Jimbaux will take these broken wings
And learn to fly again
Learn to live so free.
A Wasted Opportunity
Okay, today was day six of this job that I am doing in Morgan City. We shall recap. On the first day, July 1st, I photographed the Union Pacific Railroad New Iberia Turn in Berwick, in Patterson, and in Franklin. The next day, July 2nd, I photographed the Louisiana & Delta Railroad’s Schriever Job in Morgan City and in Schriever. The next day, July 3rd, I photographed the UP New Iberia Turn in New Iberia. Three days later, on the 6th, I made a trip to Morgan City to do some work, and the trip didn’t involve getting a single picture. Yesterday, July 8th, I got only one picture of a really neat train that got by me.
I left the house today at 07:29 feeling so beat, so sick of this job.
Getting There
I am upset that I missed that UP local train yesterday, because that was one of the coolest trains on the Lafayette Subdivision. I would have been able to see and photograph it in multiple places. That’s a train that I really would have chased the whole way, from Avondale to New Iberia. There were three bulkhead flatcars loaded with plate steel right behind the power, which was a single Spartan Cab UP locomotive short-hood forward, and, then, some carbon-black cars right behind the plate-steel loads.
I wanted to find out if the steel is going to Twin Brothers. I guess that it is. So, I felt like I should go to Twin Brothers either this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon, but the thing is that, if I go tomorrow afternoon, that would conflict with photographing the UP local train one more time while doing this job, which should be ending by tomorrow. It should be ending today, really.
I took some Bayer Back And Body medicine this morning, the first time that I take it in a long time. My back and my body hurt.
I am going to need really a full day of rest, two full days; like, I might not feel normal until Saturday. Also, this is just indoor work; so, it really shouldn’t be that grueling on my body, but it is.
It rained this morning; that delayed my departure by probably 10 or 15 minutes. I probably will see rain on the way to Morgan City.
Yeah, with it raining, today was the kind of day that I wanted to be at the house.
I saw some pretty clouds but didn’t have the energy to photograph them. I want to get this job done. I might be able to get it done today. Tomorrow, I am going there mainly to photograph the UP local train. I really am. I really am. You know, it might have some plate-steel loads on the front of it again tomorrow.
Then, I need to send off my lens to get repaired.
I didn’t go to bed until about 22:00 last night. I am surprised that I was up and moving as early as I am.
I want some little train. I want a little train carrying plate steel. It is good to see all of this plate steel.
Well, I saw some more clouds to photograph. So, this time, I stopped to photograph them.
It’s as if I was outrunning these eastward-moving clouds, and I did briefly outrun them. A few minutes later, at 08:04, I drove over the Patoutville Spur.
I decided, too, that I would stop in Franklin to go to McDonald’s, because I was hungry, and I didn’t really care that much about dieting today and tomorrow. I will later. How about that?
Biden needs to drop out. Holy crap.
At 08:14, I drove over the Cypremort Branch, and I saw on the branch mainline, which may mean that it is an active train, a long string of plate steel cars, going to Twin Brothers. So, I decided to try to go there this afternoon. I have to finish this job in Morgan City.
To go to McDonald’s in Franklin, I took exit 152; I don’t think that I have ever taken that exit in that direction before. This may be a first. Oh, I need to stop and see what this sign is, Jefferson Davis Louisiana Association. I need to check that out.
As I said that I would, I took that exit into Franklin and went to the McDonald’s, and it was kind of a chaotic experience. They were taking cash only because the computer was down. So, the woman had to calculate my bill total with a pencil and paper, and I paid in cash, $7.50, for two sausage biscuits and a sausage-egg-cheese biscuit.
It was pretty chaotic, because I walked in there and I was bombarded with employees asking if I had a to-go order. Whoah! I just walked in here. Like many McDonald’ses, there were some really old white guys sitting together in a table at a corner. That was interesting.
After I left McDonald’s, I took a few pictures in Franklin.
This is an interesting town.
It’s the parish seat of Saint Mary Parish.
I didn’t see any train activity anywhere, nothing in the siding at Bayou Sale. Things are pretty dead in this era, just the two or three daily pairs of BNSF manifest trains and occasional pipe trains. This asset-stripping is crap, and we could be doing so much more.
I got back on Highway 90 and scoped out my shot for the #2 in the afternoon, then stopped at Bayou Vista Walmart, then went to the jobsite to unload stuff, then went to the paint store and got a new can of paint. Then I went to Taco Bell to get more food, then got back to the jobsite to work by about 09:45.
I need to figure out what time the Sunset Limited comes into New Iberia.
I didn’t go ride by the port this morning, because I went ride by there yesterday afternoon, and there is no reason to think that anything has changed there since then. I also figured that I was going to miss the UP local train coming through here.
Hours later, I quit working at the jobsite for the day and went trackside.
Jacked By Julie
I am really upset. I got jacked by Amtrak Julie again. Julie kept telling me that the train was on time.
I waited at the river bank in Morgan City pretty much for an hour after I knocked off from work waiting for the #2 to come.
The bridge span goes down.
I got excited.
I got a few other pictures while waiting for the train to show up.
This is, after all, an interesting place.
Again, I was set up for the eastbound Amtrak Sunset Limited to come through.
This is what actually came through.
What the hell???
This is not what I came here to see.
Also, had I known that I would not see what I came here to see, I’d have left an hour ago to use precious lighting to get down the Cypremort Branch.
Of course, while I am here, even though I am seeing something that I didn’t come here to see, I will still photograph it.
The bridge span then is raised.
That means that the #2 is not right behind this freight train.
Furthermore, Julie was still telling me that the train was on time for a Schriever arrival at 19:03, which was like a minute from now, which is impossible unless it got here before.
At 19:01, I left Morgan City.
So, either the #2 was at least a half hour later than Julie was saying, probably more like an hour, or it got through there before I arrived on the scene. I thought that I might find out as I was driving westward, but what really upset me is that, by waiting for this train, I forewent possible opportunities to photograph possible action at Twin Brothers, not to mention the UP local train coming eastbound. I was still going there, because there was still some daylight left, but I knew that I would now get there just before dark, basically.
So, that really upset me. So, one thing that I might do tomorrow morning is poke around at Baldwin, because I will have time, because I don’t have much work left to do tomorrow.
I got jacked by Julie again, in a different way than that which I got jacked by Julie a little bit more than two years ago, and the cost was not just an hour but, also, possible shots at Twin Brothers or on the port track to it.
I miss the good old days when not just Perry might know but also Paul Hebert and Joey Meuleman might know but, also, that RailNet guy, whoever he is.
I also miss having a radio scanner!
It Gets Weirder
Before I got to Bayou Sale, I called Julie again. Something about all of this was suspicious to me even earlier this afternoon. I couldn’t figure out what it was. Now, I remembered it and did some further investigating.
When I have called Julie before, and I list a station, if the train had departed that station already, she says that the train has already departed.
So, I decided to call again and ask about the train status for New Iberia, and she said that it appears to have been significantly delayed en route.
Oh, that’s interesting! I wish that I had known that an hour or two ago.
So, then, I called her again and asked her for the status of the train at Schriever, and, once again, she said that it is schedule to arrive on time. When I was calling this afternoon, she was saying that the train is still scheduled to arrive on time at X time even though I am calling after X time; so, that right there told me that something was off here.
So, I again asked for Schriever, and she said that it was still scheduled to arrive on time. Why did you tell me that it was significantly delayed for New Iberia while telling me that it was scheduled on time for Schriever?
So, then, I asked for Lafayette and was told that it was significantly delayed en route. Okay, so, tell that to someone waiting for the train at Schriever!
There was no train in the siding at Bayou Sale. I have not seen one there since I have been doing these runs this month.
I was thinking that, if this train is significantly late, I ought to call tomorrow to inquire about the status of the #1, because, if that train uses this train set, then the #1 will be late leaving.
I wonder what happened.
I See Plate Steel
Okay, the plot thickens. At 19:30, I was in Baldwin. On 103.3FM, that “take these golden wings” song was playing.
I was going down the Cypremort Branch, but the plot had thickened. I got there, and it looked like there were still plate steel loads, looked like on the branch mainline.
There also were a bunch of cars on that runaround track.
So, okay, so, that made me think that there were no more trains on the branch for the rest of the day, but, then, I rode by the crew office and didn’t see any locomotives and saw four civilian automobiles there.
So, that told me that both trains are out somewhere. The Bayou Sale train would be where it is supposed to be. I ran down the Cypremort Branch just as I had planned. So, there I was, very hungry and looking for a damn train.
This would be a good time and place for damn drone. The sugarcane is thick here.
I hadn’t been here in more than a year.
It’s to the point now that I want to come out here even when I don’t have to go to Morgan City, and that might make it better, because I can be more flexible; it’s just with the heat, the light, the brightness, and the high sun, that would be difficult.
Glencoe
Glencoe is a land that time forgot. Was there a sugar refinery here at one time? There doesn’t appear to be a structure less than 30 or 40 years old here.
There are carbon black cars parked in the siding by Cote Blanche Road.
Ivanhoe
There is the locomotive. Well, let me go and get a shot of it.
It’s shoving some carbon-black hopper cars into the plant.
Damn, the lens is fogged up as hell.
I tried to wipe the inside of the lens, but maybe that was a big mistake!
What did I just do? Did I just destroy my lens? I don’t know what is going here. That is really, really concerning.
Well, that’s better than messing up the camera.
Let me go ride by the port now. I have the AC off just to get this lens unfogged.
The Port
I think that the last time that I came here, I didn’t go to the port, and possibly even the time before that, too. Okay, here we go, the Port Of West Saint Mary.
A Toyota Tundra pickup truck scared me, because I thought it might be security, but it was dudes cutting the grass.
I found the empty plate steel cars. Wow, look at this place, sugarcane all over the damn place. I guess that my day will end here. I stopped for the two railroad crossings at port, overgrown, looks like no railroad traffic has used it in ages.
That would be a good place to offload from railroad cars onto watercraft big wire spools for offshore wind turbines.
The Twin Brothers crossing looks to have been recently chipped out!
Yes, this is what I was afraid of. Even if there were a train operating here now, it would be difficult to get a shot of this.
I see three loaded cars there.
Why is my lens acting this way?
I might as well get a cell-phone shot of it and get out of here.
There are three loads in there, and it’s damn near 20:00; so, I wouldn’t expect anyone to unload that today. So, that’s probably staying there until tomorrow.
This place definitely has seen better days.
This place ought to be getting some wire spools.
There are four empty bulkhead flatcars right there at the beginning of the port spur.
Let me swap lenses out, at least.
This is bad. I might be cameraless for a while.
That carbon-black plant is a big, important L&D customer.
Let me go by this Cote Blanche Road one more time and see if I can see this thing and get out of here.
Yeah, remembering that I have that other lens makes me feel better, even though it is a bad lens.
Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t worry too much about coming here tomorrow. At the very least, I can go into Baldwin. That would be fine. The main goal tomorrow is finishing that job and photographing the Chip Local.
Leaving, But . . .
Is that the locomotive? Wow! I see him north of here.
Oh, I know what he is going do. He is going get that other stash of cars in Baldwin. I guess that I don’t have time to go and see that.
Well, I still have a chase going!
It’s late. I am not going to Baldwin. Why would he be going back with nothing, though, especially when there are empty bulkhead flatcars to bring back to interchange? That’s crazy, unless it has something to do with why they left them with no way to get back to the yard office anyway, because, with the way it was with the cars in Baldwin, he’d have had to get around. Still, though, why didn’t they just take the whole cut from there today?
I kind of want to see the locomotive so that I can verify that what I think just happened just happened.
I will get my Glencoe shot and get out of here.
I would have a whole lot more pictures of action on this branch if there were more interesting cars here.
I am just trying out a new shot right here.
I had this weird hope that the crew would stop and talk to me.
That way, I could figure out what is going on here.
Well, that didn’t happen!
If they were pulling a train, they’d have to push cars on the two tracks at the beginning of the branch onto the tracks by the mainline in order to get around the cars that they had pulled before they went back down the branch. I guessed that what they would do is tie up by the southern end of those cuts and go to Baldwin with those cars first thing in the morning, but I wasn’t sticking around to find out.
So, that’s the end of pictures for today!
The End, Dammit
Damn, it’s dark out here.
This is nuts.
That is it. I am done. The time was 20:24, holycrap.
If you lived here, you’d be able to see trains, but they’d be the same black hopper cars every day, except when there is plate steel coming. I want one of those places at the port to be the place where wire spools to connect offshore wind turbines gets loaded onto watercraft.
Since it was about 20:30 right now, unless this is a relief job, they’d have had to go on duty no earlier than 10:00. I saw cars on both tracks this morning. So, it makes me wonder if the night job shoved the 1536 down on the southern end of that cut, and I just didn’t see it this morning.
I want to see cable spools on flatcars delivered to the port.
I got back onto Highway 90 at 20:29.
It’s too late for me to be out here.
I should cook my own breakfast tomorrow. That’s what I should do.
I need to shower.
Finally, at 21:15, I arrive at the house, very tired and having spent way too much money at Taco Bell.
Let’s hope that I get some good pictures tomorrow, on the last day of this project.
Merci.
Jim
