility on the old Missouri Pacific Railroad mainline.
There were some cars in Harbor Yard, some tank cars on the west end and what looked like at least a hi-cube boxcars and probably some other cars farther to the east.
Burger King is boarded up, not even there.
Next, I went to New Yard.
Then, I saw this Port Rail locomotive coupled to some cars, parked on the old branch southward near the rice mill.
Then, I went to the rice mill.
Check out this old Western Pacific railroad car.
That’s neat, I guess.
There is a Ferrosur boxcar at the rice mill. That is amazing.
Iowa
I stopped in Iowa to go to the gym to use the bathroom.
There was something happening at the church there.
The inside of that place looks nice. There were about three or four fairly young people working out in there. I wouldn’t mind working out in there.
I looked at myself in the mirror on the wall in there, and it was like, I look good; I do.
I heard this music playing, the new R&B version of Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up”, and I imagined myself being out at a party drinking and dressed as I am right now, and I was thinking that I should do this more often. I should dress like I am dressed more often.
There were a bunch of people wearing black walking across the street, wearing suits. It’s a bunch of men and one little boy, all kind of dressed up in tuxedos. So, it must be a wedding or something.
I looped around and crossed the track again before I left town, just in case something was coming, and I heard that “Motorin'” “Sister Christian” song playing on the radio.
Fleeting
I missed a good chance to get gasoline when I was coming out of, I guess that that was Lacassine. So, I guessed that I will have to get some in Crowley.
I saw the Starbucks logo north of Jennings combined with a T-Mobile place, and that’s kind of a perfect example of the content of that article that I read about a week ago about how people are just souring on Starbucks. It’s just not as cool as it used to be; it’s become ubiquitous. It used to be a relatively exotic thing, and, now, it’s just all over the place. So, it’s a victim of its own success; it’s a victim of its own ubiquity.
I am tired. I want some poboys. I don’t know if I will get back in time to get some.
Crowley
Finally, I stopped in Crowley.
It’s apparently Supreme Rice that did that tree clearing just north of the mainline, and it looks like it’s not for the purpose of any railroad shipments or any such thing, because it looks like the hopper cars parked there are the usual storage cars, not for rice.
That’s all for the pictures for today.
Epilogue
I arrived at the house at around 18:30ish, definitely not like the old days of making the most out of the time for a long outing. I am tired.
I mean, maybe I should have just gone and watched the train pass through. I don’t know.
I can’t believe that I was actually inside of the depot with everyone else locked out. It’s kind of weird that, once I realized what happened, that I was in there alone with the doors locked, I just kind of hid on the floor in a place where people couldn’t see me but also that was air conditioned quite well, and I also kind of can’t believe that there was nobody else out there at CS Junction photographing the train.
The depot is pretty cool, but it’s difficult to work it into a shot if you don’t have a drone, because it’s on the outside of curves, and the areas away from the track across the depot aren’t really open. So, you can’t get a camera far away to pull in the depot in the background. I mean, the best picture that you can get from the ground is a nice picture of the depot with a train in the background.
It’s weird.
I guess that people are going to chase that locomotive to Laredo in the South Texas heat. I can’t do that, not anymore.
Yeah, I was glad to get that Westlake shot, even though it’s not a great shot. It wasn’t like, oh, cool, but it was something new, and I learned, and it’s more territory that I have now covered, which is what I like about it.
So, the Kansas City Southern Railway was a big part of my early adulthood, which means that it is a big part of my life, and, therefore, even though neither it nor its successor are big parts of my life now, I felt obliged to participate in today’s events to honor the place that the KCS had in my life.
In that sense, today was about staying in touch with my true self.
Jim
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