FL9

Monday May 5th was my last day in Austin, and on the way to work after checking out of the motel I stopped at the Austin Amtrak station.  The weather was now cool with a light rain falling compared to the last few sunny days.  I decided to look for some kind of mood shot as Amtrak 22 was only a few minutes south of town at the time.  Umbrella in hand, I stood at the west end of the platform as the train came into view around the curve after crossing what was until recently Town Lake.

As now familiar P42 204 passed by, the passengers gathered up their belongings and prepared to assault the train to get out of the gentle rain.

As they boarded at the beginning of their journey in Austin, I headed on to finish up my local tasks.  Judy and I ended our Austin trip a few hours later when we left town on I35 driving north towards Fort Worth and home.

Yesterday’s blog pictures consisted entirely of EMD locomotives, while today’s are all GE products.  While sitting at the County Road 401 crossing west of Taylor I thought Amtrak 22 northbound would be next, but then I heard a rumble growing in volume coming out of town in the opposite direction.  I repositioned to the outside of the curve, and in a minute the UP 7502 South along with two more big GE’s roared by with an empty rock train.

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Sunday morning once I got out of the motel I started listening to the UP Austin Sub dispatcher.  He was talking to the BNSF 6477 North that was approaching Round Rock, so being in north Austin I was already behind in the game.  As this was an SD45-2, I quickly headed out in pursuit towards Taylor.  The BNSF 6477 North turned out to be a five unit light engine movement that I ovetook at Hestes where it was stopped on the main next to an also northbound UP merchandise train in the hole.  I drove on up towards Taylor and just west of town found a southbound train backing into the yard and causing the delay.  Behind its unremarkable UP units and dead in consist was the SP 8283, a hulk of an SD40T-2 that was obviously on its way to or from a deadline somewhere.

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Late in the afternoon on Saturday I headed northwest out of Austin on Highway 183 towards Cedar Park.  I knew the ASTA passenger train had just left Bertam by listening in on the LCRA radio system they share with Capital Metro and the Austin Western.  I made it to a crossing on the north side of Leander after passing the new light rail station under construction there.  After about 15 minutes I was rewarded with this view of ALCO RSD15 442 and its train.

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