My Post-Katrina Life Takes Shape
Greetings, and welcome to the October 2005 Sampler essay, which chronologically follows the “September 2005 Sampler” essay, which showed nothing but images from a trip to southern California during my personal downtime between Hurricane Katrina striking and the return to work after the storm.
This essay, like that one, shows some scenes of needed travel, that being my first trip to Rich Mountain with a digital SLR camera. It also shows some explorations in new areas in the metropolitan New Orleans area.
At the time, I was staying some weeknights with colleagues, waiting for the apartment that I was supposed to start occupying on September 1st to be ready since Katrina pushed back the availability. I would move in on November 1st.
There were not many trains on the Lafayette Subdivision at this time, largely because the CSX east of New Orleans was out of service and would be so until, as I recall, the following February, but there was also the matter that BNSF security forces were present at Schriever because it was the easternmost point on the line that was easily accessible; the presence of security forces there was quite jarring to me. The Sunset Limited was not running into New Orleans at this time.
Still, the patterns that would define my life for the next at-least five years, to a lesser degree, for the next 10 years, and, to an even lesser degree, for the next 15 years, were taking shape. So, in a sense, this was the final formation of Jimbaux.
Saturday, The 8th
It was more than a week into October that I took out my camera to take any pictures for the first time since the California trip in mid September.
There was a grass fire, maybe a marsh fire, west of Raceland, and I stopped along US Highway 90 to photograph it.
Sunday, The 9th
I think that this was the first time that I went to the Sonic in Thibodaux, which I think had recently opened.
I vaguely remember that at least part of the reason that I took the pictures was the sense of the encroachment of structures into what had theretofore been sugarcane fields, as the land on which the Sonic was built had recently been, and that the land on either side of the Sonic, still then sugarcane fields, would not be sugarcane fields for much longer.
I got that hunch correct.
Tuesday, The 11th
On this Tuesday afternoon in October in the post-Katrina universe, I got what are, as best as I can tell, my first-ever action pictures or even static pictures of and on the New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway.
This is East Harvey. By early 2013, all of the GP7s were off of the property for good.
Saturday, The 15th
On this date, I went and explored what remained of the former Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad line north of Baton Rouge, but it ended up being a wild-goose chase.
My goal on this morning was chasing Canadian National Railway’s Zee Job – train L-585 – for the first time in almost two years, and any pictures that I got of it on this day would have been my first digital images of trains on this line.
I lacked credible information about current operations, which would dissuade any sane person from embarking on such a mission. However, I figured that this day would be a good day to chase wild geese, high gasoline prices be damned. I had just been very stressed lately and needed to do things like this.
I rolled out of bed at 04:56, and rolled out of the driveway at about 05:50. It wasn’t until after 07:00 that I arrived at the IC overpass of U.S. Highway 190, and I hoped that I hadn’t missed the train’s passage. I quickly made my way to Scotlandville where I got next to the tracks. I paced the tracks northward and got into Zachary well before 08:00. I was recalling the three times that I had chased the L-585 before; it was well after 08:00 when the train passed Zachary those times.
I went to the firehouse next to the tracks, and one of the firefighters there told me that he was certain that the train had not passed yet on this day. He said that it usually passed there around 08:15, and it was about 08:10 when he said this. Hey; this sounds good. I asked if the train passed on Saturdays, and he said that he was on duty there the previous Saturday and didn’t remember the train passing then. Crap! It looked like this is going to turn into the wild goose chase that I feared that it would.
I headed back south, pacing the tracks the whole way, and I got all the way to the CN-IC North Baton Rouge Yard. I began considering aborting the mission altogether and heading to the bridge to see what sort action I could find there. I went back north, but when I got to the U.S. Highway 190 intersection, I decided to abort the abortion and continued going north back to from where I came. I wanted to make sure that the L-585 didn’t sneak out while I was around the yard. I figured that it was a lost cause altogether, but I wanted to see picturesque Slaughter for the first time in two years even if there were no trains there.
No train. No train. No train. It was the same when I got to Slaughter. The right-of-way was silent. I don’t remember the time, but it was probably around 10:00, maybe after. A wild goose chase it indeed had been.
Not only was it bad that there was no train this Saturday, but the thought that it was a sign that the line might be on hard times – which could lead to abandonment – was worse.
Despite the seemingly depressing state of the line, I decided to take the time to explore the area. I got out at the park and walked around, scoping out shots, including southbound shots.
Many of us have photographed the L-585, but in all the group trips that we had here, we only got the northbound run in the morning. Perhaps this was partly because the return trip is too unpredictable. The firefighter in Zachary told me that the return trip usually passes Zachary between 17:15 and 18:30.
This was the first time that I had ever gone to Slaughter and not been chasing a train. Not being in a hurry allowed me to explore the area a bit more. I soon picked up a piece of intel that suggested that things may not have been as bad as they seemed, aside from my being there on a morning that the train did not run. For the first time, I ventured north of the Louisiana Highway 412 intersection on Louisiana Highway 19.
North of Highway 412, the ex-IC mainline becomes the Gloster Southern Railroad. However, that railroad is a Georgia Pacific railroad that had not seen action in about two years, almost three. We had been fearing that it would be abandoned, and the fact that the L-585 wasn’t out this morning made things worse.
However, we had recently learned that the Georgia Pacific mill in Gloster, Mississippi, would soon reopen, apparently as a result of surging demand in the wake of the two hurricanes which have devastated our area.
I saw some Maintenance-Of-Way equipment working the line. It appeared to be a ballast-spreader of some sort. There were blades at an angle extending from the area between the rails to the area past the crossties.
So, that was fun, I guess, but not satisfying in the way that I had hoped.
Later on, I met up with Mr Midsouth 1069 and family at Lobdell, and we went to the south side of the bridge on the west bank where we saw Union Pacific Railroad’s Bridge job go up the bridge with five locomotives. The train had 101 cars. Included among them was a block of 13 Canadian Pacific Railway 89-foot flat cars loaded to great height with very large pipes, perhaps two feet in diameter.
Well, at least I got to photograph one train today, though not the one that I wanted.
I went farther south and got to Donaldsonville. I scoped out what was left of the old Texas & Pacific Railway branch to Thibodaux. The last time that I had checked – a few years ago – there was still trackage to the Lula-Westfield sugar mill near Paincourtville. I pulled up to a crossing just out of Donaldsonville and noticed the track overgrown with weeds. That’s not good. However, I got to the mill in Lula, and saw seven tank cars parked on the old “main” line past the switch to the mill. There were also a few more (maybe four or five) tank cars at the loader at the mill.
The line has since been abandoned.
Sunday, The 16th
On this day, I had a Sunday Sermon at Schriever, and, by this time, I guess that the security forces had vacated the premises that they had begun to occupy shortly after and because of Katrina.
This appears to be my first post-Katrina picture at Schriever.
I miss those Sunday sermons. Being prohibited from visiting what is sacred ground to me was jarring.
I then had to go to Donaldsonville to meet Mr MidSouth 1069 there because he had accidentally left his keys in my truck the day before.
While I was in Donaldsonville, I took some pictures of locomotives parked there.
I enjoyed my drives to and from Donaldsonville on this day.
Monday, The 17th
On this day, I wrote to Miguel, about the possibility of going to Rich Mountain at the end of the month:
“Oh, money is not much of a factor. I can afford this one. Or, perhaps it is better to say that what I would gain from the trip would justify the cost without a doubt. I’m just excited about the digital images that I could create; they’d certainly add some variety to my digital library, which, oddly, still includes practically nothing around Schriever due to the effects of Katrina.”
Yes! I went digital in early July, and I took plenty of pictures up to this point in October, but almost none of them were action shots of trains in Schriever! That would change before the end of the month.
On this afternoon, however, I made my first photographs of a New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway train and what probably are my first pictures in Algiers!
This was an empty grain train coming from Myrtle Grove, and I photographed it at Perry Street in Gretna.
I then got around it to get the second saw-by at the downriver throat of the yard in Algiers.
Wednesday, The 19th
This is Schriever.
I was still making a grueling commute on most days.
Thursday, The 20th
On this afternoon, I made my first images of New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway switching at the Oak-Point refinery in Belle Chasse and what must be my first pictures in Plaquemines Parish at all.
I might be able to count on one hand the number of times that I have returned there since then, even though one of those times would be later this same month!
Friday, The 21st
I went to – or passed by – Avondale on this afternoon. I shot a westbound – railroad northbound – train at George Street. Then, I got it again at Live Oak in Waggaman.
I think that that was my first time doing that shot! See, this is a time when I first did many of what became my metropolitan-New-Orleans-area classic shots!
Saturday, The 22nd
On this day, in great late-October lighting, I caught a westbound train with a fairly-clean Warbonnet locomotive leading. This is BNSF Railway train M-NWOLAL at Schriever, and it appears to be my first action railroad photograph at Schriever post-Katrina.
He had to take the siding at Berwick, which, along with optimal lighting, allowed me to get a decent shot there that I don’t think that I have been able to replicate since.
Sunday, The 23rd
On this day, I chased Union Pacific Railroad train MNOHO from Schriever to Saint Mary Parish.
That is a shot of him at Calumet.
The MNOHO was a cool train, with a high density of railroad-owned cars.
Monday, The 24th
On this day, I returned to Plaquemines Parish.
That appears to be some New Orleans & Lower Coast Railway trackage under repair, apparently from Katrina damage.
I returned to the Chevron-Texaco refinery and got a few more pictures of switching there.
Tuesday, The 25th
This appears to have been the first day after Katrina that I entered the non-Algiers portion of the city of New Orleans; at least, it’s the first pictures that I have of the non-Algiers portion of the city. For several weeks after Katrina, no one without some sort of credentials, the sort of credentials that I lacked, was allowed into the city.
Here I was at City Park, which looked like a desert and had dead animals and campers in it.
I then got my first-digital train picture on the NS Back Belt line, and what appears to have been my first picture on the Back Belt since my first picture on the Back Belt on 17 April 2004.
Wednesday, The 26th
I took a picture of what appeared to be some vandalism on Mrs Zimmerman’s automobile.
Then, I went foaming, I guess on the way home.
Here is a picture of a northbound UP train on the Livonia Subdivision at CTC Live Oak.
I love the standard cab!
Friday, The 28th
Now, here is the Rich Mountain trip! This was an amazing trip. One of the ways that I justified the trip, which is to say, the expense of the trip, is that this was still the Kansas City Southern Railway for which it was very common to see “Standard Cab” locomotives leading trains. This was when the first order of EMD SD70ACes was starting to arrive; so, I knew that this was one of my last opportunities to see the old “Standard Cab” KCS, and that was correct.
I shot some Kiamichi Railroad action in Ashdown. Then, I met up with a friend in Vandervoort, where we saw a parked ballast train with some neat power, but the picture that I am sharing from this day is of some visitors that he had at Vandervoort.
They were friendly!
Saturday, The 29th
Here is Kansas City Southern Railway train G-ADIM northbound at Stapp, Oklahoma, with what appears to be a few non-grain cars – a few “shorts” – added to the train.
I like the DM&E/IC&E power!
Sunday, The 30th
On this day, I got high. We were in Vandervoort, with me on my way home, and there were several northbound trains approaching. I shot one from ground level and was unsatisfied with the result. There was a solution next to us, a very-climbable tree.
So, I did.
That is the M-NOKC, New Orleans to Kansas City. My friend said that he was impressed with my chimpanzee-like abilities.
Well, that’s all for this episode. I’d return to work the next day, and get the key to the apartment the day after, a new chapter of my life starting. You’ll see glimpses of that in the upcoming “November 2005 Sampler” essay.
Stay tuned!
Jim
