FL9

Sunday the 11th we headed back into Sweetwater for lunch, and afterwards a trip to the post office allowed me to once again visit the Mulberry Street crossing as a westbound merchandise train was ready to depart.  Engineers must be in a good mood at this spot as they start their trip to Pecos since the hogger on the 4223 West gave me a wave as his five units accelerated out of town.

Aroud 4:00pm we said our goodbyes to my father and started the roughly 3-hour trip back to Benbrook.  As we passed by Trent I caught a glimpse of headlights coming westbound out of Merkel, so I pulled over at the Noodle Dome Road exit for this grab shot of an intermodal led by the 5304.

The sign refers to a local geological formation several miles north of here that was used as a lookout back in the 1800’s.  We saw another westbound UP intermodal at Putnam just as it got dark, and made it home safely just after 7:00pm.

Only a few minutes passed after the 8449 left the depot before the headlights of the 4374 West came into view from the east.  It pulled down to the steps and the crews exchanged pleasantries as the Fort Worth crew got off and the Pecos crew boarded the train now under their control.  Soon they were sealed up and ready to depart.

(Read on …)

While the 8449 West changed crews at the depot, I set up my recorder 1/4 mile west on the other side of the Mulberry Street grade crossing about 75 feet back from the tracks.  The air was still, so wind noise was not going to be a problem today.  Click on this link to play the MP3 recording via your media player:

UP 8449 West Leaving Sweetwater, Texas

When he whistled off I started the recorder and quietly moved towards the track.  He blew for the crossing at the depot, and the gates at Mulberry Street came down before he started his horn sequence again.  I took this shot as he passed through the crossing.

The engineer was friendly and gave me a wave and two short blasts as he notched out the three SD70ACe’s and SD70M to handle the westbound grade out of town.  As the roar of the units died away to be replaced by the rumble of the well cars, I used the sound to cover my return to the recorder to shut it down.  Now it was time to head down to the depot for the last two westbounds.

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.