FL9

I was still lounging around in shorts and a T-shirt reading email Saturday morning when the radio came to life with an eastbound BNSF train on the UP Baird Sub wanting to leave Iona.  The light was perfect, so I was out the door with camera in hand as he got clearance to come into one of the new bypass tracks.  I made it down to the crossing at Boaz Park with about two minutes to spare before the BNSF 815 east came on through.

(Read on …)

I decided to get out for a few hours after work on Friday, and headed downtown with the thought of catching some TRE action along with the departure of Amtrak 822.  I positioned myself in a sunny spot at the end of double track at North Fort Worth, but even though there was a green board lit up for 822 to leave the ITC, I could see no activity in the distance and the radio was silent as departure time came and went.  The BNSF 110 job on his way back from interchange at UP’s Centennial Yard pulled up on the siding, and toned up DS22 to find out what was up.

(Read on …)

Before the UP absorbed the Katy in August of 1988, the last two groups of new locomotives purchased were twenty GP39-2’s in 1984, and a total of thirty-seven SD40-2’s bought between 1978 and 1981.  Up until the merger they could be found all over the railroad on everything from manifest to coal trains.  Both classes came equipped with new Leslie S5T five-chime horns, a delight to the railfan’s ears.  First up we see SD40-2 #602 on the point of a loaded coal train about to leave Denison, TX on February 7th in 1987.

Two months later from above we see GP39-2 #367 northbound out of Ney Yard in Fort Worth.

This weekend I’ll decide which direction to head in next for awhile.  I like to see that following the Katy for a week has certainly increased the number of comments.  Apparently I’ll have to put up more appropriate “FL9″ vintage stuff soon as TXAggie is in a quandary pondering the lack thereof, and we can’t have that now can we?

Today is a long overtime day, so here are two quick and dirty slide scans.  The first is of GP38 #301 and a GP40 passing the station sign at Bells, TX in 1978 on the Denison to Dallas line.  It is not technically perfect, but once again how are you going to reshoot it today?  The #301 was part of the Katy’s order of four GP38’s #300 to #303 in 1969.

Can anyone tell me the direction this train is traveling in?  It has been too many years since I was in Bells and I can’t tell from the slide.  Tonight’s other shot is of GP38-2 #309 eastbound at AT&SF’s Tower 19 in Dallas, TX in 1989, one year after the UP merger.  The #309 was one of 10 GP38-2’s #304 to #313 delivered to the Katy by EMD in 1973, and the paint job is starting to fade.

Will there be more Katy tomorrow evening?  Stay tuned to find out……