FL9

After work today I had to run a few errands, and on the way home I stopped off at Saginaw to take advantage of the low afternoon light at my back as the BNSF 5401 North approached on the Fort Worth Sub.  Another railfan following the train quickly parked and set up for the shot, and after fast introductions I found that I had finally met Mike Bates of aerial shot fame.  Additional conversation had to wait for the passing train.

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At around 1:15pm Sunday afternoon the sun was high overhead and the temperature was over 100 degrees, which made it a perfect time to stay home and sort slides or work on a model.  So instead of doing the comfortable thing, I headed back out to meet up with engineer Troy Minnick when he brought the Grapevine passenger train into the Stockyards.  I needed to give Troy some HO scale detail parts for a New Haven Alco RS-11 he is working on for me.  I pulled up to the Stockyards just as Troy was crossing Tower 60, and I noticed the purple sage was blooming in the park on the north side of Marine Creek.  I tried to work in as much of one bush as possible as GVRR #2199 arrived with Sunday’s train.

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Sunday morning after catching the eastbound BNSF stack train crossing the Trinity River heading for Dallas on the TRE, I heard the FWWR’s FWDU train leaving Hodge Yard with three GP50’s and three GP38’s pulling 74 cars.  This being the biggest engine consist of all FWWR power I have been able to catch so far, I went cross country to the southwest side of Fort Worth at the Rosedale overpass for my first shot.  I knew I would be able to clearly see all six units here, and engineer Charlie King added a touch of exhaust as he moved to the higher notches for the climb up the 2% grade to Eighth Avenue. 

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I managed to get up and moving early this morning while it was a still relatively cool 75 degrees in Benbrook.  As I made my way east towards downtown Fort Worth, I heard the BNSF 888 North approaching Tower 55, so I decided to head for the Northside Drive overpass to try my luck.  After intently watching south for a few minutes, I had to scurry across to the north sidewalk as the horn blowing at Tower 60 announced a southbound BNSF loaded coal train.  I put on the long telephoto and caught him crossing the Trinity River as the head end came out of dynamic braking and started to power up for the climb to Tower 55.

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