FL9

Father’s Day and pollution-free sunshine were good enough excuses to get out for a few hours Sunday morning.  First up is this northbound BNSF at the south end of Birds where he is about to meet the Cleburne Local.

A few minutes later, the three SD40-2’s powering the southbound Cleburne Local accelerated the train quickly out of town.

I next moved up to the east side of the tracks at Broadway Street south of Tower 55, and was quickly rewarded with a northbound UP loaded cement train powered by a pair of GE AC6000’s that was headed for the BNSF at Saginaw.

The next movement was so quiet it almost got past me, but this northbound Herzog Rail Test Truck working on the BNSF had to stop and wait before getting through Tower 55.  Things have changed a lot since the days of the Sperry Rail Car.

Now an empty UP coal train pulled by northbound headed for the Choctaw Sub.

The empty coal train now blocked the photo of a southbound loaded grain train on the BNSF, and naturally as I catch glimpses of the power through the coal cars it is something good in the form of two CSX AC units.  I headed out south and called Mike and Steve Bledsoe in Joshua to alert them.  I decided to catch the train at Edgecliff Road just south of I20, and then try to beat him to Joshua as a track gang working at Crowley was going to impede his progress.  I got to the first location ahead of him with no problem.

It seemed like there were a hundred traffic lights on Highway 174 as I headed south, but thanks to the track gang at Crowley I beat him to Joshua by about five minutes.  I positioned myself just north of the north switch, and could see the Bledsoes just to the south of me as he came by.

A northbound empty grain train was waiting in the siding, and he was pulling hard to leave town as soon as the southbound cleared the north end.

Nothing else was close by, so I had time to visit with Mike and Steve and pick up some DVD’s from them before starting back towards Benbrook.  On the way back I heard all three FWWR GP50’s on a southbound train switching at Primrose.  I checked with the dispatcher and learned this was a turn heading as far south as Tolar before heading back.  I set up at the Highway 1187 crossing south of Primrose to catch him coming upgrade around a curve.

I pulled the zoom back for one more shot as he passed an old Santa Fe telephone pole that is about to be consumed by vines.

I was hot and hungry but happy as I covered the last miles to home in Benbrook.