Warming Whoadie
Greetings, and welcome to the April 2006 Sampler essay.
As shown in the “March 2006 Sampler” essay, I ended the month of March 2006 in the valley of the Potomac River. It was for work reasons, and I did get back to Whoadieville on, I think, the First of April, and, then, I got sick and was very busy with work for the first two weeks of April until spring break, which is why my first pictures of the month were not until the 13th, Holy Thursday. I had barely even listened to the railroad radio in all that time.
Thursday, The 13th
The description here is slightly amended from something that I wrote in April 2006 when I emailed pictures of this train to friends.
On this night, Holy Thursday, I was on my way back to Cajun country for the first time in more than a month. I would spend most of the Easter holiday there. I hadn’t done any serious train-chasing or photography in nearly two months, and I was hoping to finally change that.
Shortly before 18:00 Thursday, I left the crib for the farm. I turned on the radio as I got in the truck. Literally, not even before I pulled out of the ghetto did I hear the dispatcher talking to an “SP 324 west” at Live Oak! WTF? There is still such a thing? Holy smokes! I’ve got to get this. I can’t let this slip pass me no matter how sick and achy I feel. This might be my last chance ever to get a shot of an unpatched Southern Pacific railroad locomotive leading a road train.
I became very impatient as I maneuvered my way through the traffic jam that is Harvey. He was already at Live Oak Junction, which meant he was a good way farther west than I was. I wondered how I could get ahead of him. There’s just no way I’m going to let him get past me without a fight. Soon, I head the dispatcher tell him that he would go into the hole at Salix to meet one, an eastbound BNSF train. Great! Now I should be able to get ahead of him. Furthermore, I surmised that it might be a big, heavy train like the MNOHO, and it might be underpowered too. I quickly phoned The Railgoat, KP984, The Cajun Porkchop, and Perry to alert them of what they might see. The Railgoat actually had sent me a text message earlier in the day to tell me that the SP 9742 was the power on the LLS51. What, is today ‘SP Day’ or something? I surely won’t complain!
I then phoned Saint Jude hoping that he might alert me to any traffic problems around Avondale, Boutte, or Paradís. I was prepared to take River Road for part of the way if I had to do so, but I couldn’t reach Saint Jude in time anyway.
I got to Avondale and got bogged down in traffic, but not for as long as I had feared. I then hauled some serious tail to Boutte where I again got stopped in traffic as I expected. While there, I heard the detector at MP 22 go off with 544 axles; I must be right behind him! And, with 544 axles, that’s a heavy train. Once I got past Paradís, I proceeded with reckless abandon west on Highway 90 hoping to scoop my train. The truck hadn’t moved that fast in a long time. Where is my train? I still don’t see it.
I knew all along that the first place to get a decent shot of this train would be at milepost 39 on the eastern side of Raceland. As late as it was getting now, I realized that this would be my only shot of this train, and only if I beat it there in the first place. There wasn’t much daylight left. The shot at Raceland isn’t that great, but I was prepared to take what I could get of this rare treat.
As I crossed Bayou Des Allemands, I looked to the north at the train bridge and was dismayed to still see no train. However, just as soon as I crossed into Lafourche Parish, the fatherland, I saw the tail end of the train. Yeehaaaa! Laughing, cajoling, hootin’ and hollerin’ — I was doing it all and hadn’t felt that thrilled in a long time. Sick? For a moment, I felt thrilled, rejuvenated, invigorated, reinvigorated. Heck yes; this is great! The fastest stretch of highway yet on the journey was just between me and my destination at the 39. I hauled some tail and got ahead of the train, but I didn’t see the head end to verify if it was indeed my train.
I got to milepost 39 and was so happy to be there amongst the harvested sugar cane fields for the first time in a long time. I spied a headlight to the east. I guess that that’s my train. Comint soon revealed that this was indeed my train and that he was going into the hole in Raceland for a meet with another eastbound BNSF train.
I got set up for a shot and was surprised to have to wait nearly ten minutes. As it turns out, he was coasting because he had to stop and wait in Raceland anyway. I guess I didn’t need to move so fast to get here after all. At 19:03, just as the sun was about to sink into the trees, I got my shot. You can tell how low the sun is; look at the rail on the right side and you can see the shadows of the wheels on the other rail! Yes, that’s some really low-angle sun there.
This ain’t a great shot, but I know that it could have been my last-ever shot of a unpatched big SP locomotive leading a train (and, as best as I can tell, it was.) So, I’ll gladly take it. Oh, and it turned out to be the MNOHO (Manifest – New Orleans to Houston) just as I had suspected.
A few minutes after I took the shot, the sun was gone for the day. I made my return to Schriever just to watch him pass through at 20:38. This was my first time photographing trains on the Lafayette Sub since March 1, and it was indeed a day well spent.
Friday, The 14th
On this Good Friday, I went to JB’s house to hang out with Saint Jude. We ate meat, turkey, as I recall, I took a picture of one of the cats there, and, then, I went foaming, back when foaming in the area was still pretty good.
Here is a going-away shot of an eastbound BNSF Railway freight train.
I would later get a shot of the eastbound Amtrak Sunset Limited arriving at the Schriever depot that evening.
Saturday, The 15th
Here on Holy Saturday is another MNOHO with interesting lead power, this time in Schriever.
That is the NS 8200 still in Conrail Blue paint.
Monday, The 17th
On this Easter Monday, I got the Chip Local train at Schriever coming eastbound.
Notice the unpatched SP 9742!
Saturday, The 22nd
We had a big railroad-enthusiast gathering in New Iberia, back when people used to do such things, back when the railroad scene there was more interesting. Twenty years later, I think plenty about the ways in which society has changed.
Here, LDRR 2000 and LDRR 2009 bring five Abbeville-bound hopper cars from the interchange yard to the Runaround Track on the Midland Branch in New Iberia.
I miss the “UTAH RAILWAY” paint scheme on the LDRR 2009, and I miss the “COTTON BELT” lettering on the old-school hopper cars. Things haven’t gotten better.
Wednesday, The 26th
Here is a New Orleans & Gulf Coast Railway empty grain train leaving Gouldsboro Yard with the UP power with which it had arrived there when the cars were loaded, on their way to Myrtle Grove.
This is one of the last times that I would photograph an NOGC grain train with its road power. The practice would stop within the next year or so.
Saturday, The 29th
For some reason, there was some normal-looking NOGC action on this Saturday. Here are NOGC 1039 and NOGC 1036 pulling a train from Belle Chasse westbound at Barataria Road in Marrero.
Typically, the only NOGC weekend action is grain trains or special moves for customers, which this may have been.
That is all for the month of April 2006.
Merci,
Jbx
