Jimbaux blames you (no, not you), for all the scars he bears.
[This essay was written in March of 2015 shortly after these images were made and is being reposted here because the original article published then was destroyed in a website crash in 2017. What is presented here is the same essay, saved by Wayback Machine, with only the slightest of editing of style and content.]
Obligatory March Pictures
Hello. So that we would not go the entire month of March 2015 without there being a post on Jimbaux’s Journal (and whyever that is important to me), I decided, just as I did last month, that on one day this month, I would get out and take pictures. That day was Saturday 14 March. I still very much enjoy getting out and doing and seeing things, and I still somewhat enjoy taking pictures when I am seeing things, but processing the images and posting the results (along with text) to the internet is a real chore, and I increasingly feel and-or think that my precious time, energy, and creativity would be better spent on many other things; also, here and now in the digital age, I see the act of taking pictures with no intent of publicizing them to be mostly pointless. I want to keep posting new things here occasionally, but I don’t want to become a martyr for this site, and neither do you want me to become one; unnecessary martyrdom is for chumps, as I have learned so very much in the last few years.
9x
Things today did not go as I expected, and for multiple reasons. First, weather forecasts earlier in the week had today being sunny. Well, it got that way later in the day, but it wasn’t that way in the morning when I needed sun rays. Second, since I did not and still do not want to spend much time on this, my plan was to take the lowest-risk course of action and do my usual (well, back in the old days) pattern of trying to intercept morning eastbound trains on the NS Back Belt and in the area around France Yard.
I figured that I’d get about three quick shots in the morning and call it a day, off to do other things. That is not at all how it happened! The primary reason for this seems to be that there were no morning eastbound trains, at least by the time that I got out, which was around 09:00. My inability to get those envisioned morning images of eastbound trains combined with my unwillingness to postpone my March picture-taking day led me to relatively desperate searches of something to photograph, and, in doing so, I ended up with nine times the number of pictures – all presented here – than I envisioned getting!
Just Like Brian Williams
There were three westbound trains parked on the Back Belt, and they began to move once the westbound Sunset Limited got over the river, meaning that, assuming that nothing would sneak out of Mays Yard headed my way, my hopes for eastbound trains were now officially dashed. Dashing back-and-forth along the length of the Back Belt, I finally noticed a group of neighborhood people gazing upon the roofs of one of their houses. So, I doubled back to have a look for myself. Imagine my surprise when I saw this.
Yeah, again, this was not expected! I suddenly am taken back to my days at ITESM.
The homeowner across the street, a man named Troy, said that the peacock has been in this neighborhood since shortly after Hurricane Katrina and that he had contacted the Audubon Society about the neighborhood peacock.
There was no peahen anywhere to be found around here; so, we were wondering to whom this peacock thought that he was advertising himself.
We are on Abundance Street between Paris Avenue and Bruxelles Street.
Well, that was certainly interesting, and things have not gone according to expectations, but I hope that this is not all for pictures today. I hope that I get a decent train picture; if not, how else will I justify posting the link to this article on the foamer forums? Ah, I’m so transparent, ain’t I?
Just Like That
I returned to France Road, munched on a little bit of food, and did a few things on my new tablet computer, which is a great thing to have. Soon, something happened; a New Orleans Public Belt Railroad crew called the CSX yardmaster about crossing the mainline to be able to head north on the little industrial branchline on the western bank of the Inner-Harbor Navigational Canal. Well, I guess that I have an assignment.
I am just, as many of you know, no fan of light power moves, but there was hope that since this locomotive did not have far to go it would return soon with some cars.
I like the boxcars in the yard. Below is perhaps my shot of the day, or at least my railroad-related shot of the day.
That is France Road that the locomotive is crossing.
Do I chase it? Or do I stay put? Or do I put the camera away for the day? With eight images already, I will already have trouble getting this post completed on the same day that the pictures are taken. Well, I guess you will see what I decided!
What Is So “Ideal” About It?
Heck if I know. Anyway, here comes the locomotive.
Yes, this is very much an “industrial branchline” area!
Pedestrians beware.
The crew’s assignment was to pull five cars – presumably empty – from the Holcim plant.
I wonder if a foreign-owned company feels more of a need to fly the US flag, even a tattered one, as if there is some fear that potential customers will fear that the company will be subversive to the host country.
I don’t know, but we finally have a real train here.
So much for idealism.
Blocked By The CSX
The NOPB job had to wait a little while to get home because a CSX job was held out across the branchline.
Of all pictures in this set, this one picture, not as good as other pictures taken at about this location and in this direction, is the closest thing to what I expected to photograph today.
Leaving The Ideal Behind
Our NOPB job comes home.
That’s nice. Now, let’s get out of here, but what is this?
Is there a way – and a reason – to drag an “E” up two lines?
Parked
Hours later, after a haircut and a visit to Guitar Center, I’m back by – and now at – City Park, and I got yet another unintended catch. As I often have reason to say, I am here, and so is the train.
I occasionally get asked by people who learn of my like of trains if I ever photograph the City Park train; I guess that I can no longer answer “no” to that question.
Yeah, things don’t always happen according to expectations.
Turning back, we see the train rounding the curve near the southeastern corner of NOMA.
Once again, while I am here, I’ll photograph something interesting right before me.
Okay, that is enough of that.
Momentum
For some reason, all of that was just not enough for me. Or, more accurately, I’ve been frontin’, but that is another story entirely, and a damned long one at that, one that I won’t be able to begin to tell until 2016, given the way that things seem now. Bah!
Anyway, the point of all of this is that since today was my designated March picture day, and since I was not satisfied with the sum total of what you have heretofore seen in this article, I decided that a trip to Avondale was in order.
Polyglot Visitors
Imagine my surprise when I saw this set of power at the “diesel shop” at the Union Pacific Railroad yard.
What in the heck is this? Well, I learned what these things are, but I don’t know why they are here. Randy Keller says this:
AEX 100001 GP40 (EMD 38560, 7/71, 7340-16, ex-ISRR 4042, ex-ISRR 6835, ex-CSXT 6835, nee-C&O 4080)
AEX 100005 GP40-2L (GMD A-3068, 9/74, C-365, ex-SCRF 9490, nee-CN 9490)
AEX 100007 GP40-2L (GMD A-3456, 1/77, C-396, ex-KRR 9661, ex-RMPX 9661, nee-CN 9661)
AEX 100015 SW1200 (EMD 18962, 12/53, 6524-4, ex-NOLR 1237, ex-TNER 1237, ex-SDIV 1237, ex-ATSF SSB1200 1237, nee-ATSF SW9 2437)These were leased to Railtex by Railcar, Ltd. and sold to The Andersons in February 2004. The leases continued with RailAmerica and then Genesee & Wyoming, who returned them to The Andersons. These have been stored in Gastonia, NC and have likely been sold to someone.
Thanks, Mr. Keller.
More than four digits on a locomotive number is just weird.
Well, that last one looks familiar!
Yes, it is near its former home rails, as it is formerly of the New Orleans & Lower Coast Railway! Apparently, it had left the property by the time of my 2005 move to Whoadieville; it was in North Carolina less than two months ago.
Let’s have a head-on look at the set while a UP power set arrives.
Okay.
An Appropriate End of Today’s Photography
While I am here, I might as well see what is happening a couple of miles to the west in Waggaman, and I got lucky. At first, I thought that what I was hearing (on the radio) and seeing was the Chip Local, but it was the Luling Local; apparently, in my absence from foaming, I forgot the difference between the LLD51 and the LLD56! Here is a picture of the latter.
Quickly, I mounted the truck, because I still can, and got this image.
Well, even though the afternoon lighting is just starting to get good, it is time to put away the camera for the day – and probably for the rest of the month – and get out of here and go do something else.
Until April And-Or May . . . .
In order to maintain the make-at-least-one-article-per-month practice, I will not need to take the camera out until at least May, since I have a nice anniversarial article for April that you probably will like [which were the April 1st and April 2nd date sets from my Spring Break 2012 Eastern Great Plains Road Trip series that I published in its entirety in 2022, with all freshly-processed images, on the ten-year anniversary of the trip]; actually, I might not even need to take out the camera in May in order to maintain the make-at-least-one-article-per-month practice, since I might do another one of these articles with scanned old slides and cell-phone pictures like the one that I did last May.
Now that I am once again healthy enough to do so (and very grateful for my renewed, mostly-good health, even though I am still unable to shed nearly all of the weight that I gained in late 2014 due to back problems, which is causing other problems), I may resume fishing again. If so, I may get some shots when I am out on the water, but only if I decide to lug camera gear around with me in a boat.
Work and musical projects have basically duopolized my schedule for the rest of 2015, to the point that I do not see how I will be able to consistently process and publicize my 2005 pictures once the anniversaries for them come; I “went digital” in July 2005, and for more than a year now, I have – or had – been intending to make decennial blog postings on the 10-year anniversary dates of each set of pictures (and continue the practice into 2016 for 2006 pictures), but the idea of spending all of the time and effort to make that happen fills me with dread. Anyway, we shall see what happens; perhaps, after I get the April post out, I can start working on the 2005 pictures in order to spread the work out, so that by July, when the posts would start, there won’t be so much work to do. I don’t know.
So, until April when we take a trip back in time, and until May when the Jimbaux of 2015 will have something to say again, I bid you peace,
Merci,
Jimbaux
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
1Nitro March 18, 2015 at 23:19
Awesome , love the bird eerrrr peacock on the roof . As always , great article .
2Brian Frierdich March 19, 2015 at 07:36
Enjoy the blogs even if they aren’t 100% train oriented. Maybe a shot or two of your fishing hole in May? Catch of the day (You know that 3/4 pound bass that was one heck of a fighter!) Get a simple point and shoot to keep in the tackle box. That way you still have something without “lugging” out the big boy and all the lens.
As always, thanks for sharing from your corner of the world!
Brian
3Brian Frierdich March 19, 2015 at 07:46
As far as the Flag goes. Talk to someone there and let them know its a disgrace and offer to take it and burn it. Or take it to a local Boy Scout Troop so they can burn it in one of their ceremonies. We did this in our troop once a year on Flag Day. WOW that was 35 years ago!
Brian
Okaw Valley
Dupo, Il Troop 630
4Mid City Marine March 19, 2015 at 16:49
Once again you have photographed a sight I had not seen in all my rears living in NOLA – a train using the tracks north of I-10 on the Industrial Canal. Great catch with that.
It is nice to see that at least one of the City Park Train locomotives has been refurbished. I have not seen the train since Katrina. The last time I saw it, in Summer 2005, one locomotive was running; another was disassembled, either awaiting repair or being used as a parts source for the one running. A third one may have been in storage. The one that was operating had its large driver wheels removed several years before, so it always looked a little strange going down the tracks. The actual driving wheels are under the tender where the driver sat, so the large wheels were only for looks.
Sad to see the ex-NOLR in such a sad looking state of repair. If I remember correctly, The Godfather won a competition and created the paint scheme it still wears. I think he was responsible for the purple color of the NOLR/NOCG “Barney” as well.
I got some pics of the water fowl in City Park’s lagoons when I was down there for Mardi Gras. They were out in abundance. Whenever we take a trip to NOLA, we go to the park and visit our wedding tree, a very old Live Oak near the fountain on the City Park Avenue side. I have been told it is probably more than 300 years old, once part of the Allard Plantation.
Nice pics, Whoadie.
5Barry LeBoeuf March 19, 2015 at 17:57
Jimbeaux,
as always, enjoyed the post. I thought there for a second you were back in Schriever, when I saw the peacock. Back in the day…there use to be a number of Peacocks at Wauban Labs, next to the depot in Schriever. I woke many a time listening to the call of those damn birds. Anyway enjoyed the photo’s.
later
Barry
6Nancy Hudson March 20, 2015 at 12:01
Nice to see the pics again. Who’s feeding the bird? I have a friend who wants to take a train ridr from Hammond to where ever and back. I was so sick of riding on trains after using them nearly every 2 weeks back and forth to and from college for 4 years that I said no. Maybe I would like to ride one again.
Hope you don’t mind if I email this to my sister. She’s into shooting birds and not trains, but she’d love the peacock.
Hugs, Nancy
