Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler
The good times are rolling for sure in NOLA when you get to chase a New Orleans Public Belt job through the heart of the French Quarter along the Mississippi riverfront.
What we see here is an NOPB crew aboard a pair of SD70Ms forwarding the hottest train in the terminal eastbound from the Union Pacific at East Bridge Jct. to the CSXT over in Gentilly. I don't recall the exact symbol at this date as I was no longer living or working in the area (was just back for a visit), but I believe it was still the ZCIAT (UP City of Industry, CA to CSXT Atlanta, GA). It ran from the Los Angeles basin across the entire length of the old Southern Pacific Sunset Route to be handed off to CSXT for forwarding to Atlanta via former Louisville and Nashville iron. On the head end of the train is a block of signature Tropicana Orange juice reefers headed back for loading with Florida's finest in Bradenton. Back in the day when I was running the show from the old MoPac Avondale we called this the Pacer Train account it was primarily containers for Pacer Stacktrain, whch was the successor to American President Line's pioneering domestic landbridge service that began in 1984 and was sold to Pacer in 1999. Pacer was later acquired by XPO logistics as the world of shipping and intermodal continued to evolve, and I understand today no interline intermodal moves through the gateway having been shifted to Memphis a few years back.
Back in my days here all other UP-CSXT traffic (approximately 10 trains each way daily) was directly interchanged between the two carriers and took the Norfolk Southern owned (old SOU) "Back Belt" from the Huey P. Long bridge at East Bridge Jct. through Metairie and past East City Jct., Frenchmen St. and NE Tower. This train, however, warranted the extra cost of paying NOPB to forward it across their route to avoid the congestion and expedite the train.
The historic preserved brewery here in the heart of the Vieux Carre (French Quarter) is now a shopping and restaurant destination, but from 1890 to 1974 was the Jackson Bohemian Brewery. The facility was actually served by a Southern Pacific local freight on an island of isolated trackage the SP owned on the east bank of the river dating from the pre bridge days prior to 1935 when they still floated trains across from Algiers to downtown. Today there is only the single NOPB main and the double tracks of the waterfront streetcar line but back then this area was a tangled web of tracks belonging to multiple class 1s when this area was still a working waterfront of warehouses and longshoring operations.
I called the New Orleans area home from 2000 to 2005 where I spent one year working for the NS at Oliver Yard and four for the UP in Avondale. That was a time in my life I will forever be grateful for and it seems like a lifetime ago...
I could write so much more about the city and the railroad operations that make it a truly great railfan destination. Anyone up for a trip to shoot trains all day, eat some of the best food on the planet, catch some Jazz over in the Marigny, and then drink the night away? Oh I dream...
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sunday August 20, 2010
Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler
The good times are rolling for sure in NOLA when you get to chase a New Orleans Public Belt job through the heart of the French Quarter along the Mississippi riverfront.
What we see here is an NOPB crew aboard a pair of SD70Ms forwarding the hottest train in the terminal eastbound from the Union Pacific at East Bridge Jct. to the CSXT over in Gentilly. I don't recall the exact symbol at this date as I was no longer living or working in the area (was just back for a visit), but I believe it was still the ZCIAT (UP City of Industry, CA to CSXT Atlanta, GA). It ran from the Los Angeles basin across the entire length of the old Southern Pacific Sunset Route to be handed off to CSXT for forwarding to Atlanta via former Louisville and Nashville iron. On the head end of the train is a block of signature Tropicana Orange juice reefers headed back for loading with Florida's finest in Bradenton. Back in the day when I was running the show from the old MoPac Avondale we called this the Pacer Train account it was primarily containers for Pacer Stacktrain, whch was the successor to American President Line's pioneering domestic landbridge service that began in 1984 and was sold to Pacer in 1999. Pacer was later acquired by XPO logistics as the world of shipping and intermodal continued to evolve, and I understand today no interline intermodal moves through the gateway having been shifted to Memphis a few years back.
Back in my days here all other UP-CSXT traffic (approximately 10 trains each way daily) was directly interchanged between the two carriers and took the Norfolk Southern owned (old SOU) "Back Belt" from the Huey P. Long bridge at East Bridge Jct. through Metairie and past East City Jct., Frenchmen St. and NE Tower. This train, however, warranted the extra cost of paying NOPB to forward it across their route to avoid the congestion and expedite the train.
The historic preserved brewery here in the heart of the Vieux Carre (French Quarter) is now a shopping and restaurant destination, but from 1890 to 1974 was the Jackson Bohemian Brewery. The facility was actually served by a Southern Pacific local freight on an island of isolated trackage the SP owned on the east bank of the river dating from the pre bridge days prior to 1935 when they still floated trains across from Algiers to downtown. Today there is only the single NOPB main and the double tracks of the waterfront streetcar line but back then this area was a tangled web of tracks belonging to multiple class 1s when this area was still a working waterfront of warehouses and longshoring operations.
I called the New Orleans area home from 2000 to 2005 where I spent one year working for the NS at Oliver Yard and four for the UP in Avondale. That was a time in my life I will forever be grateful for and it seems like a lifetime ago...
I could write so much more about the city and the railroad operations that make it a truly great railfan destination. Anyone up for a trip to shoot trains all day, eat some of the best food on the planet, catch some Jazz over in the Marigny, and then drink the night away? Oh I dream...
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sunday August 20, 2010