Greetings, and welcome to the November 2014 Sampler essay, naturally following from the “October 2014 Sampler” essay.
For me, November 2014 was a time of transition, as, during it and the early part of the following month, I was saying goodbye to a fond academic and New Orleans way of life and was starting a new job with an abusive boss while facing another back surgery.
Wednesday, The 5th
On this day after a hugely consequential Election Day that foretold the political earthquake that would happen two years later, an event that would lead to a change in my own perception of everything, I am at Gouldsboro Yard, the former Texas & Pacific Railway yard under the Crescent City Connection bridges on the western bank of the Mississippi River where Gretna meets Algiers.
That is a parked westbound New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway train.
Monday, The 10th
Here is a New Orleans Public Belt Railroad job working the TCI plastics facility just south of France Yard.
I was getting quite philosophical that day.
Wednesday, The 12th
In retrospect, I see – I acknowledge – that I was a lost puppy, just like this creature that I encountered near Gouldsboro Yard in Gretna.
It was a cold and cloudy day, typical of November.
Thursday, The 13th
On this day, I am on the “Ideal Side”, the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad’s branchline extending northward across the CSX mainlines along the eastern bank of the Inner-Harbor Navigational Canal.
The train is stopped, waiting to cross the CSX mainlines after serving the cement facility at the end of the branch. That, in the background, is the famous Danziger Bridge.
Friday, The 14th
This kind of stuff provokes a strong emotion in me.
One of the reasons for that is this location, because this is being done on my home turf, and it’s something that could have a negative effect on me.
Wednesday, The 19th
Here I am back in Gretna.
The pictures that I got on this day were not inspiring, but that’s okay.
Wednesday, The 26th
So, for Thanksgiving of 2014, my life would begin to resemble what it has, most unfortunately, become. I would trade all that I have gained – including many new experiences, pictures, and knowledge of railroads – for what I lost because of this.
We are in New Iberia here, as three locomotives that are, a decade later, no longer on the property – because two of them, the two CF7s, have been scrapped – sit by the Louisiana & Delta Railroad’s locomotive shops on Saint Mary Street.
Friday, The 28th
The saga continues two days later, when, on this “Black Friday”, we see a crew change for Union Pacific Railroad train ZATLC westbound at Lafayette Yard.
It’s a damn shame that, just a few years later, UP stopped regularly running trains through here.
Saturday, The 29th
For this final day of picture taking in November 2014, I am back in familiar territory.
This is a high-nose Norfolk Southern Railway locomotive with a train parked at the beginning of the Chalmette Branch not long before that connecting track was cut.
That is all, folks. The “December 2014 Sampler” essay will be brief, and there will be no sampler essays for 2015, as I took so few pictures that year.
Jbx
