Wednesday February 17th the BNSF delivered an oversize load to the FWWR in the form of a new transformer going to the TXU nuclear power plant at Comanche Peak. Weighing in at over 200 tons and riding on a special 16-axle depressed-center flat car, the transformer was too large to fit through the two truss bridges over the Trinity River on the FWWR between Tower 60 and Belt Junction. Here are two photos of the car at Hodge Yard that morning.
The plan was to put a BNSF pilot on the train at Hodge Yard and run the FWWR special through Tower 55 south to Birds and then down the little-used connector to Belt Junction. After a delay getting the BNSF delivery job on its way to North Yard, the special with FWWR GP50’s 2010 and 2011 left Hodge Yard and entered UP’s Choctaw Main One for the run to Tower 55. Here is the train coming down hill towards Tower 60.
A few minutes later the train crossed over the Trinity River bottoms.
A few delays allowed me to catch up and be in position when the special passed through Tower 55 at 12:27pm.
The train made a straight run to the south switch at Birds where it entered the now little-used connector to the Dublin Sub a mile west at Belt Junction.
After stopping at Belt Junction to let the BNSF pilot crew off, the train proceeded out the Dublin Sub at track speed. I caught it for one more sequence just north of I20 before having to go to work.
The rest of the delivery run passed without incident, and another transformer was interchanged to FWWR on February 26th although this time a pair of BNSF GenSets delivered the load to the FWWR at Belt Junction.
