Sweetwater at Sunset

It was not long before sunset on Saturday February 20th when I finished up my family business in Sweetwater with a visit to the Post Office. The sun was coming out for the last few minutes of daylight and circling the court house square I drove south towards the tracks on Oak. I heard the sound of an eastbound train throttling up at the UP depot and pulled over for this shot of the UP 5282 East looking down the quiet street lined with a few remaining businesses barely hanging on.

The eastbound intermodal paused at the west switch to the siding and the conductor came down as the dispatcher decided who would hold the main as a westbound rare loaded coal train was leaving Eskota after changing crews there.

I relocated to the east end of the 11,569-foot siding where a few minutes later the UP 6514 West went into the hole.

I rapidly moved to the Business 80 overpass behind me and got this view of the eastbound intermodal coming towards me on the main as the coal train moved up the siding on the right.

Pulling back on the zoom I snapped one more shot of the UP 5282 East leaving town with the sun setting over the train.

Standing directly over both trains I recorded the contrasts in cargo, especially the coal train that is rare for this line. I will have to find out from someone what the destination is.

I had missed a similar infrequent coal train move on the Baird Sub two weeks ago, so this time I drove back towards the Sweetwater depot for another shot as the train started to gain speed after cresting the grade at the west switch in the background.

There were two units up front and two more on the rear shoving hard up the next grade to Roscoe as the UP 8212’s headlight provided the rear marker in the fading light at milepost 447.8 across from the depot.

The day was done and I put the camera away before making a three hour run back home, arriving shortly after 11:00pm.