FL9

Sunday morning February 18th Judy and I got up before dawn and headed down to the railfan platform in Flatonia, Texas.  The sky was going to be mainly clear, and I was ready to meet Tommy Shults and spend the day photographing around the platform while learning how it and the rail park came to be.  Here is a copy of the map from the brochure regarding the platform for those not familiar with the area and the crossing of the UP’s Glidden and Cuero Subdivisions.  As with all photos here, just click on it to see the larger version.

At 7:23 am the first train after sunrise through town was the TFM 1672 on trackage rights out of Houston on the Glidden Sub to Flatonia, where KCS traffic turns south on the Cuero Sub to head down to Corpus Christi.  I used a tree and a grain silo to diffuse the sun as he approached.

As he drew even with me he slowed down and started to curve off of the Glidden Sub to the south.

At 7:25 am he had his relatively short intermodal train around the corner and a track warrant to proceed towards Victoria.

Next from the railfan platform we see the UP local power consisting of a B40-8 and a GP60 as they drill cars around the west leg of the wye from the yard down to the Cuero Sub switch at 8:04 am.

Judy left me in Tommy’s care and headed out on her own to explore.  Since the morning light was good on the east side of Tower 3 downtown in the rail park, Tommy and I headed back east the few short blocks to it’s new location at 8:27 am.

Just to the west of Tower 3 is the old San Antonio and Aransas Pass freight depot, which Flatonia eventually hopes to refurbish as a railroad museum.

I was hoping for an eastbound train to photograph passing Tower 3, and fate came through when we heard the detector at MP 126.0 highball a train.  A few minutes later at 8:52 am the UP 3939 East sped by with an abundance of power up front.

With this desired shot in the bag, we headed back to Tommy’s house located on the south side of the tracks one block east of the diamond.