Hey! I had to go to Morgan City today to do some work, and I got some shots of the Union Pacific Railroad’s New Iberia Turn heading westward in the afternoon.
I may be doing more of this over the next week or so.
For now, though, let’s recap a few things since the last article.
Tuesday, June 18th
I have been thinking in the last few days, especially since I went to DeRidder to chase the CP 2816 three days ago, plenty about the idea of a passenger train on the KCS between Shreveport and Lake Charles. That would be pretty cool, super cool, two pairs of passenger trains per day on that line, one like an express train with only a few stops and with the train set and the crew making a round trip in one day and then an all-stops passenger train in which the crew and the trainset spend the night in Lake Charles. We totally could do it. We could double-track much of the KCS. We could put a station stop in Singer.
The CP 2816 chase a few days ago 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 responsibilities.
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 rainy and cloudy weather to work on shots.
Thursday, June 20th
I had a traumatic experience on Thursday, sanctuary trauma, maybe not sanctuary trauma, but, basically, denied healthcare, not me, but it could just as much have been me. Kerry, what a rude jerk, he is already bombarding us with sensory hell in order to get his care, and, then, when I say something to him about it, he asks me to leave.
What a horrible human being. You can just not do that sir. He said that he didn’t have time to deal with that. Well, you had time to do that to people in the first place. You can just stop doing that to people. That won’t take any of your time or your electric bill. It makes me think that he is being paid to do that.
There just should not be a TV there, at all, and that’s like the problem with what happened last year at the gym; there is no cop or court or judge that we can call to do something about it. This is just an unnecessary painful thing that people do to you that you can’t do anything about.
This is what we neurodivergent people mean when we say that the world is hostile to us, not just because they do these things to you like with the TV but, worse, because you get made out to be the bad person when you raise the issue. Healthcare is a human need, same thing with the gym.
Saturday, June 22nd
I went to the gym today; of course, since it’s Saturday, it’s unstaffed. Of course, the music is on, and it’s this aggressive, annoying, sensory-rich music, and, as usual, the TV in the dumbbell area is on, as it usually is, but the sound is on, which is unusual. Okay, fine, the remote control is there.
I pressed the mute button a bunch of times, but it wouldn’t work; so, then, I pressed the power button, and that wouldn’t work either. So, finally, I got up, I need to work out, this is annoying the hell out of me, I am going to have to leave if this continues; so, I just climbed and unplugged the television, but I couldn’t reach the cord into the wall, so, I unplugged the cord from the TV itself, and what I probably should have done was put it back in, because, probably, the TV is not going to come on.
Sunday, June 23rd
I want to go home. I want to get the hell out of here. I hate you for doing this to me. I hate your for doing this to me.
So, I did go to the gym today. I noticed that that television had been plugged back in, and the TV was on. There was also a sign on the main bathroom that I used that it was out of order. So, it suggests to me that some staff person came between the time that I left there Saturday afternoon and the time that I got there midday Sunday. So, that is strange. So, someone climbed up there and plugged the TV back in, and, if it weren’t for the fact that there was a sign on the bathroom saying that it was closed, I would suspect that it was merely a member who climbed up there and plugged the TV back in. That makes me think that a staffer did it, which makes me think that they might wonder who unplugged the TV, which makes me think that they might check the video and then come and talk to me, but I’ll handle it.
I don’t want to draw any more attention to myself, because it’s probably not going to go well, because it almost never goes well, because they’ll never accept that THEY are the ones doing the problem, like, I am trying to tell you that I have to leave if I can’t get this sound off, and I was looking and feeling pretty robust, relatively speaking, yesterday, and it got me to thinking that it’s because I have done so much to make myself appear to be a regular, robust guy that maybe that has in some ways made things worse, like when I start having sensory meltdowns like that, people take me for being an aggressive man, because I look like a regular guy, but, then again, what’s the alternative? The alternative comes with an even bigger cost. So, I don’t think that there is a way out.
So, like with Kerry, you’ve made the place in accessible, and I was thinking about like that clip from Reggie Jackson saying that places will serve all of the team or none of the team and how Vince Lombardi took it a step further and said that, even when the players are out on their own, if a place was not open to any of his players, it was off limits to all of his players.
I am thinking about the increase in solar energy everywhere. Maybe the planet will be saved afterall.
I haven’t heard back from that organization; so, I am assuming that that means that I didn’t get that job. So, that’s disappointing, and what reason could it be other than my inability to commit? Maybe the guy whom they hired will flake out, and then they will contact me.
Monday, June 24th
I want to go home. I want to be walking in New Orleans this morning.
I am getting all of this picture-processing work done in anticipation for having my time taken by soon having a full-time job. That’s a joke. It actually might come true if the person whom they end up hiring for it doesn’t work out. So, I will stay put in the Guild and just not say anything.
Wednesday, June 26th
I was supposed to go to Morgan City today, but it got delayed due to problems there. So, that will not happen today. It may happen tomorrow.
Saturday, June 29th
Yesterday and this morning, I am again daydreaming about my Sunbelt Railroad idea, and a little bit about the passenger trains.
I had trouble this morning transferring files because some of them are undeletable because they have too long of file names. It pisses me off, because Photoshop ought to not let me make a filename that long in the first place. So, I figured out a solution that doesn’t involve using the internet, and that is just that, for every picture, don’t do any filenames past the numbers of the picture until after the initial file is saved. Save the file with just the number; then, add the filename manually from the file.
Gulf, Arkansas, Sunbelt & Pacific. GASP! Ha!
Monday, July 1st – Today!
I left the house I’d say a little bit after 08:00. I don’t know. I didn’t record what time I left. I just had an uneventful drive to Morgan City to do some painting. I listened to public radio on the way there.
A Slightly-More-Interesting Carbon-Black Presence
At Balwin this morning, there were some black new smooth-sided CCX hopper cars near the beginning of the Cypremort Branch under US Highway 90; they were gone by the evening.
Morgan City
In Morgan City, there were three hopper cars in the old scale track.
I shot pictures of those hopper cars at the port.
I guess that this is better than nothing, but I miss when boxcars came to this place.
Let’s look to the northwest at what remains of the loop track.
Amtrak Julie said that the #1 was running late already and would leave Schriever after 11:00, and it was brightly sunny right now and was supposed to stay that way for a few hours; so, I decided that it was not worth even trying to photograph it. I didn’t know where I would photograph it. I might have had to go across Berwick Bay, and it might be a long wait, given the bridges.
I went to Taco Bell, got breakfast, and then got to work.
Now, Wednesday is supposed to be cloudy; so, that might be better for pictures. Yeah, I am not standing on the Greenwood Bridge and trying to take a picture of the #1, and I’ll be able to chase the local train in the afternoon, maybe, I was thinking.
My thinking was good!
I Timed This Perfectly!
I decided to knock off right before the earliest that I thought that that Union Pacific Railroad local train, the 51 local train, the New Iberia Turn, would be coming through, and I got that timing perfect! I knocked off from the painting work just in time to grab a bite to eat and get set up for the train.
I saw that the bridge was lined for railroad movement. I went to the drive-thru at Burger King and got a Texas Double Whopper combo and then immediately went across the river. I think that I was just finishing the fries with ketchup at the dock on the banks of the bay in Berwick when I saw the headlight. So, my premonition, my intuition, about the bridge being down and about there being a meet happening in Berwick due to the presence of an eastbound train with its headlights off there turned out to be correct.
At 17:59, I got my first action shot of the day, of the train crossing Berwick Bay.
UP 9040 is the locomotive.
Yes, it’s running long-hood forward.
I am not sure how I feel about that.
Hey, look! There are some bulkhead flatcars loaded with plate steel!
The shrimp boat blocks the view of the cars, but it’s also a really neat element to the photo that helps to tell a neat story.
I counted eight loads of plate steel. I wonder where they be going. They are probably going to Twin Brothers, I would imagine, because I would imagine that O’Neal Steel can’t or wouldn’t take that many cars at a time.
I would like to see that plate steel going down the Cypremort Branch if possible.
Okay, I am getting repetitive, I guess.
I guess that I am trying to show how much plate steel this train is carrying.
Damn, Jim!
Okay, that is the end of the train.
So, at 18:03, I was driving through Bayou Vista, glad that I had gotten gasoline this morning when I came through here, because I was now parallel to and next to the train that I wanted to catch.
Doing The Patterson Shot Again
I had thought that I was too late to attempt that Veterans Drive shot that I did for the first time on May 18th, but I wasn’t!
I did, however, foul the shot because the settings weren’t right on the camera.
I crossed Wax Lake Outlet at 18:12. There was nothing in the Bayou Sale siding.
Borough Broadside
I decided that I’d get the Borough Lane broadside shot that I got on May 18th and then maybe call it a day. However, there was a westbound BNSF Railway train just ahead of the UP local train, and, since I was there and so was the train, I shot him when he passed over Northwest Boulevard in Franklin.
Well, that’s not good.
I got the end of this train at Borough Lane.
This was more of a test than anything.
I stayed on top of the truck the entire time between that train’s passage and the arrival of the UP local train.
Ten minutes after the previous image of the rear of the BNSF Railway train, here is, taken from the same place, our UP local train crossing Yokley Road.
Here is my train!
Okay, the sugarcane here is obviously higher than it was when I last did this shot a month-and-a-half ago.
Well, these two shots here are good enough.
The problem, though, is that the sugarcane is now so high that it is over the bottoms of the cars in this train that I find most interesting.
I noticed that there is a soybean field just west of the sugarcane field here, and it would be an unobstructed shot, because the sugarcane is almost too high for this shot to work and is too high for those plate-steel cars.
Well, I guess that this is a good way to end the pictures for this day, because this is the end of the pictures for today.
That’s all for the pictures for today. At 18:41, right after taking that last shot, I took my pill right there just east of the Charenton Canal. There was nothing in Baldwin siding and nothing on the part of the Cypremort Branch that I can see.
Epilogue
I have some assorted thoughts to share now.
Okay, so, 20 years ago today, I was in Mexico. I don’t really know what I was doing 25 years ago today. Actually, whoah! Twenty-five years ago today was my last day of work with my first paying job, if I remember that correctly, which I might not.
Fifteen years ago today, I left Starkville, Mississippi, visited Thurmond, said goodbye to the people whom I met there, only one of whom I have seen since then, who is Yang, and met with Tucker for what would be the last time. Before I saw Andy that day, I saw and photograph that Norfolk Southern Railway local train south of Meridian.
Ten years ago today, I went to class in Algiers and photographed a Canadian Pacific Railway hopper car underneath the Crescent City Connection bridge on the NOLR track.
Five years ago today, I am not sure what I was doing. I may have been in New Orleans. I may have been waiting to hear back from that school where I wanted so much to work.
Man, this truck is filthy! And, apparently, it’s so hot that that deodorant stick that I had in here is melting. I guess that I’ll clean out the truck tomorrow morning, try to get going as early as I can.
I am pretty hungry right now. I guess that I could eat some of my salad.
I am glad that I got the grass cut last night. I mean, that little bit in the front can wait. I am hot and sweaty and just yuck.
What I saw today makes me think that the UP local train does not stop to do work in Morgan City. I don’t know about Ursa. I know that it stopped to work in Ursa in May of 2022 when I saw it stop to set out cars there.
I could have seen and photographed this train in Schriever!
So, the railroad bridge over the Charenton Canal, I don’t know if it still does, but, at one time, the truss span was wide enough for two tracks, because it was built when the line was double-track from Cade to somewhere east of the canal.
I want to know where that plate steel is going, and I want to know when it is going there. So, one thing that I should probably do is…. actually, I probably should check out Baldwin.
Biden needs to drop out already!
This is so crazy.
The President is supposed to be giving a live address now about what the Supreme Court is doing.
I turned on the radio to hear music for the first time today. I heard that Stone Temple Pilots song “Interstate Love Song”. Then came a slow Stevie Ray Vaughn song, the name of which I don’t know. Then there was “My Michelle” by Guns N’ Roses.
Oh, crap, I don’t have any more trail mix, except for a little bit of that caramel variety.
I will have to leave really early tomorrow to get a lot of stuff done. I hate painting. I met the handyman, and he said that he hated painting. Well, guess what, bub! That makes two of us.
At 19:36, I arrived at the house exhausted. I realized as I was driving on a Highway that my truck was in third gear. No wonder it was acting strange on Highway 90, when it would really slow down when I let off of the accelerator.
I went to the Taco Bell in the morning and the Burger King in the afternoon and am not doing well with food today.
So, today, the Supreme Court apparently did all kinds of terrible stuff.
Hurricane Beryl scares me!
Anyway, let’s hope that I get some more shots out there tomorrow.
That’s all for now.
Jim
