This past weekend Judy and I drove out to Sweetwater on Saturday to work on my dad’s house. Nearly cloudless skies and multiple trains on the Baird Sub made it hard to concentrate on business, but I managed to get my fix with one train before we reached Weatherford. Not far from I20 between Annetta and Weatherford with slight back lighting is the UP 7442 West leading a stack train.
On the rear the UP 8370 and 4162 were pushng the train towards an overtaking meet at Weatherford, but we needed to head on out to Sweetwater so this turned out to be the only catch of the day.
Sunday as we returned to Benbrook the weather was the complete opposite with thick overcast and a cold drizzle falling everywhere. A rare loaded coal train was tied down at Jayell east of Baird, but the gate to the west end of the siding was locked and I balked at the several hundred yard walk in the rain. Moving on we stopped at the east end of Judd to walk Molly the dog, and I got lucky
when the detector three miles to the west spoke up just as we were leaving. I put on the 100-400mm zoom and a few minutes later caught this view of the headlights of the UP 8222 East gleaming off the wet rails. In the latest issue of Railfan & Railroad Steve Barry talks about how the low light capabilities of newer digital cameras have inspired us old film shooters to get out in bad weather, and I think this shot is a perfect example.
I switched to vertical for a head-on view of the SD9043MAC just before it started into the curve.
One hundred and one cars later the UP 8167 came by shoving solo towards Fort Worth.
We headed in the same direction and were home with our feet up when the train caught up to us and entered Davidson Yard.
