FL9

When we arrived in Sweetwater before noon, we stopped at Allen Family Style Meals and picked up a spread of food to take out to dad’s place.  After a great lunch, we decided to head for the Sweetwater Airport do Dad could visit with his old friend John Howard.  We spent some time out there, but with the overcast skies it was pretty quiet.  When we were leaving, from our location west of town I could hear a horn headed in our direction.  I drove the short distance to the crossing at County Road 256, and a minute or so later the 4346 West - the second westbound at Judd from this morning - blew past us at track speed on his way to El Paso. 

The radio was suddenly overloaded with track warrants, and it quickly became apparent this train from earlier in the day was the first of a fleet of five westbounds that had now caught up with us.  The 4346 West was most likely a “Z” train, so he had worked his way to the head of the pack.  Just about to stop at the crew change point in town was the 3994 West, who we had passed over the top of at Earls this morning.  We drove down and parked at the Mulberry Street crossing about 1/4-mile west of the crew change point, and in a few minutes the 3994 roared past our location as he accelerated uphill.

Right behind him and pulling down for his own crew change was the 8449 leading two other SD70ACe’s and a straight SD70M.  His K5LLA had sounded good this morning at Judd, and since there was not even a slight breeze at this location, I decided to make a recording of him leaving town.