FL9

It has been a long time since I had driven along the tracks through Midlothian, as evidenced by the new heavy-rail connector I saw between the UP southbound on the MIdlothian Sub and the BNSF westbound on the Ward Indutrail Spur.  Driving along the west side of the business park where new automobiles are unloaded, I spotted the BNSF 5501 that I had photographed the day before at Tower 55 in the distance surrounded by a sea of cars parked in the grass.

I heard the detector go off on the Midlothian Sub at Joe Pool Lake ten or so miles away, so I parked the SUV and Molly the dog under the Highway 67 overpass in the shade.  When I determined enough time had elapsed, I walked up onto the overpass and was soon rewarded by this shot of the UP 3343 South wearing a smile as it passed a small patch of bluebonnets.

The lead SD40-2 on this local train was diffferent in that the air line for the horn can be seen running all the way from the rear of the unit on the engineer’s side.  This made me think of an ex-MKT unit since they had single-note horns mounted back there, but I could not confirm this after checking several rosters.

The local train stopped and took the new connector at the diamond onto the BNSF westbound towards Venus.  This was new to me also, but instead of following it the radio indicated back-to-back BNSF loaded coal trains were coming through Mansfield on the Midlothain Sub southbound pipeline.  I decided to head a few miles north towards them to scout out the grade crossing on Gifco Road.