Sorry Candy, but occasionally reality raises its ugly head. Personally, I was amazed at the destruction caused by the flash flood. Then further amazed at seeing so little water remaining in the area as the drone recorded the destruction shortly afterwards. I'll add that shortly after this occurred I was under numerous tornado warnings, and flash flood warnings from the same system. Fortunately no tornadoes in my immediate area, even though I'm only about 40 miles east of the wreck site. However, the tops of my trees were whipping frantically. Now all that is passed, thankfully. Though my rain gauge recorded 5-1/4" in about 4 hours. A town 15 miles north of me recorded over 14" of rain in the same period. We is where we choose to be. I'm not complaining. I'm here remembering when weather forecasters in New England said, "Still and Clear". Then I finally understood that they meant "Still Snowing, and Clear Up To Your Butt!" Been Theah, Done That, Shoveled Too Much, Doncha Know.
I feel a bit light headed. I didn't expect all that. Sorry, I just have to sit alone for awhile. I know about reality.
Ouch. To make operational matters worse, Lumberton, MS is about 100 Miles north of New Orleans on the busy Birmingham <=> New Orleans mainline. Of the derailed cars. 25 are empties and 3 are steel loads. No hazmat and as Hytec confirmed, thankfully there were no injuries.
You sir are correct, with the NO&NE being one of SOUs many subsidiary lines that survived on paper into the 1960s and 1970s. The NO&NE was a component in the Queen & Crescent route, comprised of the CNO&TP, AGS, and NO&NE.
The NO&NE also conquered Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain with a seven-mile long trestle between Irish Bayou (New Orleans East) and Slidell. Sadly, I haven't crossed the trestle on the Crescent. I boarded at Slidell, being 50 miles nearer my home than New Orleans. Bucket List Item #247. The railroad bascule is open. US Hwy 11, closer to the camera, has its draw span closed.
What our pioneer railroaders were willing to do, time and money, to achieve their goals. Which none today have the guts to invest, let alone attempt.
Hurricane Katrina washed five miles of NS mainline off the Lake Pontchartrain bridge. Hurculean efforts by NS restored service in just sixteen days. Neat little synopsis here on NS's website: http://www.nscorp.com/nscorphtml/ar05/pdf/katrina.pdf
And in great irony at the moment the US 11 Bridge is closed for extend repairs, so unless you cab ride the NS or get on Amtrak you can't get to New Orleans that way, and the I-10 Bridge is too far away to get any decent running shots of NS or Amtrak on that bridge.
Thanks for this article. I was unaware that NS restored their line in just 16 days. In contrast, CSX didn't reopen their line between Gentilly Yard (New Orleans East) and Pascagoula, MS until the following February, six months. Though to be fair, that's about 100 miles over bayous, numerous bridges, and dense destroyed woods. The CSX line is the ex-L&N, New Orleans & Mobile Division that never is more than five miles away from the Gulf of Mexico, with many areas less than a quarter mile.
Back in March of 2003 I rode into New Orleans over Lake Pontchartrain on this car. My mom wanted to ride this train but needed someone to accompany her so I graciously volunteered. The American Orient Express trip started in Washington, DC with stops in Richmond, VA where the above photo was taken, Charleston, SC, Savannah, GA and Vicksburg, MS. Leaving Vicksburg on the old Mid South line (I believe KCS had bought it by then), the engines had to be on the tail end of the train and we were supposed to turn the train in Meridian but were unable to. So, we continued on to New Orleans backwards. In this photo you can see an Amtrak engine out the window as we are leaving the bridge over the lake. My mom is on the left. Here is the train after backing into the terminal in New Orleans.
It finally decided to download and open. Dunno what was the trouble. Good grief! Anyhow, excellent article.
