FL9

This past Saturday afternoon The FWWR’s Tolar Turn called at 3:00pm was supposed to be powered by new SD40’s 2015 and 2016, and I decided on a looking-down view from the Hemphill Street overpass.  I left the house at 3:00pm, and while driving east on Vickery I saw a headlight coming my way out of the new bypass tracks on the south side of Davidson Yard.  I pulled across the overpass at the west end of the yard just in time for this shot as the hot ZNSLC train started its journey towards Sweetwater.

I made it to Hemphill in plenty of time to hear that the Tolar Turn had been delayed and the Grapevine passenger train would come first on its run to Eighth Avenue from the Stockyards.  The 2199 was giving it everything it had when it reached to bottom of the hill just below me.

The drainage channel on the left has just been rebuilt here offering a better view of trains coming around the curve just south of the UP mainline overpass above the FWWR.  The Tolar Turn was delayed enough the passenger train was able to return to the Stockyards just as the Turn was crossing Tower 60.  John Briggs had now joined me on the overpass, and we watched the clouds as we waited.  At 4:45pm I heard a horn approaching from the north, but it was a Leslie SL3 instead of the Nathan K3LA I was expecting to hear.  I told John I bet they had put GP50 2012 on the point of the 70-car train, and my expected SD40 picture went up in smoke as I was proven right a few seconds later.

To add insult to injury, the sun went behind a cloud just seconds before the train filled the frame.  I did manage to get reasonable overhead views of first SD40-2 #2015,

and then of SD40R #2016.

The cloud situation did not look like it would improve, so I headed back home.  The SD40 leading shot taken from the Hemphill overpass will have to wait until another day.    

Judy and I took Tuesday of this last week off to recover from our West Virginia trip before returning to work.  I had a new request from FWWR for some shots showing freshly rebuilt track for an upcoming PowerPoint presentation.  As a result while running errands I listened for the Monday through Friday 1:00pm Tolar Turn to leave Hodge Yard, and I intercepted him in Trinity Park.

This was my first action shot of SD40’s #2015 and #2016 pulling a short 15 car train along with GP50 #2012.  SD40R #2017 should be at Hodge Yard by the time you read this post on Sunday.  After the train’s passage I walked up the embankment to get this shot of the freshly rebuilt track looking back north towards the levee gate.

The tamper/liner and ballast regulator are working hard as the FWWR plans to replace 35,000 ties this year between Fort Worth and Cresson and Cleburne.  The Tolar Turn stopped to pick up a cart at Eighth Avenue, so I was able to get ahead of him for one more shot just south of milepost 0 at Fort Worth Junction.

The clouds blocked me this time and they only looked thicker on ahead, so I continued on with my errands from here.

Today is the last of the old slides from previous trips back east.  In a day or so I will start showing the pictures from this month’s trip to West Virginia.  For now, one of the favorite railfan locations on the Sand Patch grade is the Foley Lookout between Fairhope and Glencoe, PA.  Your vehicle must have good ground clearance to get over the rocks on the road to this place.

In July of 1998 Scott Speed and I were at the lookout as CSX Train #133 chugged westbound up the winding grade with three GE B36-7’s pulling this intermodal train between Cumberland and Connellsville.

Thursday the 23rd before work I was fortunate enough to get a few pictures, including my first personal sighting of the FWWR 2017 at Davidson Yard.  First up however was this northbound BNSF Temple to Alliance train with two GEVO’s on the point passing the siding at Birds on the final approach to Tower 55.

I had called Hodge Yard to check, and been told the 2017 had not been delivered yet by the UP.  I drove by Davidson Yard on the way to work and immediately spotted this SOO SD60 basking in the sun.

I did not see the 2017 and was about to head on when I saw it trailing a UP engine consist leaving the yard with a transfer run to Ney Yard.  It stopped right across from the bend in Rogers Road, so I was able to get this rear view first.

I moved a few feet further for this full side view before the train headed on east.

If my information is correct, the frame number will be 7861-31 and this engine will have started out as the SP 8440 before rebuilding as an SD40R and renumbering to the SP 7363 before becoming an NRE lease unit of that same number.  I had been told and reported this engine would be named the “Tim Curry”, but in reality when the painting is done it will be named the “Kid Curry” after the infamous outlaw who rode with “Butch Cassidy” and the “Sundance Kid”, the designated names for the FWWR 2015 and 2016.