I do not remember much of December 2004 prior to the holidays toward the end of the month. This essay naturally follows my 30 October 2004 essay, since, as of this writing 20 years after these images were made, none of my other slides from that time are scanned.
I do know that, though I was home as I was the December before, I was in a different headspace a year later in December 2004. I wasn’t nearly as interested in photographing trains, even though I was still interested in photographing them. The Close Up experience from that January had changed me, and I was plotting a move to New Orleans.
The only images that I have yet scanned from December 2004 are two images made on the 26th after a rare southern-Louisiana snowfall and two images made on the 27th of the Lockport Branch train by the time that most of the snow had melted, and that is why only those four images will be in this photo essay about that month.
I will also include here some “OS” reports from days in December 2004 that do not include images, either because I took no pictures on those days or because there are not any scans of images from that time.
Additionally, as I wrote for pictures from a year before this, I am pasting here my edited versions of my notes from that time. Two decades later, as I compose and publish this post, the practice of listing locomotive numbers seems rather bizarre and even quaint, as I don’t do that anymore, and I don’t see anyone else doing it anymore. I think that there are several reasons for that change, but I think that one of them is that locomotive consists just aren’t as interesting anymore!
It’s amazing how our interests, priorities, and standards change over time. I am keeping the weirdness of listing locomotives here, something that I don’t normally do in my contemporary postings, as a way of conveying the feel of the time in which these images were made.
December 17th, Friday
On the night of the 16th, I went to Peppers with one of my then-best friends, and, on this night, I went to an overnight party with a bonfire at Lucy, near Edgard, with that same friend; prior to that, I visited another one of my then-best friends.
On my way to Edgard, I saw a southbound Union Pacific Railroad train on the Livonia Subdivision at 21:45. The first locomotive was a UP 9769, and the second was a Southern Pacific GE. It was a general freight train, including boxcars and loaded auto-racks.
December 18th, Saturday
I got home at around noon from that party. I don’t recall it being a good experience. This is before I knew what introversion and autism are.
Apparently, I went out to hunt trains not long after I got home. At 12:42 CST at Chacahoula, mile 61.4 of the Lafayette Subdivision, I saw a westbound UP manifest train with UP 4426, EMD SD70M, and UP 2270, EMD SD60M, as power; the train had 528 axles, and the first car was an auto-rack, the second, a loaded lumber car.
While I was paying for gasoline and breakfast at Wilson’s Kountry Korner, a second westbound train snuck past me, this time, a BNSF Railway manifest train. The first train had been waiting at Schriever for the arrival of the LDRR 1850 eastbound with about 20 carbon black hoppers.
December 19th, Sunday
I did a hat-trick with a westbound UP manifest train, photographing it in three locations: Schriever at 15:20, Chacahoula at 15:29, and the Bayou Ramos bridge in Morgan City at 15:57-15:59. The train had 546 axles the following power:
- UP 4683 – SD70M
- NS 4142 – GP38AC – high nose!
- NS 4148 – GP38AC – high nose!
NOTE! The sixth-to-last “car” was actually a locomotive, a switcher. The number on the switcher was 2001, and I think I read MPEX, or something similar.
December 20th, Monday
This was a day of missed opportunities. I tried to duplicate my feat from one year minus three days ago when I got the Lockport Branch train in the winter sunlight, but this year I stupidly let the opportunity pass. I drove all the way to Valentine, saw three boxcars parked there, one clay slurry tank car, and two tank cars at Valentine Chemicals.
I drove all the way back to Raceland, seeing no L&D train or crew the whole time, but occasionally hearing them on the radio. I incorrectly surmised that I had been too late. So, I went to school to do some work in the classroom and make a phone call. Later, I passed the yard in Raceland and saw some of the same cars I had seen in Valentine. Dammit! How did that happen? I must have missed it in the trees on my way back, a golden opportunity missed.
I went to Schriever thinking that I would see the UP local train, the LLS51, come pick up the carbon black cars having been there since Saturday plus all the backlog of outbound cars in Raceland, but this never happened while I was there (and I haven’t been back since.)
While waiting, I saw two trains at Schriever, described as follows.
15:51 – eastbound BNSF intermodal
- BNSF 5090 – C44-9W H2
- BNSF 4550 – C44-9W H2
… plenty of Yang Ming and Hapag Lloyd containers
16:56 – westbound UP manifest, obviously had met the previous train at Raceland
- CSXT 8567
- HLCX 6202
- GECX 8649
- UP 9253
- UP 9218
December 21st, Tuesday
These are sightings made from my drive back from Houston, where I had business to do on this day.
In Lake Charles, along Interstate Highway 10, I saw UP 723, KCS 4351, and KCS 1507 working cuts of cars. I saw other stuff, but I lost the paper on which the data were written.
In Lafayette, BNSF 5003 was coming eastbound with a manifest freight train. When I got to Cade, there was a short westbound BNSF manifest waiting in the siding, short enough to fit between the crossings on either side of that section where the highway briefly meanders from the railroad.
In New Iberia, ML 13 was in the L&D interchange yard attached to some carbon black hoppers. It seems as though a pipe train had recently come to town, as there were several large flat cars with big pipes on them.
ML 16 was just coming off the Midland Branch with seven hoppers of CNW, BNSF, and SP origin. Were these rice loads from Abbeville? If so, that’s cool! However, the BNSF cars may have been from the sugar loader at the car yard. The train seemed to have left some boxcars or other hoppers cars behind it.
Back towards the engine facility, there were several more pipe loads of various dimensions.
I drove by Perry’s office, but didn’t see his automobile (unless he’s gotten a new one!) It seemed that the wye in New Iberia has been taken out of commission. Isn’t this the result of some recent derailment?
I continued home, and saw another westbound BNSF train somewhere.
December 26th, Sunday
This was maybe the weirdest Sunday Sermon ever, and this is where the pictures for this post start.
Snow had fallen on Christmas Day, a very rare thing in southern Louisiana, and, the next day, Sunday, I was at Schriever, as I often was on Sunday mornings at that time, because I was a traumatized individual who needed but didn’t have community, as my worship service.
Yes, the snow is not at all impressive by the standards of places that often get snow, but, while I have taken a great many pictures at this location, these are about the only ones that show snow!
I was starting to feel empty.
That night, due to being prompted by reading a post about a rare on-time arrival for the eastbound Amtrak Sunset Limited in Houston, I was by the track to see the train come through Schriever.
I saw the #2 on this night for the first time in many months. Back then, the train was scheduled to arrive in Schriever at 17:56, but I can barely recall it ever arriving at that time. I think the last time prior to this day that I had seen the #2 was sometime in August or September on a Saturday morning! Usually, it passed in the middle of the night, long after I would asleep or retired.
I went to Schriever and there were several people waiting for the train, which is extremely rare in Schriever, which is a “flag stop.” Often, there is nobody there. I engaged in the usual banter with these folks, helping them understand railroading and Amtrak.
There was a westbound train in the siding with the following power.
- CSXT 9000 – C44-9W
- CSXT 9771 – SD60M
- UP 8267 – SD 90/43MAC
The signals went on for an eastbound right about the time that the #2 was supposed to arrive. Wow! It’s really going to get here on time or only a few minutes late. What a memorable day this is!
Little children were excited. “Yes, there’s your train,” I told them.
A headlight was seen in the distance. It approached slowly. People grabbed their bags, preparing to board a train on a holiday journey.
The train slowed, and its front was still west of the depot. What’s up with this? I was curious about the power and consist; so, I backed away from the track to have a look.
Spartan cab….. huh?
Hopper cars….. huh?
This was a damned freight train! Actually, that was cool by me, but I was upset at myself for allowing myself to be duped in this manner, not to mention misleading the waiting passengers and embarrassing myself in the process.
About this time, The Mathews Foamer arrived. Old Man Tabor was already there.
The lead locomotive on this unexpected eastbound was EMD 9047; the second locomotive was a purplish (or dark blue) NREX (maybe not) SD; the third and fourth locomotives were BNSF 6900-series SD40-2s in Heritage 1. All locomotives were elephant style.
The train eventually proceeded forward, stopped to close the east siding switch, and proceeded. The westbound train didn’t leave; so, we knew that another eastbound train was coming.
Finally, at about 18:42, the #2 arrived — 45 minutes late. Several people boarded, and one young man got off. The train had two locomotives:
- AMTK 11
- AMTK 509
Well, that was an interesting day! As Doctor Diesel noted, it was an amazing month, with snow falling on Christmas Day in southern Louisiana, the Southern Pacific 745 steam locomotive going out for a run on the Kansas City Southern Railway mainline, and an almost-on-time eastbound Sunset Limited!
December 27th, Monday
On this day, I got to see and photograph a train on the Lockport Branch for the first time since March! The Mathews Foamer was with me for most of the day.
This is the former Southern Pacific railroad branchline that extends for about 14 miles down the eastern bank of Bayou Lafourche from Raceland, Louisiana, by this time operated by the Louisiana & Delta Railroad.
At 09:00, LDRR 1805 came into the east leg of the wye at Raceland after arriving from its base at Schriever. There were 11 cement hopper cars on the western leg of the wye, and the crew backed around to grab the cut, brought it forward, then shoved it into the field track at MTI, the cement offloading point.
At 09:50, the train left for Lockport with a lone CSXT boxcar bound for the paper plant in Valentine.
I got the classic shot of it coming around the curve approaching the former US Highway 90 at where the branch meaningfully begins as it diverges from the Raceland industry track.
That is all for the pictures for this photo essay.
At around midday, the train got to Valentine, ran around its boxcar, shoved it into the plant, and pulled two boxcars – one with CN reporting marks and the other with SLGG reporting marks – out of another plant track, and then it left. It wasn’t like the old days when this plant was busy enough that the crew would pull all the outbound cars out onto the run-around track first, only then to shove the inbounds into the plant.
About a year later, this plant was acquired by Dunn Paper, which bought the place to learn its process only to shut it down two years later after it learned the process and did it at its own place Up North somewhere, I think Michigan. I photographed the last railroad delivery to Valentine Paper on Saturday 8 December 2007.
I got some photographs and got muddy like I did last December when I got some shots of this train in the winter sun and then wrote an essay about the event.
Merry Christmas.
December 29th, Wednesday
On this night, as a preview of my awkwardly-timed move to New Orleans the next year, some of my homies, including one who would move to New Orleans with me and from whom I have since drifted away, and I were in New Orleans for a concert of my cousin’s band at Tipitina’s and other assorted tomfoolery. I saw several train movements in this time, which would last into the following day.
19:47 – NOPB at Carrolton and Leake, just outside of Cooter Brown’s
– westbound BNSF Railway manifest train …
- BNSF 6758 – SD40-2
- BNSF 1107 – C44-9W – H1
- BNSF 6383 – SD40-2 – Cascade Green
21:00 – same location, We walked out of Cooter Brown’s and saw …
- BNSF 5467 – C44-9W – H2
- BNSF 7902 – SD40-2 – Cascade Green
- BNSF 4544 – C44-9W – H2
They were parked, and I have typed them west-to-east.
December 30th, Thursday
I guess that this was after the concert had ended, but I really don’t know.
00:31 – west of Cotton Warehouse Yard…
– westbound KCS manifest…
- KCS 650 – WHITE!!!
- KCS 7004
- KCS 624
- KCS 671
– There were three autoracks at the beginning of the train.
02:15 – KCS West Yard
KCS 3433 or 4344 was working a cut of cars. I took my friend around L&A Road to get on the other side to see the locomotives and the passenger cars. There was a CSXT rocket motor car. I stopped to show my friend the car, and a sheriff’s deputy pulled up to inquire what we were doing. He told us we could come back during the day. Huh?
Ain’t I on public property? And it’s not like I can come here every day. Then, I realized it was 02:15 and I had come from a bar. Methinks it might be wise to leave, and my friend, sensible as he was, was urging me to comply; so, that’s what we did. So, I decided not to pass the “local traffic only” sign, made my turnaround there, and left for points eastward.
We crossed the Mississippi River on the Huey P. Long bridge, and, true to form, there was an unidentifiable manifest train waiting at the railroad-east (or south) end waiting to get into Avondale yard.
– UP’s Avondale Yard
There were several locomotives, but all that I wrote was SP 9742. There was also UP 214 and UP 1978 there. The 214 was, at this time, the usual power for the Morgan City local, the LLS51.
At 14:41 this afternoon at Schriever, I saw a westbound train with locomotives I saw on the NOPB last night.
- BNSF 8063 – SD40-2 – Green
- BNSF 2740 – GP30 – Green <<<<<<<<<————- ***
- BNSF 541 – B40-8W – H2
- BNSF 5467 – C44-9W – H2
- BNSF 7902 – SD40-2 – Green
- BNSF 4544 – C44-9W – H2
Note that the last three locomotives were spotted by themselves outside Cooter Brown’s at 21:00 the night before. I had assumed that since they were alone with no train that they would be the power on a stack train, but I guess there was a power imbalance on manifest trains.
All for now.
Conclusion
Yes, that was a special time that just seems so quaint now, before Facebook and other such websites changed the world, before Trumpism, before the bomb was dropped on me, and before I knew that I was autistic.
It was a hopeful time, and that’s what I miss the most about it.
James
