Jimbaux was momentarily livin’ on the edge.
There’s Something Wrong With The World Today
Wow! What a heck of a day this was! “This will be a day long remembered”. No, I didn’t attempt to destroy any rebels, nor was I much in the way of a rebel myself, at least not a rebel with a respectable cause.
I did, however, chase the CP 2816 steam locomotive about 80 miles, longer than I expected to chase it, going to places that I didn’t expect to go when I left the house this morning.
This was the return leg of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited railroad’s Final Spike Steam Tour train. Regular readers will recall that I photographed the southbound run at CS Junction in Dequincy, Louisiana, on May 25th.
Before we get to today’s pictures, I shall share some thoughts from the last few days, since my last article five days ago when I photographed the Port Rail train in Lake Charles.
Wednesday, June 12th
On Monday afternoon, as soon as we got back here and as soon as I finished unloading the van, I mowed the back yard. Then, yesterday morning, I mowed the front yard without having done a walk prior. So, those were my walks in a sense, but I was going slower but also pushing something. It was a workout, but a workout of a different kind, not like this.
The trip was kind of, I don’t know, the end of the trip was kind of weird, because we left Houston so early and got into Louisiana so early, that’s sort of against my style of optimizing a travel day, but it helped me get done a bunch of stuff over here that I needed to do, like getting back on the right food regiment, even though I did eat fast food on Monday night, and expensively so, because I couldn’t sleep, and I was tired, but, still, getting back here early on Monday helped me get into the right healthy routine on Tuesday.
Weeks ago, I thought that the CP 2816 was going to come back through northbound on Monday, the 17th. Now, apparently, the schedule has changed to Friday [but then became, as we now see, Saturday]; so, I may go to that, which means that I may also go to Lake Charles on the way there and shoot the Port Rail job again; that would be nice. I love that blue-and-white GP38, the Rock Island look. That locomotive is getting to be my new LDRR 1850, even though I kind of like it better than the 1850.
Oh, okay, what I did Monday was the first time that I photographed either Port Rail action or Acadiana Railway action in 2024. So, yeah.
Saturday, June 15th – Today
Limping Out Of The Gate
I left the house at 08:25, intending to go to Beaumont to intercept the CP 2816 and imagining that I would chase it only as far as Dequincy. I forgot to bring my shoes, which I realized fairly quickly into the trip. I was wearing crocs but was imagining that I might at some point want to put shoes on. I don’t know.
I figured that I probably would eat some fast food today and definitely will not be seeing one of the Champ brothers. The reason that I didn’t take the external hard drive with me to try to meet with one of the Champ brothers out there is mainly due to the heat, as I didn’t want that external drive sitting in the truck for a long period of time. So, yeah, there, there is that.
I was feeling a little bit lightheaded and dizzy. I was just feeling really, really tired last night, and maybe I should cut myself a break, because it’s due to not the most intense workout that I have had in recent years but the most intense workout that I have had at the gym in about a month. So, that’s okay. I am feeling a little more sensitive to light and sound right now than I usually fee. Is that the general migraine condition? I don’t know.
So, anyway, I got gasoline at around 09:00. Apparently, the train had already passed Rosenberg; so, I guessed that I was doing okay with time now, especially now that I got gasoline. I planned stop at the Taco Bell in Lake Charles to get some food, but I had now eaten one of the three bars that I brought with me. I brought two Quest bars, one of each kind, I brought a Power Crunch bar, and I brought some blueberries.
Everything is pretty bright, painfully so.
I keep fantasizing about my railroad projects as I was stuck behind a slow-moving Ford F150, thinking about my Taco Bell food.
We need more passenger trains, man.
Food And Such
At about 10:22, I was underwhelmed because either I screwed up my order or Taco Bell screwed up my order; I think that it’s the latter, but I am not sure though, because I wanted one of the bigger breakfast burritos and two of the smaller ones, but I think that I got three of the smaller ones. Oh, well. That just means that I can eat more at Whataburger! Oh, well. I should be probably eating my blueberries by now. Actually, I think that I will now that I am still kind of hungry.
Both lanes of the I-10 bridge at the Calcasieu River are open. That’s good to know.
It would be nice if that KCS bridge was still there. We could run some passenger trains into Lake Charles from DeRidder, ya hurd may.
I had been hearing some Cajun music on KRVS on the drive this morning that I think is reminiscent of the sound of steam-locomotive-wheel drivers.
I don’t know what else to say. This is kind of boring. Oh, look, a railroad track, oh boo hoo hoo. Like all of this just is lousy. My head hurts. Migraine is bad. I just feel so beaten down by light and sound, especially light now. I should probably eat those blueberries.
At the railroad yard to the south I-10 in Westlake, there were a few boxcars. There were some of those Norfolk Southern hopper cars. There was a CNW boxcar in there.
I am tired. I am very tired.
Supposedly, the train is by West Junction. So, I need to hurry up and get to Beaumont, if I want to find this thing, which I do. Do I?
Do I?
I Don’t Know
At about 10:49, I enter Texas. Within five minutes of being in the state, I had crossed over at least the second railroad track that I-10 crosses in Texas this far west from the Louisiana state line. I need to learn what those tracks are. My specific knowledge of these railroads really does end at the Texas border, where it become generalized knowledge.
I went to Whataburger in Beaumont.
I got the Sweet And Spicy Bacon Burger. It was okay. I am kind of getting over that, which is a great thing, because I shouldn’t be eating that.
I had imagined meeting one of the Champ brothers here to do some file transferring, but I didn’t try to arrange that, because I thought that it would be logistically cumbersome.
Coincidentally, I was in Beaumont four years ago today.
Heat And Stupidity
So, I found a spot to wait for the train.
It was not a good spot, but it was the least bad of the options as I perceived them, and I am not the only one who came to that conclusion.
Okay, let’s get a SLR-camera shot of it.
At 12:29, I was sitting across the track from the Amtrak depot in the AC in the truck because it was hot as hell out there, and there were other people out there waiting for the train. Some relatively local dudes drove right up into my shot, like, excuse me; I had to talk to them. Like, you didn’t see that there was an automobile parked between you and the track? You just drive into somebody’s shot? You can’t just back toward the fence?
Also, I couldn’t understood what the dude was saying half of the time, because, like that dude Robby from a few weeks ago, he was talking in this thick East Texas accent, like he enunciates only half of his syllables, while the other half of the syllables are almost silent, and you have to try figure out what he is trying to say by using the half that you hear to guess what the half that you don’t hear is.
It was irritating, but not as irritating as the fact that they still did not move out of the way even after I had told them that they were in my shot, and even though all that I wanted them to do was back their automobiles a little bit closer to the fence behind me. Actually, they did move their automobiles, but just not out of my shot! Morally and emotionally, that maybe made it even worse! I stopped fighting about it, though.
The train was supposedly by East Gate right now.
Then the dude was talking about how, downtown, there is the “damn Juneteenth” celebration. Like, okay, dude. I already have a good psychological profile of you.
Damn, it’s so hot.
I have a bad feeling about all of this.
I am really jealous of the people who can just sit outside in this heat. This is miserable. I am jealous of the people at the Juneteenth thing.
A Train
At about 12:36, a train comes through.
Whoopie.
This was a coke train, I think.
TILX 420344 is the reporting marks on one of the cars on this train. It’s a big long train. It has RDL, rapid discharge, different types of cars, but it looks like all of them have these aluminum sides. It looks like all of them are TILX cars.
Okay, here are some KCS hopper cars here. Let’s see, KCS 660366, BNBX 503050, BNBX 503066, KCS 30049, and the rear-end pusher locomotive, which I will not photograph. It’s high sun and filthy, CP 8840, a GE ES44AC.
Another Train
Damn, it’s hot.
Then, this UP switch job pulled past us.
Well, that was nice! I like GP60s.
Yet Another Train
At about 13:25, this train moves eastbound past us by the depot.
Damn, it’s hot.
In a surprise, we will see this thing again later and in much better lighting conditions!
The first railroad-owned car was not until a long way into the train.
I still had a problem with these guys next to me, even though I really did need to let it go. I came over to this space because no one was here, and then they kind of pull up half way toward me from where they were sitting in their automobiles. I asked them to back up just back to the fence, to be out of the way of my shot, but they moved just a little bit, and there is plenty of room more for them to back up, even before you get to the grass, but they just refuse to do it.
Anyway, I finally saw some railroad-owned cars in this eastbound UP train: SSW 91089 and UP 94605. That second one looks like it could be loaded, but I am not sure. They could be going to the rice mill at Lake Charles or the one at Crowley. There are a couple of empty centerbeam cars on the way in this train. So, that, too, might be going to the Kinder Job.
ECUX 881258 and XOMX 601050 were in the train. Then, there were two empty centerbeam flatcars, TTZX cars, spliced by a tank car, then a TBOX boxcar, which could be going anywhere. There was also a hydrochloric acid tank car 1789, RCRX 2893, and there is NOKL 734418, a centerbeam car. Then, there was a KCS boxcar, KCS 119091
More Homo Sapiens And Yet Another Train
Oh, here come some more people, like human beings. The special train must be getting close. Oh, look at them, they had the decency to . . . well.
Oh, here comes another train on the other track!
Oh, there are some kids. This is going to jack my shot. That’s why I hate coming to these things. Damn.
Anyway, the train moving on the other track was a southbound CPKC train; it had intermodal cargo at the front, J B Hunt, Schneider, Bison.
On the eastbound UP train, which still hadn’t finished passing, were a couple of centerbeam flatcars loaded with what appear to be crossties, UP 273573 and UP 260192. Then there is an empty car, UP 260223.
Yeah, the southbound CPKC train was a mix, intermodal and manifest, and a loaded lumber car was the first non-intermodal car, followed by TOE boxcars, which looks like stuff they pick up off the DeQueen and Eastern Railroad, then followed by WFRX boxcars.
There was a block of eight tank cars of hydrochloric acid near the end of this eastbound train.
Someone in a minivan was now messing up the shot way at the end. I also hate that I am feeling bad feelings about other people, which is why I don’t like coming to these things.
Yeah, I ought to adjust my expectations when I come to things like this. I know that I should do that, but the thing about when those guys first came in and blocked my shot right next to me, that is so avoidable. These other people who have come late, that’s a little bit different. Those guys were already there when they came.
All Of It Was For Naught Anyway – And That Is Good
So, right before the Final Spike Steam Tour train was supposed to show up by the Beaumont depot, a freight drag pulled out of the yard and blocked the view of those of us on the southern side of the track, and I was the last person to leave that location. I thought about sticking around just in case that job cleared up by the time that the steam train passed. That probably didn’t happen; so, I am glad that I didn’t try that.
A Happy Accident
So, I ended up where, once again, just like when I photographed the southbound train, I got a shot at a location where I was the only person, and, this time, it was kind of an accident.
This is at College Street and Orange Avenue in Beaumont.
Maybe this isn’t a great shot, but no one else has this shot!
For me, those F units are about as much of a draw as the steam locomotive is.
A Frustrating Return To Louisiana
For all that I knew, and I didn’t know much, the train may have stopped for servicing on the eastern side of the Neches River. I zigzagged around the KCS on some state and county highways between Vidor and Louisiana, especially east of Mauriceville.
This place is so boring. I saw a Confederate Battle Flag in Deweyville, typical hate-filled stupidity.
If I had known how long all of that would have taken, I would have had time to meet up with one of the Champ brothers to do a file transfer at Whataburger or somewhere, but, then, it would have been weird to try to ask them to come out and see the train somewhere. That would have been tough. So, I am glad that I didn’t do that. I will come again some other time, when there is not a steam locomotive coming through in 90-degree heat.
At 15:26, I entered Louisiana on Highway 12 in Texas just east of Mauriceville.
What a hell of a day this has been! I was glad that it was mostly over, even though I realized that I could actually end up doing a lot more. Heck, I could go to DeRidder! Maybe I should go to DeRidder, yeah. I don’t know.
I checked out all of the crossings in Starks.
I was feeling discouraged, thinking that I definitely would not be getting killer shots today.
Then, I went to the crossing at Church Street and saw that this would be a great shot! But when will the train be here? There was a Shawn Wilson sign here!
I resumed my journey to Dequincy, realizing that I needed to figure out what to do, because it now was too late to shoot from the south side of the track. So, that precludes my idea of shooting it at CS Junction, which was a far-out idea in the first place, now that I have to admit so. So, now, the sun is on the northern side of the track, which we can, for all practical purposes, call the west side of the track, as this is a northbound train.
I Have Willed It
Yeah, to hell with it. I really should try to go north from Dequincy to get him. I should go to DeRidder and go make my last stand for the day there. That’s what I am going to do. I am trying to imagine what kind of shot I can do at Dequincy of this train, and I am not really imagining much good.
Well, Here Is Something
I arrived at the Lucas siding and saw this, as “Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake was playing on 106.1FM.
I had seen, in the woods, a parked Union Pacific Railroad train, and, now, I was here on Bud Bennet Road south of the track.
So, I will get out and get some water, grab a shot of this, and get out of here.
Yeah, I was “born to walk alone,” unfortunately. The funny thing is that, just before I heard that song, I was thinking about, given my hope with the job, the thing that C Wright Mills said about modern man selling your personality to jobs, your character, and how that is my problem now with “jobs”.
I decided to stay on Bud Bennent Road and went to CS Junction that way, new territory for me, via Edgerly Road.
So, apparently, according to what I read on the Facebook group, the train stopped in Vidor to do the inspection that I thought would have been done in Beaumont proper itself, that I wish would have been done right there in Beaumont where the foamers were. I kind of just wanted to see the stopped train, to see it still. That’s the problem for me with these chases; I want to just take it in, which you can’t do when your experience of the train is it passing by you in a few seconds.
I was starting to get a headache.
Life is just bad, man. It just is. I wonder what I am going to eat. I tell you what, if I end up in DeRidder, I don’t think that I will eat at Whataburger. I really don’t. In fact, I don’t know that I have time to do that, because that would put me back at the house past my bedtime.
Oh, there is Old Airport Road right here, and this is about where I would put an intermodal facility. Well, I’ll be gosh dern; this place looks familiar! Yup!
There in the UP yard were those three centerbeam flatcars that were here a few weeks ago. Here we are at CS Junction, here we are, baby, where the GCL mainline meets the KCS line. I might just get some gasoline in Dequincy and go to the house, but I decided to go and ride by the depot and see what is happening over there. Still, I was starting to yawn; so, I was thinking that maybe I should just call it quits.
There is a nice view of the depot, eastward, a late afternoon view, from West 4th Street.
Wow, look at all the foamers! This place is crawling with foamers! I wonder who these people are.
I am hungry.
I think that I will take part in this.
A Satisfying Result At Dequincy
At 16:13, I arrived at my little parking spot at the hospital in Dequincy.
This is so neat!
There is not much that I can do here with the train, but I will try.
I mentioned last time about the challenges with photographing here.
Anyway, the train arrived, and this was the best that I could do.
I don’t recall anyone standing near me at this time.
That suggests that you’re not going to see this particular view of this particular train anywhere else.
It’s not that great, but it’s still quite unique and memorable.
There are a couple of icons of nationalism, each of two different nations, here!
Here are those F units that I like so much!
Okay, now what? Call it quits and go to the house?
Chase Is ON!
So, as I was coming out Dequincy, “For Whom The Bell Tolls” by Metallica started playing on 106.1 FM, and I got really jaaaacked up, man! I was playing it at full blast, imagining myself playing it with some of my Bucs from back in the day.
At 16:37, I was stopped in a column of automobiles at the highway crossing almost nine miles north of town, as the train had beat us there. We almost beat him here. We had to pass some people, including other chasers, to get here, somewhat for naught. We could have beat him. It was so close.
At about this point, “For Whole The Bell Tolls” ended, and “Livin’ On The Edge” by Aerosmith started playing on 106.1FM. Yeah, that’s what I am doing now! This is a wild chase, man. I ain’t been on a chase like this in ages. Not long after the train cleared the crossing, I was able to scoop the power and heard the chugachugachugachuga.
All right; so, I might be able to get my zinger at Singer afterall, I was thinking. This was getting to be stressful! Where is my zinger at Singer shot? It’s right up here, actually.
Okay, there is this dip ahead. There is my shot. This is the zinger at Singer.
Juanita, this place is called?
The Zinger At Singer
Okay, there are a bunch of foamers standing out by the track. Oh, no, somebody is about to do the same thing as me!
There was a long pause, and then I was laughing giddily! Telephoto lens, where are you? I got you now!!!
Okay, this isn’t really that much of a zinger, but it is, I think by far, my best shot of this train on either of its runs through here this year.
I am satisfied with it.
I did it! I got on top of the truck and did a telephoto shot! I tried to make a video with my cellular telephone, but it didn’t work. I didn’t have enough hands.
I did it! I got my zinger at Singer, even if we maybe should call the place “Juanita”. Now, I have to wait for a column of traffic to get out of here. Probably half of these motorists are foamers.
Now What?
Okay, so, now, the question is, what next? I imagined that I would try to do the shot at the Santa Fe Junction in DeRidder, but I didn’t know how far away I was from it.
At about 16:45, I passed the train again. Look at how beautiful that locomotive is! That thing is preeetttty! That’s why I wish that I could have been somewhere where the train stopped for a while, and that the train didn’t plan on stopping for a while where you could just experience it being there in live steam is one of the reasons that I considered letting the opportunity of seeing this thing come through Louisiana pass.
Foam! Foam! Foam! Singer Proper was crawling with foamers. I didn’t think that I had anything to add to this, which is my mentality, as you might have learned by now. So, I decided to pass this location. I was still 16 miles from DeRidder, which is about as many miles as I was from Dequincy.
Then, something happened that made me think that I was about to get jacked out of a shot of the train in DeRidder.
Dammit!
Fortunately, however, the delay didn’t last long, and I was able to beat the train to DeRidder.
My Final Stand For This Train
When I was coming into DeRidder, I imagined exactly where I would set up, that I would set up just south of Highway 171 across South Washington Street from the track, but, when I got there, I saw that the first parking spot was a wheelchair-accessible spot, and it was the only such spot available around there. Initially, I parked in it anyway, thinking that, if a wheelchair user comes, I can just move, because I will be there at the truck, but that’s unlikely to happen, and there are no parking spots right there.
Then, not feeling too good about either that or the shot there, I decided to move to the southern end of the block and parked somewhere too close to the corner; then, I crossed to the other side of West Second Street, moving to the south again.
Here is the train.
It’s not a great shot, but whatever.
That guy on the motorcycle makes the shot!
DeRidder is an interesting place. I don’t recognize any of these foamers, and that is all right. This has all passed me by, and that is just fine. That locomotive looked nice, though.
Refueling
I got gasoline at MurphyUSA in DeRidder, topped off, and reset the odometer to zero. So, we’ll see how it is when I return to the house.
Then, I went to the Popeye’s; there were flies throughout the place, and almost every table inside of the dining area inside of the place was dirty. Maybe I came there at a bad time. The lady working there was very nice and gave me a free Dr Pepper that was a mistake that someone had purchased or not purchased before. Normally, I wouldn’t want to drink such a thing this late in the day, but I was worried about being able to stay away on the ride back to the house; so, I gladly accepted it!
I bought a bacon-cheese chicken sandwich and a biscuit there, and I ate it, but I was still hungry afterward.
Lagniappe
Then I went ride by that coffee ice cream place by the track, Cat’s Coffee & Creamery, where I would hang out quite often and meet guests if I lived in town, and noticed that it was closed, but I was going to totally get some ice cream there. Today is very much a good ice cream day. I totally earned it today. Hell yeah, I earned it.
Still, even though the place was closed, I did get an unexpected treat while there.
Yeah, a train came by, and I took a picture that took no effort of it.
The Long, Lonely Ride To Not Even Home
By 18:12, done with the CPKC for the day, I was on Highway 26 going to Oberlin and, eventually, Elton and Jennings, leaving DeRidder, thinking that I had gotten some good shots and needing to get to the house before I fell asleep. It was time for the long, lonely ride to some place that is not even home.
I got some good shots and good video in the state of Louisiana today. I don’t know that what I got in Texas is any good, but we shall see. I shot the train in four locations, I guess, you could say.
The air conditioner in the truck was making a weird noise, just because it was so loud, I guess; it was functioning normally, but it had me worried. So, I turned it down to notch number 3.
I was thinking that it would be hilarious if I ended up at Oberlin and saw a train there.
I wanted to take a shower and go to sleep right as I was leaving DeRidder, feeling fat, and glad that I had done all of this today.
I went to eat some of the contents of that last container of fruity trail mix in the truck. This stuff is a little old. Yeah, maybe not. This stuff is actually bad. Uhh, yeah, no. Yuck! I am not eating that!
Now, I was just enjoying this ride, thinking about things. I didn’t take a walk this morning. I was feeling fat, even though, compared to what I weighed last summer, I am thin.
A Pleasant Surprise That Was Also a Rendezvous
I got to the railroad crossing in Elton on Highway 26 and looked both ways. I saw a headlight to the west!
Before the train showed up, I got a few pictures of the neat rice structures by the track.
I can’t remember if I knew if the train was coming when I made these images.
Well, this is a familiar sight!
Yes, that is the same train that I saw leaving Beaumont Yard almost six hours before!
Well, I finally got some good photographs of this train!
Ha! NS 4036 and NS 1104 is the power on this train, the same train that I saw leaving Beaumont hours ago. Here I am photographing it at Elton just after 19:00 eastbound. This is great. That is a great way to end the day right there.
That was great! That was a real bonus right there. I almost should have chased that thing east. I could have gone that way and seen whatever might have been in Eunice. That’s all right. That is not necessary.
Epilogue
If it wouldn’t be so damn hot, and if I knew the terrain better, if I had a scanner and if my lens was working better, I should have gone farther west, much farther west than Beaumont to wait for this thing. If I was going to sit there and burn gasoline to run the AC, I should have gone further west. I just don’t know the territory.
Anyway, I knew that I couldn’t get back to the house too late, now that I suffer from this new condition called “being old”.
I think about the idea of a passenger train operating between DeRidder and Lake Charles.
It is so damn hot.
This is very difficult. I really do want that job for which I interviewed earlier in the week, but, at the same time, it would take plenty out of me. Maybe those guys know that. Maybe it very much depends upon what their options are. I got the impression that there was maybe somebody else that they were going to interview yesterday and that they were having trouble finding a qualified person for the amount that they were willing to pay. He just flat out said that.
It’s just that a 40-hour-per-week job would take plenty out of me. Especially since this job would have you work on Saturdays, I am considering this run to chase this train my last hoorah before I take this job that I probably am not going to get anyway. The interesting question is, if I get the job, then like the one foaming that I would be able to do pretty regularly, besides after-work stuff in Lafayette that is lousy, would be in Lake Charles on a Monday. Hey, hey, hey, Port Rail. Port Rail is about to be my go-to foam.
The CP 2816 chase was good, but I am glad that it’s over. I wish that I could have chased it to at least Leesville and spent a night in a hotel, but, number 1, that is expensive, and, number 2, leaving certain important people unattended.
I need to do something about my 70-200mm/f2.8 lens. I need to get that repaired, but I am trying to take advantage of the upcoming rainy and cloudy weather to work on shots.
This will be a day long remembered, I am glad that I did what I did today, and I hope that you like the pictures.
Merci.
Jim
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