Tuesday May 13th dawned overcast and rainy, but before work I was determined to try to get a shot of a BNSF passenger special that was due to leave the Fort Worth ITC at 7:30am. I left the house at 6:45am heading towards Tower 60 thinking I had plenty of time, but then I heard on the radio that the special had left the ITC at 6:30am instead. Oh well, bad intel. I got on I20 and then I35 north, but even though I was blessed with light traffic, by the time I got to Alliance Parkway I could hear the special already on the approach to Metro.
I gave it up and thought about the best route back to the office in southwest Fort Worth. Southbound traffic on I35 was normal morning stop-and-go, so I exited and drove west through Haslet towards Avondale with the intention of coming down Business 287 into Saginaw. As I crossed the tracks just south of Alliance Yard, I could see the FRED blinking on the tail of a southbound intermodal that had just passed by. I heard the BNSF 5331 get a warrant westbound on the Wichita Falls Sub, which meant I had not missed this train at all. While the BNSF 5331 West took the long way to Avondale via Lake Wanda and CP11, I drove two miles west and then one north to the west end of Avondale siding. There I had plenty of time to switch to the 100-400mm telephoto and get set under the umbrella for this shot of the now speeding train on its way to California.
The colors may be subdued, but one good thing about rainy overcast days is that the signals and headlights really stand out! I gladly took my consolation prize for the early morning start and drove on to work.
