This 2013 ride started as a train chase, a demented practice I really enjoy..
Chasing trains combines my riding and photography "skills".
There I go expecting universal interpretation.
One use of quotation marks is to portray sarcasm, ie, really meaning the opposite of what is said.
I'm also excessively competitive.
No quotation marks.
I'm not real good at photography or riding, understanding my limitations,
so falling short is not an ego buster.
Doing somewhat OK is paramount to winning a door prize.
At the conclusion of this ride I reflected that it had netted more than a cookbook signed by
the late La.State Demonstration Agent, Luceindra Novastat,
the last door prize I had won.
the last door prize I had won.
In actuality, it didn't.
The historical find was a bust, but the chase was not.
The historical find was a bust, but the chase was not.
The ride report starts below this shot, the last one of the ride,
so if you want to skip what is to come,
here's your chance.
so if you want to skip what is to come,
here's your chance.
At a lonely rail crossing in the depths of the Atchafalaya Basin, I stopped and thought about what I should do. I was a long way from home and in a place I only visit two or three times a week.
I wanted to make the best of this opportunity because I wouldn't be back this way for a few days.
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The shot below is of personal importance.
"610.99" is the railroad mile marker.
Possibly you can't imagine its importance.
The quotation marks do not portray sarcasm here.
An explanation, later.
The Union Pacific RR is important.
La.975 is important.
"East Krotz" Springs is historically very important.
Railroads do not discard History as easily as most entities.
For instance, the hamlet on US 71, named "Morrow", was once referred to as "Morrows".
Today's railroad dispatchers still use that version.
Back to La. 975, it's gravel. No, I'm not interested in "its grave"
but the fact that it is a gravel road and you, if on a bike, should be, also.
If you are in a car, write off your windshield because, honestly,
it's far from "lonely".
There are more gravel numbered Louisiana highways than most know.
La. has no prejudice when it comes to numbering all surfaces.
Over in Lafourche Bayou country, a dirt road is numbered.
Why? If its numbered then it gets "state maintenance".
State maintenance can be handy in keeping up Representative L'Corrupt's property road.
Naming dirt or gravel roads, before the late 1930's, was probably the norm, them being the norm.
In the 1940's Federal Writer's Project : Louisiana [my memory of the title is close],
"a gravel road" is a common description. The fact that it was a description means
that hard surfacing was coming along, otherwise it would be described as being just a road.
Descriptions can have deep meanings and deceptive at the same time.
This may seem like a train chase, but in reality, it may be a clue to the meaning of life.
Read on and reap.
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If you can guess which bridge this is, I'll send you one of Ms.Novestat's cookbooks,
the edition containing "Cecelia Chocolate Cake", a hotter than Hell concoction
containing large portions of Tabasco, red and black pepper with a pound of garlic", yum.
I have had the "pleasure".
It was served after 9:00 PM when I and the other victims were fairly sauced and herbally very hungry.
There is no antidote but time and time only transfers the pain south, the chocolate liquefying
the remains which actually produce smoke and a burning smell uncommon to any description.
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Hints:
If you were where I was you were doing one of three or four things.
One, you were probably going to the shooting range.
Two, you may have been going to your camp down by Interstate 10.
Three, you were lost.
Forth and least likely, you were waiting for a train to come around that bend.
I wait a lot and often they never come.
I have adopted meditation and yoga as an unfulfilling pass time.
Since it didn't, again, I went to Lottie where finding a train is a lot more likely since there is this really big
train yard nearby.
Instead, I found something else and a train.
The "something else", I believed was monumental. Now I don't.
I wish I'd never solicited information. Reality is a bummer.
Fantasy is fun.
Quotations can also be used to emphasize a group of words as an entity.
I wish I'd never solicited information. Reality is a bummer.
Fantasy is fun.
Quotations can also be used to emphasize a group of words as an entity.
The railroad crossing the swamp between East Krotz Springs and Lottie had taken
two historically different routes. I had thought I had found where the original route had come into Lottie,
at the depot.
at the depot.
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No, they were not the side track.shown above.
I was at the La. Hwy. 81 crossing.
These rails were at an angle going southwest, away from the present mainline.
This is a conflicting problem. I know this map does not represent the pre -1958 rail arrangement.
This explains the angle and shows you where East Krotz Springs is.
Note, the present day rails follow what was La.7, US 190, back in the day.
The streets of Lottie tell the tale.
I just had a though while thinking outside of the "railroad box".
That didn't work.
I'm not relenting. This was the depot and loading dock site.
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Without a doubt the depot had been here.
{Ok, you can doubt and live in your little world of denial if you want}
Geezus, where did that belligerence originate?
Oh, I have to send in taxes today, so don't expect "Mr.Chippy" continuing this dialogue.
" " ..." " again depict sarcasm.
It comes from this.
Always doubt self proclaimed "experts". Question Question Question.
Present day:
You can see the rail cars on a siding.
There is a team track coming off that siding to a possible tank farm, but, the primary siding continues
past a building whose position resembles that of many depots.
It is on the west side of the road.
What could be a loading platform is on the east side.
The proposed depot is to the left under ".com".
I can't verify a loading dock on the east side.
A quote from "Easy Rider", "It's hard to say".
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On the west side of 81 they had continued.
My speculated depot would be to the right.
A depot on peers would not need a foundation.
Oh, well.
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With a little imagination you can see the spur off the sidetrack.
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Let's move on.
The subject of the original route has been covered and this new evidence needs more evaluation.
It is a good possibility that the old rails were on the north side of US 190.
Update. That is true for a portion of the route.
Note: Lately, I've seen "team track" used.
"Whose team?", "What team?"
So, I looked it up.
It's just "railroader speak" for a spur where stuff is loaded and unloaded.
Speaking an exclusionary language does not create friends.
That is just a suggestion to our new immigrants and old immigrants who hide behind
a broken and mangled ancient language when excluding someone.
I speak from experience, being an American.
Update, "Thanks" to Lloyd Bergeron.
"The concrete across the road from where you professed the depot being was a tank installation", he said.
"It probably had something to do with the oil industry hereabouts".
Yes, but I say there was a depot between the tanks and the main line.
My depot declaration could be wrong, also, according to Bergeron.
Bergeron is a self professed expert.
Self coronation does not coronate.
Luckily, in the face of complete ignorance ...
I had a train to pursue.
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She was moving very slowly having just completed the turn out of the Livonia Yard.
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I snipped her nose. No cookbook on this one.
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Now you can hand me that cook book.
I nailed the grimy old Southern Pacific engine. Large picture later.
I've got other shots of her. There are more old SP's living at Livonia, a fascinating, if not illusive, place.
Notice the tank cars, notice the "buffer car" protecting the engines from the tank cars's hazardous content.
Here, my quotation marks mean that a normally acting car has been thrust into another role.
Notice the tank cars, notice the "buffer car" protecting the engines from the tank cars's hazardous content.
Here, my quotation marks mean that a normally acting car has been thrust into another role.
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I was on the side opposite US 190, my ride back west and the chase. I'd have to give her a full train lead.
She had not gathered speed so outrunning here would not be a problem.
Note: train passing depot.
Note: train passing depot.
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I returned to where people were there for Reason No. 4 are usually disappointed.
Like a headlight hypnotized deer, I stared into the lights.
Oh yea, baby, Miller Time.
I'd head for Courtableau.
Next up was Port Barre
I had a good lead since US 190 between Krotz Springs and Port Barre is 65 mph.
This is a pretty good shot of the Port Barre yard and team track.
The reflective water and trashed railroad parts add so much to the shot.
It's good to have a lot going on at once.
The scene was going to get a bit of augmentation.
This is a pretty good shot of the Port Barre yard and team track.
The reflective water and trashed railroad parts add so much to the shot.
It's good to have a lot going on at once.
The scene was going to get a bit of augmentation.
Possibly?
Sometimes a good lead means nothing but waiting.
Here we go.
She climbed out of the Basin and onto the Prairie, East Opelousas.
The turnaround for US 190 is one of my favorite photographic locations for good reason, as seen below.
I have a stack of "cookbooks" from this place.
And under Interstate 49
A short intermission from train stuff.
Intermission is over.
These shots below were "captured" within some of the shots above.
Opening a picture to its full size lets you explore within it.
Often you find stuff you want to extract from that large shot.
Below are some of the "captured" pictures from within.
THESE ARE ALL FULL SIZED SHOTS.
YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK THE SHOTS TO GET THE LARGE VERSIONS.
THEN BACKSTROKE HERE.
Click it.
Click it.
Click it.
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And this is really
THE END.
No quotation marks.
Added note:
Notice the "40"?
That is the speed limit through Opelousas.
Why can't Amite rate that consideration?
Use quotations whenever you want and make up reason if asked "why".
I do.
