FL9

Over the years since the FWWR purchased the Dublin Sub from Ricker outside of Brownwood to Fort Worth, the BNSF and UP have agreements in place that they can run trains over it with only a few hours advance notice.  BNSF even has a few crews qualified to operate over it on their own without a FWWR pilot.  One such train was the BNSF’s RICALT from Richmond to Alliance that John Briggs and myself drove down to Brownwood to catch on the afternoon of Sunday August 1st in 2004.  Listening to the BNSF Lampassas Sub on the radio, we were keeping the FWWR dispatcher advised of his location by phone as he pulled through town.

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Over its long history the Illinois Central’s trains wore a variety of colorful paint schemes, but the last before being absorbed into the primarily red world of Canadian National was basic black.  I still find it to have been elegant and tasteful, but then I prefer locomotives that have some kind of nose art instead of just a blank canvas up front.  That is why on Friday, October 1st in 2004 when I got the word that a southbound grain train out of Kansas City on the BNSF had an IC unit leading, I got off from work early.  We get a lot of foreign power on the point of local trains, but very few IC units.

I made it to the north switch at the siding in Justin for my first encounter, where I scored primarily a broadside shot of the power showing the old paint on the point, the new owner in the middle, and the host bringing up the rear.

He had to slow down for traffic ahead, and this let me get set up next for a primarily head on shot at the first crossing south of Justin.  It would have been better is the front door had been closed, but the crew needed the natural air conditioning on this warm afternoon.

I like this stylish logo more than I do the CN noodle that will replaced it when SD70 #1029 gets a paint job from its new owner.  He went on into Alliance Yard for awhile, and since I was happy with these shots, I headed on home for the day having gotten the weekend off to a good start.

After the busy day I had experienced on Saturday, I spent most of the day at home on Sunday catching up on various things.  It was close to 100 degrees outside by mid afternoon, but I decided to brave the heat for a few minutes when I heard two westbounds getting ready to leave Centennial Yard on the Baird Sub.  The sun was still high, so I just went to my favorite spot in Boaz Park near the house.  A distant horn sent me to the top of the cut, and a few minutes later I shot the CSX 7328 West with an exceptionally clean nose as he lead an intermodal train out of town.

This GE C40-8W has been recently repainted from its original Conrail livery, and as a result it is the best looking older CSX unit I have seen in a long while.  The roadmaster slipped in next to patrol the track as far west as Aledo, but it did not take him long to pass Iona so the next westbound could be cleared out of the yard.  From the radio traffic this was the MFWWC train on its way to West Colton, and he also had a very clean locomotive on the point of his four-unit lashup.

In this case it would be due to the fact that the UP 5294, a GE ES44AC, is almost brand new.  Now it was time to head back home to the safety of the air conditioner and to get ready for work on Monday. 

Saturday afternoon after visiting with David Hawkins and Ron Roman at Ham-Com, I pulled out of the parking lot with the air conditioner wide open as the heat was up around 100 degrees. Scanning the local channels immediately brought up two interesting facts.  There would be a meet soon at Hebron on the BNSF Madill Sub, and there was a westbound KCS train leaving Metro for the Dallas intermodal facility.  Since the BNSF Madill Sub passed under the KCS at Hebron, the tracks were close enough together that catching both events was possible.  I drove to Parker Road just south of the Hebron siding to begin with, and soon the BNSF 7772 in H3 livery showed up with an empty rock train.

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