FL9

Sunday afternoon I got out again for a few hours and returned to the Trinity River bottoms just south of Tower 60 where I met up with fellow railfans Troy Minnick and Leslie Holt.  Several southbounds with perfect light kept us occupied until sunset.  A southbound loaded grain train led by the BNSF 4965 came down the Fort Worth Sub just after a northbound UP passed by on the Choctaw Sub Main One in the background.

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Lots to do here at the end of the year, so in short here are the rest of the pictures from last Saturday afternoon!  First off down in the Trinity River bottoms the BNSF 9945 leads a loaded coal train from North Yard over the UP Choctaw Sub Main One southbound towards Tower 55.

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I got out for a few hours this afternoon with Danny Sisson, and early on we spent some time with Randy Nelson, Mr. NoMoSantaFe himself in the Trinity River bottoms south of Tower 60.  We got some good BNSF action in the low winter light, but the real prize for today came later just before sunset at Lake Wanda.  Danny and I joined Charles Biel, Ken Moore and son John and other fans at the south end of the siding where we were treated to a rare sight in today’s railfan world.  While we were waiting for the BNSF 736 West in warbonnet paint to get a warrant onto the Wichita Falls Sub, we saw the headlights of a southbound train coming down the main.  When it emerged from the shadow of the 736’s train, lo and behold the lead unit was the Santa Fe 832 in faded warbonnet paint.

After a daily dose of the usual H1, H2 and H3 BNSF paint schemes, catching these two old veterans side-by-side was a refreshing sight, and a great way to end the day.

I happened to be standing in the right place at the north end of Ray Yard in Denison, Texas in January of 1989 to catch this lineup.  On the left M-K-T RS3M 146 has just returned from downtown Denison with a cut of cars.  In the middle M-K-T GP38-2 307 is leading a northbound freight getting ready to leave for Parsons, Kansas.  On the far right a northbound UP freight led by new C40-8 9304 is passing by on its way to Kansas City.

Even though two M-K-T units outnumber the single UP in view, everything in this photo has been UP property since the summer before in 1988.