Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren

Having been alerted by Jim Ammons that the operators were practicing, I headed to TY to shoot some of the cranes in action. One of the feeder cranes was located near the north end as seen here up close.

When I arrived, production crane #2 was practicing on this 53' J B Hunt container/chassis. Note the empty 40' and 53' chasses on the right side of the image. These will be the point of the focus for future practice.

BNSF 2005 and 2242 are seen through the legs of Feeder crane #1 pulling a string of cars out of one of the departure tracks.

The Production crane is seen moving to the east to pick up a 40' container to bring back and sit it on the chassis in the foreground. The crane then lowers its hooks for pick up the container. It then picks up the container and heads back to the chassis.

BNSF 2005 and 2242 continued to switch the yard.

The crane then returns to pick up another 40' container and set it on a chassis. The crane then returns for the 53' container.

On a quick trip to Metarie, LA to see our daughter and grandson, Jan, grandson Shawn, and I went railfanning after lunch. On our way to trackside, it struck me that it was getting close to time for the southbound Amtrak #59, the City of New Orleans, so we headed to Central Ave. where numerous tracks come together and then separate. Upon arrival, I observed a New Orleans Public Belt engine sitting in the shade of the expressway overpass and a green signal for the westbound track for the Huey P. Long Bridge, both signs of an approaching train for the bridge. So we parked in the shade to await the action.

Our first action was the northbound Amtrak #58, the City of New Orleans, which I had forgotten departed New Orleans at 1:45pm.

The NOPB crew stopped in the shade of the overpass to await a signal to proceed from the operator at East Bridge Jct. tower. While we waited for some action, our 37 month old grandson shot a picture of me with his throw-a-way camera. He also shot the "red" engine that also shows the shady area under the expressway overpass.

A BNSF westbound freight is seen crossing Central Ave. as it approaches the east end of the Huey P. Long bridge over the Mississippi River.

While shooting the BNSF freight, Amtrak #59, the southbound City of New Orleans, starts blowing for the Central Ave. crossing.

And the chase is on across the Huey P. Long bridge. The first image is near the west end of the through truss section of the bridge.

After a quick stop at a Subway for lunch on the go, we headed to the Amtrak station at Hammond, LA to catch the southbound train 59, City of New Orleans, 8/23/09.

The City of New Orleans was running about 20 minutes late.

We got off I55 at Grenada, MS and scouted out the new Grenada Railway. Here we see the headquarters which served as the Amtrak station and division headquarters for the IC Grenada Subdivision.

Here we see one of the Montreal RS18s that make up the roster of the new Grenada Railway. Note that they were last owned by Ottawa Central Railway.

Here we see the other half of the Grenada Railway roster, a second Montreal RS18.

Peter Limper and I decided to spend the afternoon chasing trains. As we crossed under the tracks on Crump Blvd, we observed a train moving overhead. We gave chase over the river and caught it at the Mounds City road. He had a green over red signal at Critco, diverging to the north track. This was an empty ballast train, apparently having delivered its load to the new side track at the north end of Tennessee Yard.

As the ballast train cleared, a headlight was visible from the west, this unit coal train. He had to approach slowly at first while his signal cleared, after which he came ahead full force.

The unit coal train beat us back to Kentucky Street but the DPU had got passed yet.

We applied the "10 minute rule", within 10 minutes a train appears/signal clears, or you leave. In this case the north main got a yellow signal for CN Jct. This eastbound general freight appeared. Note as the general freight passes that the south track now has a yellow also which clears to green before the next train arrives.

When the train appears, it is the afternoon stack train. Note the "red Warbonnet" as the second unit.

We then headed to Tennessee Yard and found several loads of stacked chasses and a couple of the old loaders.