Last Saturday Judy and I traveled to Austin so I could give a presentation Sunday afternoon on railroads in Texas to the patrons of the Neill-Cochran House Museum. Dr. Parker Lamb also attended and added greatly to the discussion along with generously allowing me to project some of his excellent railroad photos of Austin 30 years ago. The meeting was held at Cedar Park in cars of the Austin Steam Train Association and a good time was had by all. Saturday afternoon on the way to our motel I heard the detector go off at mile post 183 just south of town, and since we were near the Amtrak station I pulled in to catch what would probably be a northbound train due to directional running here. Sure enough about five minutes later the UP 4147 North passed over Lady Bird Lake and then curved west past my location where several pedestrians lingered.
The Austin skyline has certainly changed here in the past 40 years since the ex-H&TC depot that hosted SP and then Katy passenger trains was torn down and replaced by modern buildings on Third Street at Congress. The new 42-story building in the near background is the Spring Condiminium. One of those corner condos on the left with a balcony would make a great train watching spot.
