| An amply-powered Espee Avondale-Houston train AVHOK had just passed the Morgan City train order office and was ascending the east approach to the bridge over Berwick Bay at the 1st Street underpass. The train was usually the AVHOM, but the 'K' suffix was used when the train was handling hazardous material. The consist included six DuPont 29700-series 8-axle tank cars and Celanese 6-axle tank car 10417, but these were all empties. The train had SD45R's 7441, 7434, 7411, 7403 and 7400, SD40R 7369 and B30-7 7865 with 158 cars and caboose 4737 (9,252 tons and 8,922 feet).Because the Espee's traffic into New Orleans usually exceeded the westbound, AVHOM/AVHOK was frequently used to move excess locomotives back to Houston. The three middle units probably came from the Southern Railway on their run-through train 193. The raiting of an SD45 was 15,160 tons between Avondale Yard and Echo, Texas. At one time, a siding ran along the base of the embankment and through the area in the foreground to serve the waterfront along Berwick Bay. |