FL9

The majority of Saturday was devoted to working at home and running errands.  It was miserably hot and humid with the temperature just over 100 degrees, as it had been all week.  The trip home from my last errand of the day took me close to Tower 60 at the appointed 4:45pm departure time of the passenger train back to Grapevine from the Stockyards.  I had already spoken to Troy and learned the 2248 would probably not run again on Sunday due to an injector problem, so heat or not, this was my one opportunity for the weekend.  I set up behind the grain inspection offices just south of Northeast 28th Street as this was the one place they would have good light as they run due north for a short distance.  Gary was running with Troy firing as they assaulted the hill up to Hodge Yard, and Troy turned on the 1:1 scale Lionel smoke unit as they came into view.

I balanced the scene between the train and the spreadind tree along with a glimpse of downtown Fort Worth over the passenger cars.  It is nice to know that it is still possilbe to find rural looking scenes like this amidst the urban growth of DFW.  The ever so slight breeze lifted the smoke just right over the train so as to not block the sun as the 2248 chugged on by me.

I was surprised at how many passengers were aboard the five cars on account of the heat.  They looked pretty wrung out as it was, and excited with the motion generated wind that was fanning them.  I can only guess how hot Troy and Gary felt riding behind that giant oil-fired flame thrower.  I’m going to get out early Sunday morning for awhile before it gets hot, so we’ll see how I fare train wise. 

I was not sure which direction to go for today, and then I noticed there were only two pictures in the MKT Gallery so far.  Now the count is up to six with four new additions.  First up is a southbound loaded coal train with a typical lashup for the Katy in May of 1987.  Instead of two AC units up front with a DPU on the rear like we see today, this train has MKT SD40-2 #624 leading followed by a MKT GP39-2 and then three BN C30-7’s totalling 14,300 horsepower, all on the head end.

This location at Durant, OK was always one of my favorites due to the crossing with the old Frisco from Lakeside to Hugo and the wonderful depot that sat in the northwest corner of the diamond.  The diamond is still there today to host UP and Kiamichi trains, but nothing else remains of the past.

Nine years earlier on October 6th in 1978 we are standing on the old steel and wood bridge that carries Dairy Lane over the MKT mainline just south of Atoka, OK.  MKT GP40 #170 and a sister are pulling hard and headed south towards Denison with a merchandise train.

Behind a single boxcar they have a long string of rock hoppers picked up at the Stringtown quarry, and with only two units up front they may require a helper on the head end to make the hill from the Red River up to Ray Yard at Denison.  The trees have grown up some, but you can still duplicate this scene today.

These three GP40’s with #227 leading are not working as hard a few weeks later on November 8th in 1978 as they lead a southbound train through the residential neighborhoods on the west side of Denison, TX.  This train is bound for Greenville and ultimately Dallas, and has come around the Wye at the north end of Ray Yard to head towards downtown Denison where they will cross the Frisco and the SP before passing Eisenhower’s birthplace.

The tracks from downtown Denison to Bells were removed many years ago, but this section still exists and is used by the Texas & Northeastern to interchange with the UP at Ray Yard.

Finally for this evening we go back five more years to 1973, and on December 3rd we are witness to the passage of the MKT’s northbound train from Oklahoma City, OK to Parson’s, KS.  As the fireman waves at us with a red flag, two F7’s pull the long train through a sea of dead weeds at Arcadia, several miles northeast of Oklahoma City.

Within another year or so this line will be severed, and the MKT Oklahoma City trains will travel over the Rock Island to reach their own mainline at McAlester.  The track here through Arcadia has been long abandoned, and I have not been back to see if there are any traces left.  Here is your motivation to get out and shoot those branch lines now!

Back in the early 1990’s when the Dublin Sub was still on the official ATSF map, you could average four to six trains in daylight on a good day of railfanning.  Speeds on the line were low enough and the highways good enough that you could easily get ahead of a train for multiple shots.  First off, here is a westbound 875 train from Dallas to Southern California led by an SD45 seen passing the Dublin station sign on February 21st in 1990.

The next month brought even better things in that FP45 #107 made its first trip east on the 875 train to Dallas after coming out of the paint shop in San Bernadino restored to full red warbonnet livery.  The date was March 8th 1990, and the Dublin Sub probably saw a record number of railfans out that day.  I chased the train from Dublin east to Cleburne, and this shot of him leaving Granbury was one of my best for the day.

The rugged terrain of the railroad always brought me back for more, and on July 19th in 1992 I was on top of the west side of the cut south of Delaware on the grade down to the connection with the Lampassas Sub at Ricker to catch the QFWLA train.  His GP60M, B40-8W, GP60 lashup had the intermodal train stretched out along the “S” curve as he came by in dynamic braking.  In a few more minutes he will pass through Brownwood on the way to Sweetwater and on the the west coast.

Later in November of 1992 we see the westbound Brownwood Local out of Saginaw passing the east switch at Waples with GE B23-7 #6380 on the point.  At this time one Local would start from Brownwood and Saginaw respectively each day and then pass somewhere on the Dublin Sub.

Notice the lit CTC signals which are still standing today, but as dark and silent sentinels to the passage of FWWR trains.  

Most recently referred to as the “Peanut Line” due to the large number of shipments of that commodity to Dublin out of Gorman and DeLeon, the remaining 25 miles of track was originally part of the Texas Central Railroad built between Ross and Albany in the early 1880’s.  This would easily account for the 1898 date found in February of 1990 on this rail in the siding west of the old MKT depot in Dublin.

The line was leased to the MKT in 1924, which operated it through abandonments until a new Texas Central Railroad was launched on November 30, 1967 to operate the remaining trackage between Dublin and Gorman, powered by ex-HB&T ALCO S2 switchers.  They were starting to show their age on this same visit in February of 1990 as #1 was parked in front of the ex-MKT depot.

The builder’s plate on ALCO S2 #4 showed her original vintage to be August 1948.

They had looked much better when I passed through Dublin the first time on August 24th in 1976 as the units were parked on the west side of highway 377.

As with so many branch line operations now gone or changed forever, one of my greatest regrets is that I did not make it a priority to take some vacation time and come back to see them operate during the week.  Now it is too late, so I will make do with FWWR GP38-3’s running over this refurbished line.