FL9

The merger with the UP was looming closer by March of 1988, so it was time to get out and shoot those pure Katy lashups while they lasted.  One of those trains I caught that month was the Katy’s soutbound #103 train rounding the curve uphill between Roanoke and Keller, TX. 

This turned out to be a not particularly difficult action shot of two SD40-2’s.  As he came around the curve at us, both units went from a loud roar to a stuttering bark to complete silence in the space of a minute as they drifted to a stop where you see them here.  They would not restart, and it was determined they were out of fuel.  They were supposed to have been filled up at Ray Yard in Denison, but apparently were overlooked.  Two UP units eventually came up from Fort Worth to pull the train on into town.

So as to not neglect the other end of the train, before the advent of the FRED, there were real cabooses back there in the days of full crews. 

Here we see extended vision caboose #128 in the yards at Parsons, KS on October 1st in 1977.  In those days you could almost always get a friendly wave in return for your highball to the waycar, but now the cabooses and many of the people who rode them have fallen victim to progress and corporate streamlining.

Too often we concentrate on the trains operated by a railroad, and tend to overlook the support equipment that works behind the scenes.  A good example is M-K-T “Big Hook” #1040, seen here resting between derailments in the yard at Parsons, KS in 1979.

Heavy duty cranes such as this one have all but disappeared today with the advent of contracting out the cleanup of all derailments to companies like Hulcher.  In the interest of preventing derailments by frequent inspection and to show off the railroad’s physical plant, the ever frugal Katy built track inspection car #1045 themselves out of freight car parts.  This view is also in the yards at Parsons during the same trip in 1979.

This “all Katy all the time” thing is working out pretty well so far……

I just read Leonard Ruback’s blog and the comments for Sunday the 20th( http://centexrails.blogspot.com/ ), and it appears that if I switch to all Katy pictures, my website traffic will go through the roof!  Why I’ll bet David Hawkins will raise my hits by 50% single handedly!  I can start selling Katy memorabilia online and get rich quick.  So now down to business with the baited hook.

Two M-K-T GP40’s are seen in the summer of 1973 as they switch the feed mill in Durant, OK.  For some reason the 229 is missing the usual M-K-T decal on its nose.  We’ll see what other Katy I can come up with for tomorrow to keep up this website’s new theme. 

This afternoon I called the FWWR dispatcher and learned there would be a FWDU called at Hodge for 6:00pm to go to Dublin with two GP50’s and two GP38-3’s and 44 cars.  The cars and GP38-3’s would be left at Dublin and the two GP38-3’s already in Dublin brought back to Fort Worth for servicing.  The current plan is that the Dublin Turns will once again run out of Fort Worth instead of Dublin, which is the way things were done when the line was first acquired.

This would mean good late afternoon light on the westbound train, so I headed on over to Primrose after he passsed through Tower 60.   I caught up on a few magazines as I waited since he was restricted to 30 mph as long as the temperature remained over 100 degrees.  The sun was nearing the horizon as I got this shot near the east end of the siding.

I jumped in the Pilot and beat him down to the grade crossing near the west end of Primrose.

Due to the 30 mph speed restriction, I was able to beat him to the county road that parallels the track from Mustang Creek to Cresson.  I pulled over in an appropriate spot, and as he approached the setting sun brought an orange glow to the nose of the lead unit.

As he passed I swung around and recorded him heading into the sunset like a western cliche.

I followed them on into Cresson, and got one more shot about ten minutes after sunset.

They stopped to switch, and I headed north on highway 377 back to Benbrook and a late supper.