So crawl inside
My head with me
I'll show you how
It feels to be
To blame like me.
A New Urban, Away-From-Home Life, And Boomeranging Back
Greetings, and welcome to the November 2005 Sampler essay. Previously, in the “October 2005 Sampler” essay, I showed scenes from southeastern Louisiana and Rich Mountain, in Arkansas and Oklahoma, and I mentioned that, prior to Hurricane Katrina, I was scheduled to move into an apartment in the metro New Orleans area on September 1st and that Katrina pushed this back to November 1st.
At this time, much of New Orleans was a horrible mess. Meanwhile, on the West Bank, life was beginning to look a tad bit more normal.
This was a hugely consequential month for me, someone who has a hypersensitivity to experience. I remember when Saint Jude came over to my apartment for the first time, as Staind’s “Schizophrenic Conversations” was playing on my PC. That really sticks out in my mind, I associate that song (and that album) with that time, and what poisons that memory is that time has revealed Aaron Lewis to be quite a bigot.
So, it was quite a momentous, memorable personal time, and the retrospective recontextualization of it is quite intense.
Let’s get on with the pictures.
Friday, the 11th
Yeah, I guess that moving into the apartment preoccupied me such that my first pictures weren’t until more than a third of the way into the month.
This is a westbound New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway train, led by NOGC 505 and NOGC 1036, crossing the Harvey Canal. I then went to the football game and took many pictures there.
Saturday, The 12th
I went home for the weekend.
Here is a westbound train at Chacahoula.
I had photographed the train at Horseshoe Road in Schriever, too, and the engineer was smoking a cigarette. That’s rude.
Sunday, The 13th
I may have been on my way back to Whoadieville when I made this image of the Mountain Laurel 14 and two tank cars at Schriever.
I miss that paint scheme, and I miss home.
Wednesday, The 16th
Here I am back on the NOGC west of the Harvey Canal.
The NOGC 504 is preparing to work Kinder-Morgan with the cars with which it just arrived.
Thursday, The 17th
This is my first picture along the Norfolk Southern Railway north of Oliver Yard.
That may be a northbound train leaving or switching the yard.
Friday, The 18th
I photographed UP 614 and a cut of cars at Avondale Garden Road. Then, I went to meet the gang at Miss Booties.
I have been reflecting on that night now that I know that I am autistic.
Saturday, The 19th
School had ended for the Thanksgiving holiday. So, I headed home, a pattern that now, in vicennial retrospect, knowing that I am autistic, makes so much sense.
In the morning at CTC Live Oak, I photographed CSXT 8505 leading a train eastbound on the Livonia Subdivision in Waggaman. Not long thereafter, the Chip Local train came through, with UP 1353 and five cars, including three gondola cars loaded with pipe.
Later, I was in Schriever, and there was a westbound train in the siding.
Sunday, The 20th
I had my Sunday morning worship service in Schriever.
There was a large Liftking product on its side in a depressed-center flatcar at the western end of the East Storage Track.
Monday, The 21st
I think that I was very much hoping that the Lockport Branch would be served on this date, but the Louisiana & Delta Railroad train SC1 didn’t go south of Raceland on this day. I took some pictures of it in action there, with the Mountain Laurel 14 as power, and then I chased trains on the Lafayette Subdivision for much of the rest of the day.
That is Union Pacific Railroad train LLS51 with UP 9990 as power working Patterson Tubular, probably with Chip Ledet as conductor.
Tuesday, The 22nd
On this day, I started at home on the bayou, photographed the SC1 with the ML 14 as power westbound at Chacahoula, then went to the Westbank and photographed a westbound New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway train led by NOGC 505 and NOGC 1036 passing a parked NOGC train along 4th Street in Harvey, then photographed SP 7128 acting as manned rear-end helper on the end of an eastbound train ascending Huey P. Long Bridge in Bridge City before stumbling on an amazing find at Avondale.
I decided to chase what I saw 30 miles back west to the bayou.
That is BNSF Railway train M-NWOLAL westbound, led by BNSF 3152 still in Burlington Northern’s Whiteface paint scheme, a rather awesome catch!
Wednesday, The 23rd
On this day before Thanksgiving, I photographed L&D train SC1 with Mountain Laurel 14 as power crossing Bayou Des Allemands westbound. Then, I photographed it coming around the wye at Raceland after it had grabbed hopper cars for MTI.
That scene was later fouled by that monstrous crude-oil terminal scarring the landscape. Yes, things should stay like they were when I was young and never change.
Finally, on this evening, there was, for the second consecutive day, a westbound train led by a spartan-cab locomotive still in a Burlington Northern Railroad paint scheme, this one BNSF 7029 in the regular Cascade Green scheme with nose stripes.
I was disappointed that the Lockport Branch was not served this week, but, otherwise, I made a great use of my Thanksgiving-Week break.
Friday, The 25th
On this day after Thanksgiving, we see Amtrak’s eastbound Sunset Limited stopping at the depot at Schriever.
This train met its westbound counterpart here on this date.
Saturday, The 26th
This is about when Waggaman started to become a common weekend-morning trainspotting location for me. Here, we see SP 7128 with a train, perhaps the Luling Local train, on the Drill Extension track.
Then, a southbound CSX-bound ballast train crossed over from Livonia Subdivision to Avondale Subdivision at CTC Live Oak. The CSX line between New Orleans and Mobile still had not opened after Hurricane Katrina, and CSX had to take ballast from both sides of the line.
Sunday, The 27th
On this morning, I am once again at Live Oak.
This is UP train QLINSB – Livonia, Louisiana, to Norfolk Southern Railway with a Birmingham block – moving through the crossover from the Livonia Subdivision toward the Avondale Subdivision at CTC Live Oak.
I had just started doing this shot, which would later become a regular shot of mine, and didn’t quite get the framing right on the left side of the image.
I photographed the train again at Willswood.
That is all for November 2005. Stay tuned for a quintessential winter-solstice train-picture festival for the next month!
Jim
