By KenFL9 | Published:
September 2, 2010
Last Friday August 27th I went to Weatherford before work to pick up some items my wife had ordered. When I got tothe store the paperwork was messed up, so while the clerk straightened things out I took a short drive down to the old T&P depot. The old depot is used a feed supply these days, and there was a DPU on a westbound train in the siding parked just east of it. There was a green signal lit behind me for an eastbound to come down the main. I waited there for a bit wondering where the train was, and just as I was about to give up and go back to the store one of the UP MTO’s I know drove by with the conductor from the westbound. I quickly learned they were waiting on two eastbound trains to show up, and the first one was at Preble. I decided to wait and before long the UP 8514 East raced by on the main with an intermodal train heading towards Fort Worth.
After that photo I drove one block further east and set up at the signal house at the east end of the siding. The second train turned out to be the UP 7631 East with another intermodal in tow, and I left no doubt as to the location this time.
From there I headed back to the store and my wife’s order was ready now. With two shots in the bag a little ouside my normal territory as a bonus I headed on to work with my primary mission accomplished.
By KenFL9 | Published:
August 24, 2010
A round trip to Sweetwater this past weekend to see my father resulted in the following train pictures worth sharing. First up Saturday morning is the UP 7427 West passing through the green belt in Abilene.
Saturday afternoon in Loraine west of Sweetwater the UP 7922 East is passing over a typically narrow underpass on the original highway through here.
The UP 4159 West was in the siding at Loraine, and next up are two side views of the train across the cultivated fields between Loraine and Colorado City. I have always wondered if the old tank here was used by the T&P for water?
East of Loraine we next encounter the UP 7917 West passing a small part of what is described as the largest wind farm in the United States.
A few miles further east at Roscoe the UP 5322 West is racing past the elevator next to the east switch of the siding here.
On Sunday morning the only train I caught on the way back to Fort Worth was this apparently empty grain train with two units and 67 cars between Putnam and Dothan just off I 20.
Grain trains loaded or empty are a rarity out here these days, so anyone have any guesses as to where this one was coming from or going to?
By KenFL9 | Published:
August 18, 2010
Late last Sunday afternoon August 15th I headed over to Aledo, TX on the UP Baird Sub just west of Fort Worth as some interesting thunderheads were growing back to the east. I needed a westbound train to take advantage of the evening light on the clouds, but the first train was an eastbound just before 7:00pm. I worked out a broadside shot in the small city park of the UP 4641 East to allow for the strong back lighting.
The eastbound met a westbound at Iona just three miles east, and at 7:09pm my luck held just before the light was lost as the UP 9666 West came through the scene I had composed.
The next day on Monday evening Judy and I were having dinner in the great little Mexican restaurant called Jorge’s with a track side view on the left at the grade crossing in the thunderhead photo. New thunderheads were present in the background as a westbound manifest rolled by the restaurant’s picture window, and I did not know at the time that Steve Grabman was across the street in the park getting his own fine thunderhead shot. I put these two shots up on Trainorders.com just now with an invitation for BNSFDS to share his excellent shot there also.
By KenFL9 | Published:
August 16, 2010
Entering Tower 55 I was surprised to find no sign of the signal guys who had been officing there and the air conditioning turned off. The temperature was easily around 100 degrees, so I quickly opened two windows to get a breeze going through there. Looking north I could see Amtrak train 22 waiting for the signal to back out of the ITC while a southbound UP freight waited on the right and a TRE train came around the curve heading to the T&P Building on the left.
After the 3:00pm dispatcher turn over was complete train number 22 got the signal to come on south across the Tower 55 diamonds on Choctaw Sub Main One.
As the train backed past the tower I moved to a window on the south end to see P42 number 72 chug by in reverse.
After backing up clear of the signal in the Ney Bypass, the dispatcher lined train number 22 up to come through the crossover to Choctaw Main Two and then into the wye towards Dallas.
Zooming back I got the train coming through the sharp curve in the southeast quadrant of the tower.
My final shot was of the train entering Dallas Sub Main Two on its way east now.
No other trains sounded like they would be moving right away, so not wanting to endure the heat any longer I closed the windows and doors and headed back down to my air-conditioned SUV.
