SP 1-HOSOM-18 at Baldwin, LA

Print Scan from 1995 - NS on SP

Today I scanned a number of large prints sent to me by Louis Saillard to accompany his article on the Crown Zellerbach operations in Louisisana.  While I had the computer plugged into my wife's flatbed scanner/printer I thought I'd throw on of my many, many, many old prints to see what it would do.  This is the one I grabbed:

I placed my hand on a roll of film developed by the long-gone Eckerd drug store chain that was once common in the New Orleans area.  Dated August 19, 1995, this roll of film contains a number of images I took on the EsPee in south Louisiana on that date, evidently on a trip to Houston, TX.

This picture depicts eastbound SP Houston, TX to New Orleans (Southern/NS) runthrough train 1-HOSOM-18 holding the main track at Baldwin, LA as it waits for its meet, westbound SP train 1-AVSRQK-19, to take the siding.

The freight traffic in this corridor (Houston/Birmingham and Houston/Atlanta) I have penned into the operations of my proto-freelanced Meridian Speedway.  Instead of being handed off between the SP and the NS at New Orleans, which is a huge bottleneck, in my HO world this traffic runs from Houston to Shreveport, LA on the SP/SSW, across North Louisiana to Meridian, MS on the Natchez Trace and Orient, and then onto destination via the NS from there.

Investment in my fleet of NS and SP locomotives will provide suitable power for these trains.  My latest arrival, SP SD40M-2 8691, will fit nicely here.  Now if only we can get Athearn Genesis, ScaleTrains, or maybe Atlas to model these big GE's....C36-7's and C39-8's needed please!  Are you listening model manufacturers?

Oh yes, and we also need more chemical tank cars from before the era of the ubiquitous and omnipresent ethanol tank car!

​Chris