Different

First of all: 

Mark, our high trestle and radio expert, is on his yearly month long 

ride into the void. 

He just goes.

Think, "Born to be Wild"

Think, "Free Bird"

Think, "Truckin'"

Think "Free Flight"

If you want to ride along and enjoy his daily postings, Click Here.

Now on with a Local.

Every one is different.  Yea, they are.  You may say they are all the same. That's fine.
No argument, but they are different. "Different", of course, comes in degrees.
Some are a lot ... Some are a little ...

This chase was a lot.
Well, not exactly. The chase was the same, what I was chasing wasn't. 

It was a lot different.

I hadn't been on the bike in weeks. The Inquiring Minds people had been sending me those, "Are you OK",
 "What's Wrong" and "Are You Still There" notes.  I never answer them because I don't write  just a little and if the subject was "me" I could go forever and I had other personal commitments.

 Inquiring Minds people, don't ask.

OK, I'm going to give it up.

Here we go.

SOS ... Same old stuff until it happened.

L&D was doing yard work .... da .. da ..dah.

 People waited at the New Iberia Depot.  How do you like my new postcard?

I stationed myself on the side of the  old store on Center St.

There had been a signal display here that crossed above the tracks, LZ said.

 

 I had monitored the Sunset Limited at Shriever.

She had been on time. She was about 10 minutes late getting to New Iberia.

That was great. It had given me time to get it together.

115 was in the lead. I have a collection of numbers.

I know that's kind of "different".

175 was second.

 And, what was this? It was a freight engine in third position. It was wearing the colors but .....  

I Googled this engine and none of the AMTK 500 engines shown are in the present passenger train colors.
There are shots of  AMTK 500's  in the last paint scheme, but not this one.
There's a story here.

Picture was taken from the opposite side from the New Iberia depot. 

It was time for me to haul it.

 Heading through Cade,  an eastbound was pulling into the passing track. This was tight timing as the
westbound AMTK at the station was in the starting gates.

 L&D RR 2000 rested at the industrial track.

I ran hard up the Evangeline Thruway hitting all the lights just right.

I waited at the Lafayette depot on land that was once the Lafayette Yard.

Taking pictures in abandoned places bends time.

It is eerie.

That just made me think of a scene  from "Easy Rider" where the fella they had given a ride to the commune

was explaining the ancient ones that had lived where they were camping.

"You're standing right on top of them. .... Could you have a little respect"?

Could you have a little respect?

Here the duo and the oddball came.

500 must be "in transit" to some location.

Or, one of the duo is sick  or was sick last night and the reason last night's train was 6 hours late ..

All speculation.

 It was time to scoot again. I wanted a picture of the train at West Switch but that's a hassle.
Some Mexican was mowing the yard and told me I could not go where I'd been going for years with
permission.  I was not in the mood to argue in Spanish so I shifted gears, no problema.

What are you going to do?  These are different times.

After leaving the place I wanted to use because of being run off by El Pero Groucho, I found a perch.

Immediately, I saw another "different" creature.
A side note: To speak Spanish perfectly, just add an "oh" to every English word.

 

Here they came.

The billion decibel horns were tooting at me and I wasza waving back. That's different. 

We could  use a  little more of that kind of  friendly fun "different".

 I got soaked riding home which was a little different as I usually avoid it. 

 Still, you can't beat "different" on any ride.
More below.

Below is from HERE

The GE Dash 8-32BWH, also known as the P32-8WH or B32-8WH, is a passenger train locomotive used by Amtrak. It is based on GE's Dash 8 series of freight train locomotives.
Twenty of these locomotives were delivered to Amtrak in 1991, numbered 500 through 519. They were nicknamed "Pepsi Cans" by many railfans, due to being delivered in a wide-striped red, white, and blue livery. They have since been repainted in more recent Amtrak liveries.
The Dash 8-32BWH operates in a diesel-electric configuration that uses DC to power the traction motors, producing 3,200 hp (2,400 kW) at 1047 rpm. When providing head end power to the train, the engine is speed locked to 900 rpm. Power output to the traction motors is 2,700 hp (2,000 kW) when running in HEP mode with a 0 kW HEP load. Traction horsepower decreases to a bare minimum of 1,685 hp (1,257 kW) when providing the maximum 800 kW (1,100 hp) HEP load to the train.
Today, the Dash 8-32BWH has been relegated to yard switching (mainly in Los Angeles, Oakland, Chicago, Miami, and the Auto Train terminals) and transfer service, displaced by the newer and more powerful GE Genesis, but the Dash 8s occasionally substitute for the Genesis units if necessary and the Los Angeles based units see frequent use on the Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner.

A sister engine caught in CADE.  Wasn't me.

Is this Her? Red White and Blue!
It is my belief that Amtk 500 was being delivered to a yard somewhere "out west". Possibly LA.