Greetings, and welcome to the October 2014 Sampler essay, showing one sample image for each date on which I made a presentable SLR-camera photograph in the month of October 2014. There are fewer images in this essay than there are in the previous sampler essay, from the previous month that included one of the most productive days in the realm of New Orleans railroad photography in my life.
With the context of September 2014 in mind, we shall begin. All images shown here were made in southeastern Louisiana.
Saturday, The 4th
This one is tough, because this is the first sampler essay written since the deeply-disturbing September 2024 realization about an old friend. As I wrote there, we were so alike because we thought alike, and, because of that, many of the idioms and turns of phrases that I use remind me of him, because so many of them came from conversations with him.
I remember discussing the outing on this day with him and how I rationalized chasing this train farther than I should have, and he said that he had the same problem in his train chasing.
So, it’s not just the picture from this day that reminds me of him. It’s the headline that I used for the blog article from this date and all of the talk of rationalization in the narrative.
Sunday, The 5th
This is a southward view of the point at which the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad line from Jackson and Bogalusa joined with the Southern Railway mainline from Meridian into New Orleans.
I was in town that day for reasons that, a decade later, are difficult to discuss.
Monday, The 6th
Here is the daily CSX job that conducts interchange with the Canadian National Railway in the New Orleans Gateway making its way back to CSX Gentilly Yard as it passes the LSU Dental School in New Orleans with a train of cars that it picked up at CN Mays Yard.
That was one of several images that I got on this day.
Wednesday, The 8th
Here is a shot of New Orleans Public Belt Railroad’s daily transfer run to CN Mays Yard in front of a military train coming from what was then called Fort Polk via what was then called the Kansas City Southern Railway with a CSX crew about to board it and led by Norfolk Southern Railway’s Go-Rail locomotive, a propaganda piece to defend the destructive asset stripping that was happening to the railroad industry.
It really was a weird Wednesday.
Monday, The 20th
I’m just going to say that I really do encourage you to read the short blog article from this day, if for no reason other than that I am a bit proud of my writing in it.
It was weird seeing CN locomotives on the Huey P. Long Bridge, because it’s quite an unusual occurrence.
Wednesday, The 29th
Now, looking back on this date, I can see what was happening then that I couldn’t really see then. I was quite pensive, and, without really realizing it, I was beginning the very long, very slow, and quite painful process of saying goodbye to New Orleans, something that I wouldn’t completely do until more than five years later.
That’s it!
That’s all.
Merci.
Jbx
