FL9

After getting out Sunday morning, I worked around the house before getting out again around 3:30pm.  I waited too long in that as I was driving away from the house, I heard three westbounds get track warrants to leave Saginaw on the Wichita Falls Sub and meet an eastbound at Herman.  I decided to see if I could catch up to any of them, and made “track speed” around I820 and up Business 287 to the real 287 at Avondale.  BY now the first two westbounds–an empty UP coal train and an unknown train led by an SD40-2–were already passing Herman, but I managed to overtake the third one just as he was approaching the east switch.  It turned out to be a bare table train led by three smaller units.

I could see the eastbound was an intermodal with four six-axle units.  I hurried back about two miles to the “S” curve, and made my way through the brush to a vantage point where the eastbound would have the best light.  He came around the curve less than a minute later, rolling off the last few miles to the Alliance Intermodal Facility.

Some time passed before the catch of the day showed up, a westbound empty coal with a new GEVO on the point and a solid train of TGNX (Texas Genco II) silver hoppers trailing behind in nearly perfect light.

And now the silver snake.

The uniformly spaced wheels made a swooshing noise on the welded rail, and soon the DPU appeared over the hill in the distance.

It turned out to be an old Grinstien Green SD70MAC.

He was due to take the siding at Herman for another eastbound “Z” train, so I moved to the middle of the siding for this shot of him laid out over the landscape as he pulled in.

One more at the west end as he pulled to a stop.

The light was no good here for the eastbound, so I moved on to a spot just east of Decatur where the tracks headed almost west for the best angle.  I did not have long to wait before he flew on by.

I followed him back to this hill just west of Herman where I set up again for the empty coal train coming out of the siding.

The sun was starting to get low enough that I felt I had one more possible shot to take at the east switch of Decatur siding.  Once he regained the mainline leaving Herman, he caught up to me in no time as the shadows lengthened.

I would not get home until after dark, but it was worth it!