Sunday, February 20, 2005


Fog was a big part of my life, since I ran essentially along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana. I am stopped behind KCS #42 just outside of DeQuincy, La., while #42 picks up some cars out of the siding at Helme. I climbed atop the approach signal to Helme to take this picture. I figured since I had a red block, I might as well take advantage of the opportunity to take a picture. I am on the HNS (Houston to New Orleans Southern connection). We ran their locomotives almost exclusively. We delivered the train to the east base of the Mississippi River Bridge (named the Huey P. Long). The Southern engineer would take the train over only if we spotted the train between two yellow marks at the base of the bridge. The Southern RR ran their engines long nose forward. Whenever we would pick up a cut of cars at Port Barre, I usually turned the engines so that I had a short nose forward. That meant I was running from the left side of the train, and that was good once I got past Addis (Baton Rouge), as our signals were on the left side from there on into Avondale. This always made the Southern engineers mad. My reply was always, you got your yellow marks (which were located on the left side of the train on the bridge walkway), I've got my wyes to turn the engines. You do away with the yellow marks, and I will bring the train in with the engines long nose forward.

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