FL9

Once dad’s caregiver arrived, I started back for Fort Worth shortly after 4:00pm on Sunday the 17th.  The radio offered me eastbound UP and BNSF trains ready to leave Sweetwater within a few minutes of each other.  I drove down to the west end of the BNSF Tecific siding to see how this would play out.  The UP train made it through first, and here we see him headed towards Fort Worth as I stand beside the BNSF Lampassas Sub.

The BNSF signals are lit up green over red, and I suppose I can emphasize that in Photoshop some day when there is more time.  I moved back down to the side of the road, and a few minutes later the BNSF 4516 East took that green signal at track speed.

I listened in as the BNSF 4516 East read back a track warrant from the Lampassas Sub dispatcher to run 33 miles southeast to the siding at View, TX a few miles southwest of Abilene.  There he was to take the siding for the BNSF 8843 West, which I figured had to be the empty coal train referred to earlier in the day.  As I drove east on I20, it became evident that with no special effort on my part the train and I were going to arrive at the interstate overpass at the same time.  Using my right hand to hold the camera set for shutter priority and hit the focus button, I rolled down my window and balanced the camera on my left arm as I also used my left arm to steer.  Against the odds, blindly hitting the shutter release three times as things seemed to line up yielded this one good shot.

I decided as I drove that it would be worth the side trip to photograph the meet, so I got off of I20 at Merkel and took the Farm to Market roads to View.  The “view” from the mesa just southwest of town was the catalyst to name the town “View” shortly after the construction of the Santa Fe’s Coleman Cutoff in the early 1900’s.  I arrived just in time to introduce myself to the conductor from the BNSF 8843 West as he lined the switch at the west end of View.

Along with Track Warrant Control this is automatic block signal territory, so the conductor had waited until the 4516 East was past the approach signal before lining him into the siding so he could keep moving as the sun was now very near the horizon.  Notice the Dispatcher’s Phone Booth on the right, something you don’t see much anymore.    

After the head end of the intermodal train passed me, I turned to capture the 4516 entering the siding with the empty coal train holding the main on the right.

We both watched the loaded well cars stream by, and in a few minutes the FRED brought up the rear as the 4516 East cleared the main.

With the switch restored to the mainline, the conductor reboarded the 8843 West, and shortly the combination of EMD and GE power was gaining speed past the WSS (West Siding Switch) View sign.

As the stream of coal hoppers picked up speed, I slowed my shutter speed down for this blurred shot of the approaching rear end at the highway crossing.

I had just enough time to move my shutter speed back up as the BNSF 6116 in DPU mode roared by me at full throttle towards Sweetwater and the setting sun.

That ended the weekend train wise, but just down the road on my way back to I20 I stopped for this final picture of a group of calves playing “king of the hill” at sunset.

On the way home to Benbrook in the dark I was on the phone quite a bit trying to figure out UP’s plan for Monday morning for their business car train that was tied up in Fort Worth.  As you will see tomorrow, I was reasonably successful.