Sunday afternoon my father and I caught a few trains around Sweetwater before I headed back to Fort Worth. First up we caught this solid NS lashup on a westbound UP intermodal at the west switch of the Sweetwater siding just before 3:00pm.
The CTC on this end of the Baird Sub has been extended to Tecific, and you can see the new signal construction going on here so it won’t be long until the entire Baird Sub is done and the Toyah Sub won’t be far behind. Missing a UP train out here was difficult with TWC, so watching signals and listening for clues on the radio will become more important. The NS 9838 West had met the UP 7745 East at Sweetwater siding, so dad and I hopped on I20 and beat the eastbound to Trent where I caught it racing by with the “Trent Gorillas” water tower overhead.
We drove back to Tecific and camped out for awhile before the next train came into our sights around 5:00pm. The BNSF 1097 East came down from the Sweetwater yard and entered the siding at Tecific on the Slaton Sub so it could cross over to the UP Baird Sub and run to Fort Worth.
As the train slowly pulled down through the siding the UP dispatcher told the crew they would be there for one eastbound and probably two westbound trains before he could take them.
We parked across from the BNSF 1097 and soon recorded this view of the UP 4283 East passing by on the Baird Sub in the background.
With the increased traffic levels out here, the “holy grail” shot of a train on each railroad at the same time is more more achievable. We drove back to Sweetwater where I dropped dad off and stopped by the post office. My timing was good as the UP 4948 West was pulling up to the depot for a crew change as I got back into the car. I headed out to the west side of town to catch today’s ZMQLA climbing the grade out of town as his train snaked back around the curve.
I got back to the depot just in time to catch the UP 3822 West finishing up its crew change and starting to pull on the train.
With the advance of CTC, soon we will no longer hear trains getting a warrant to milepost 447.8 at the end of the Baird Sub.
One more train was in the cards for me as I found the UP 7764 West tied down in the siding at Merkel at sunset.
The rest of the drive back to Benbrook in the dark was uneventful, and I will probably pick back up with the West Virginia trip tomorrow.
