It took a while for the maintenance gangs working around Morgan to clear up, so I had ample time to find a good spot at the grade crossing in the middle of the siding at Blum south of Cleburne. It was snowing hard at times, but the ground was too warm from preceding days and the white stuff was not accumulating to the same degree as the previous “blizzard” two weeks earlier. The snow effect still looked pretty good for Texas when the BNSF 9893 North showed up with an empty coal train in tow shortly after 11:00am.
An SD70ACe and a GEVO passed by with a humming noise as they brought up the rear.
The second northbound was a manifest train with a UP SD70M up front, probably repaying horsepower hours owed to the BNSF.
No southbounds were in the mix, but as the only other train that would be in the immediate area soon would be the FWWR Dublin Turn over 20 miles to the northwest, I decided to hang out and wait for Amtrak 22. I drove into Blum for a snack, and when I crossed this bridge on the way I suddenly realized this was the original Santa Fe right-of-way before it was moved in 1952 to bypass Blum and Kopperl to accomodate the building of Lake Whitney.
After getting something to eat and drink I relocated to the north end of Blum where I read the latest crop of railroad magazines. The birds were busy foraging for food as the snow continued to fall.
The snow started to taper off after 2:00pm, and by the time Amtrak 22 arrived an hour later most all of the accumulation had quickly melted away.
A few flurries were still visible as the train headed awy from me towards Rio Vista and a stop at Cleburne.
Nothing else was close by on the BNSF, so I started back towards Benbrook hoping to find something else moving along the way.
