ONLY IN LOUISIANA !!!

[ourlouisiana]

Thursday's City of New Orleans was delayed by an alligator on the tracks !!! The incident was just out of New Orleans near Frenier. Report was that the gator got caught up under the cars and set off the detector causing the train to stop. Then they had air brake problems getting started.

Today's train was delayed by a tree falling across the tracks in the same area.

Then about 5 - 6 miles north at the Manchac bridge as well as signal problems. All are believed to be caused by the thunderstorms that we have had lately.

 

[NativeSon5859]

I saw 59 stopped at Pass Manchac on Thursday around 4:45pm as I was arriving at Middendorf's to down some good Catfish. I figured it was signal problems...had no idea about the gator though!

 

[MStrain]

I think the CONO should stop at Middendorf's anyhow and take on boxes of those paper thin catfish filets. SLAP yo' mama them are fine!!!!!!!!! :lol:

 

[Guest]

...looks like the conductor gets new shoes and a belt!

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

I can just picture the train rolling along with a gator hung up underneath and then the expression on the crew when they found it. Any idea how big it was? Gator Tail would have made for a good CCC offering on the return run

 

[Steve4031]

I was riding the Sunset Limited into New Orleans from the east on my first trip with a scanner. The train went into emergency as we were passing through swamps. I had the scanner on and heard the following conversation:

Crew member 1: Looks like we hit a boar and it knocked an air hose loose

Crew member 2: Well I got to go look for the problem and fix it.

A few minutes later . . .

Crew member 2: Are there snakes out here?

Crew member 1: Yep!

That air hose was fixed pretty quickly. LOL

 

[MStrain]

For those of you not from the South, its truly amazing how many different specie of dangerous animals can be congregated in one small area. Our poisonous snakes down here come looking for YOU......cotton mouths are nasty!

Best to stay on the train if you stop in a swamp in Louisiana!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[George Harris]

For those of you not from the South, its truly amazing how many different specie of dangerous animals can be congregated in one small area. Our poisonous snakes down here come looking for YOU......cotton mouths are nasty!
Best to stay on the train if you stop in a swamp in Louisiana!!!!!!!!!!!

And plants that grow thorns. If you have ever done any railroad related surveying you decided that plants with thorns have an affinity for railroad rights-of-ways. Let's don't forget about kudzu, either. The stuff has very small flowers that bees and wasps love. At least this was in Alabama north of Montgomery, so we did not have to deal with alligators, and funnily enough never saw a snake. Got stung a few times, though.

 

[MStrain]

Delve deep into kudzu and you're likely to uncover a house, car, boat or caboose. Sometimes all of that right in the same area. It moves quick!

 

[PetalumaLoco]

For those of you not from the South, its truly amazing how many different specie of dangerous animals can be congregated in one small area. Our poisonous snakes down here come looking for YOU......cotton mouths are nasty!
Best to stay on the train if you stop in a swamp in Louisiana!!!!!!!!!!!

Never get off the boat!

 

[Guest]

"funnily enough never saw a snake"

Okefenokee Joe says that snakes don't have ears. They feel vibration so when entering snake habitat (my backyard) stomp the ground. The vibration of the train probably lets them know that something out there is bigger than they.

 

[George Harris]

Delve deep into kudzu and you're likely to uncover a house, car, boat or caboose. Sometimes all of that right in the same area. It moves quick!

Or a track. My most interesting surveying in kudzu was invetorying a track for retirement. We would plow through a few hundred feet and then chop down to see if the rail was still there. Repeat. Repeat. There should be a side track starting about here. chopped into a bump in the kudzu and found the switch stand. Who knows? There may have been cars left on the siding. At that point we had burned half a day and covered about a mile and it looked like the rest would be the same, so we called it quits.

Don't stop to rest if you are in deep kudzu. If you are stil for over 15 minutes you will find that it has begun to cover you. Situation now hopeless. :lol:

(The division engineer decided that the material was not worth the labor it would take to get it out. It went on the books as retired in place - salvage value zero.)

PetalumaLoco: Looks like you are somewhere south of US 190. Don't you know you need a passport to go down there? Natives of that part of the country are born with webs between their toes.

 

[PetalumaLoco]

PetalumaLoco: Looks like you are somewhere south of US 190. Don't you know you need a passport to go down there? Natives of that part of the country are born with webs between their toes.

Like I said, never get out of the boat!