I’ll again pass the mic to Henry to recount our rail adventures. —J.
On Saturday, we woke up early and went to a bridge we had scoped out the previous day to watch the empress go by on its way out of town. We waited for a while when it came thundering by! I managed to get some really cool shots of it.
After that, we embarked on a 2-hour-ish journey to Lufkin, TX, where we would meet up with my friend, Israel, and see his amazing collection of railroad signals and related items. When we arrived, we first noticed how brutally humid it was. The next thing we noticed was all of his amazing displays.
He and his family welcomed us in and we began looking at everything he had around, including but not limited to: railroad signals, an tornado siren, insulators, traffic lights, electric meters, and about a million other great things.
After seeing his train layout and grabbing some lunch, we drove out to the local railroad to see the last remaining signals from the 1950’s and 60’s. There, we found an abandoned relay case, where we grabbed some old electronic railroad relays. We explored and abandoned caboose before moving on to our next destination, a bit outside Lufkin.
When we arrived, we found two incredibly intact 70+-year-old diesel locomotives, built by Baldwin, a manufacturer that has been defunct since the early 1960s. We also stopped by another industrial plant to see their very small switcher locomotive, which of course had cattle horns mounted on the nose (it was Texas, after all). We went back to their house and said our goodbyes, and headed back to Shreveport. All in all, it was a fantastic day!
Wow, can it be—our once-small beamish boy Henry has been with us for a full decade and a half? Madness!
We’re so happy and lucky to have this charming chap in our lives. He spent part of his day exploring the rails (of course!), then returned for a feast featuring Chicago dogs, one of Mom’s famous KitKat-infused cakes, and some opening of presents. We put a bow on things with a spectacular sunset photo-walk with Seamus.
For this post I’m proud to pass the narrative baton to NackFam Railfan-in-Chief & Adventure Catalyst Henry. —J.
In late May of 2024, my dad and I set out on a journey to Shreveport, LA, to see Canadian Pacific 2816, “The Empress,” on its tour from Canada to Mexico to celebrate the merger of Canadian Pacific & Kansas City Southern.
The Empress is a steam locomotive built in December 1930 for the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was retired in 1960 & has been used off & on by CP for excursion service over the decades. Our neighbor Severn, who many spent years as a railroad machinist, was recruited for his knowledge to be part of the crew. We’d originally planned to meet up with him in Shreveport, but he ended up joining just the northbound leg of the tour some weeks later. Either way, it was a good excuse to make the trip!
Our arrival proved to be interesting, as the “accommodations” Dad selected were… lackluster, to say the least. Even before getting to our room, we observed burnt-out alcoves on the side of the building and sheets plastered to the window! Dad insisted that we go in and not waste the princely sum of $30/night he’d prepaid (!). We were treated to dead roaches, copious filth, and missing roof tiles. Once we got to the room, things failed to improve: the piece de resistance was the grimy soap nub thoughtfully stuck to the shower dish.
Thankfully Dad saw the light (and the roaches!), and we hightailed it to a nearby Holiday Inn. “Oh, Mr. Nack,” said the sympathetic receptionist, shaking her head, “$30/night? You’ve got to have a better knack than that!” She helpfully noted that the gross motel had until recently been called “The Plantation”!
Moving on, we visited a couple of local railyards & made our way to downtown Shreveport. We saw a few more trains before retiring for the evening.
On Friday morning we headed to the tiny but charming local train museum, which had a lot of great artifacts on display—neon signs, old tickets, and even a model train layout. Because our car got trapped behind some construction, we ended up visiting the adjacent Shreveport Waterworks Museum—way more fascinating than you might think! Our charming tour guide Kevin showed us around the giant old machinery, and tried my hand at blowing the old steam whistles.
After that we carried on to a big local park where we visited an old steam locomotive in dire need of restoration.
Finally, a few hours later, it was time to see the 2816. We arrived shortly before it did, and we watched it and its entire train full of railroad executives & dignitaries back into the yard. I took a bunch of close-up shots of the train & locomotives, then went to see the diesels that followed & assisted The Empress.
There I ran into my friend from California, Scott, who works for locomotive builder EMD. We’d met through Severn, and he had recently joined joined the crew for the southbound leg. He allowed me to stand on the steps of CP 7013, a locomotive painted in one of Canadian Pacific’s old paint schemes from the 1960s.
We decided to take a break & head downtown for some railfanning by the old train bridge that crosses the Red River. (It was indeed a very red river!) We saw two trains—one pulled by Norfolk Southern locomotives, and one pulled by CPKC locos.
After we’d dried off a bit from the sweltering humidity, we headed back to see the Empress’s sunset departure for the night. It was very beautiful and spectacularly loud pulling out!
And so concluded a long and fruitful day of railfanning. Stay tuned for our next installments from the following days.
Hey all—greetings from 10,000 ft. After lots of crisscrossing the nation in separate groups (Henry & me to Shreveport & South Bend, Margot & Finn to New England), we’ve all reuinted—together with Seamus & the Lingles—in Leadville.
As usual we were treated to the town’s super charming Fourth of July parade, followed by a cookout at the airport and then a great dinner at home featuring Uncle James’s pulled pork. As I type this we’re listening to Rhapsody in Blue and awaiting the fireworks.
