Nostalgia & History > Southern Crescent at New Orleans -- May 78

Early in the morning all is quiet as the Southern Crescent prepares for its journey north at  New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal .
It looks like most of the tracks are still there.
Mail and express on the far left.
Some of the tracks on the right were taken out for bus service.

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I'm puzzled by the white "stuff" by the rails.  Surely not snow in New Orleans, in May!  White ballast? crushed oyster shells? 

Good shooting, Gary! And under what looks like some difficult lighting circumstances.

Lance/199

Ballast is shells, still there.

Tom

santafe199 Wrote:
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> Good shooting, Gary! And under what looks like
> some difficult lighting circumstances.
>
> Lance/199

I needed a tripod, which I didn't have so it was the best I could do that early in the morning.
Those were the good ol' days at the New Orleans station when you could go anywhere to get pictures.

Gary

Nice shots!   Meridan, MS based Southern Railway operating crews worked to and from Ne Orleans.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/16 15:33 by RodneyZona.

6905 went to Precision National the next year.

love the e's

Yeah but despite good maintenance by Southern, they were worn out and required replacement. Of the 17 that Southern had kept after 1971, 4 had already been wrecked. Whatever Amtrak Es were still running at that point (not many) were near the end of their lives, too. Commuter Es still in service were generally not accruing 500 or 600 miles per leg, as did Southern's (assuming a change of power in Atlanta).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/27/16 12:05 by ctillnc.

A little late postoing since I was out of town, but here's the timetable that I have closest to the photo date.

B&OBill

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