Since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a couple of years ago, I imagine most of the railways have gotten back to normal. Does anyone here have an update?
last from July(2006) I took the City Of New Orleans down there which was a good trip and the tracks were prety smooth, the yards near the station were full, and the station was in full operation. While in N.O. we stayed in a resort in the French quarter which is about 2 blocks from the train tracks there which I belive is the CSX mainline, but atleast twice a day I would hear a train(porbably other times I didnt). Also most of the tourist parts of N.O. are fine now and back up and running but that could be because the French Quater(main tourist part) didnt get flouded, but If you were to take a troley or a bus farther out of the tourist areas(you could even walk there it was so close) you could see water marks on houses and orange spray paint saying when the house was checked for survivors.
so from what I can tell they are operating fine but probably not as good as they were before Katrina. althoug this was 10 months ago and alot could have changed by now(hopefully for the beter)
We had 8 guys from the New Orleans Public Belt line come to work for us at the PTRA here in Houston…The UTU worked with both the carriers, and we just offered them a straight transfer, be they engineers or conductor, we placed them all as switchmen, with no loss of seniority, using their mark up date from the Belt…all went to our extra board, and all 8 have stayed here, even though the Belt offered them their old positions back when they got up and running.
Guess being above sea level aint all that bad after all, even if it is only 3 or 4 feet higher!
One of them is from so far back in the swamp you could cut his accent with a knife…I swear he is speaking english, because I reconize a word now and then!
Just a question on history of rail-operation into N.O.
In the movie “Cincinnati Kid”, the old professional stud-poker-player comes to N.O. in a diesel-train power by an AT&SF first-generation-diesel. Did the AT&SF ever run to N.O.?
ATSF never got to New Orleans, although several movies have some inaccuracies of geography when it comes to railroading.
Where are the goo train watching spots in N.O. I have to go and take a test with Amtrak in a few weeks and will have a little time after the testing and the flight back home.