FL9

I left off yesterday chasing an empty BNSF coal train with two new GE ES44AC’s less than a month old on the point, and a third as yet unseen by me working as the DPU.  After catching him at the Hicks Field crossing, I heard from the track warrants over the radio he would be meeting a loaded coal train at Avondale.  As the train he was meeting had a older SD70MAC leading, I decided to jump on ahead to Rhome and look for a better shot of the new power.  I found it just east of the main street crossing on the outside of the big curve through town with a lot of greenery, and I waited for this shot in full sun as he rolled on west.

He was not making the normal 65 mph allowed for an empty, so I was able to beat him to the next big set of “S” curves between Rhome and Herman.  I got him first at full zoom coming out of one curve and into the next one.

After snapping that picture, I zoomed back for a closeup of him rounding the curve to the right.  I was not as fortunate and had diffused light for these two shots thanks to one small cloud.

I got ready to shoot the DPU going away, and this is when I found out it was the consecutively numbered 6087.  Unfortunately the nose door was standing open as it filled my viewfinder at minimum zoom, so I lowered the camera thinking a decent shot was going to elude me.  However physics took over as the engine tracked into the curve, and the forces at work caused the door to suddenly slam shut.  I quickly raised the camera back up and zoomed out all the way for this last moment shot before he disappeared around the curve.

He would be meeting another eastbound just up the line at Herman, and two more westbounds were following in his wake.  I decided to stay put here at the curves and let them all come to me, which I will share with you tomorrow.