FL9

Looking back to September of 1983 again, today’s slide takes us 150 miles south from the big curve at Belva on the AT&SF transcon in Oklahoma to the ex-Frisco between Chickasha and Lawton.  Three ex-Frisco GP38-2’s are leading the southbound local from Oklahoma City to Quanah, Texas through Fletcher, Oklahoma.

GP38-2 2287 leading is the ex-Frisco 432, and with its Leslie S5T blaring and mars light sweeping from side to side, it is easy to imagine it still painted mandarin orange and white.

Today’s slide from the past takes us to the roughly 300 degree curve on the Santa Fe transcon between Heman and Belva, Oklahoma in September of 1983.  An F45 is leading two C30-7’s and an SD45 on a hot westbound intermodal coming around the curve at 60mph or better.

That red Oklahoma dirt looks pretty in a photograph, but once it gets wet it turns into the kind of glue that traps vehicles and pulls off your boots when you try to walk through it.

In October of 1990 when this photo was taken we did not see a lot of Rio Grande power in Fort Worth except for the SP unit coal trains that came down from Colorado on the Burlington Northern.  Here we see one at the junction at the south end of SP’s Broadway Yard south of Tower 55 as it moves from the AT&SF to the SP Midlothian Sub.

This day’s power consists of two SD45’s, an SD40T-2, another SD45, and one more SD40T-2.  A far cry from today’s pair of MAC’s or GEVO’s…… 

On Saturday just before John and I shot Amtrak 821 that had obviously had problems, we photographed a southbound UP loaded rock train out of Chico on the Duncan Sub from the Northside Drive overpass.

This train with only two GP60’s and around 30 loads had problems of its own getting into town.  It was delaying the departure of two northbound merchandise trains bound for the Duncan Sub that were waiting to the left on Choctaw Main One.