On a Friday, August 6th of 1976, photographer Mike Palmieri had stationed himself at the Southern Pacific’s West Tower in New Iberia, Louisiana to watch the traffic flow. West Tower protected the crossing of the Southern Pacific with the Missouri Pacific’s line down to the Jefferson Island salt mine. The tower’s train order signal is indicating to the train crew that they have train orders to pick up.

A westbound freight train eventually showed, and is passing under the watch of the tower operator. At precisely 8:35 a.m. Mike recorded this view of a crew member just as he was about to snatch his orders on the fly while passing the tower.