I had a photographic dry spell from Thursday July 15th returning from Sweetwater until Saturday July 24th late in the day when I spent 2 1/2 hours next to the Baird Sub. I had been informed the MODFW train was coming east late in the afternoon with a KCS Retro Belle on the point, and I left the house a little after 4:30pm to see if I could catch it coming through nearby Aledo. I was planning to drive directly to Aledo but then I heard a meet about to happen at Iona, and as luck would have it no one was using the their train or engine number on the radio. Not knowing if the eastbound was the MODFW or not, I headed north to Benbrook and then west along the Baird Sub, sacrificing a potential shot of the better lit westbound train. The eastbound was just about to leave the siding at Iona when I arrived at the east switch, and it turned out to be an intermodal train with only the UP 7876 up front.
Only a single unit was on the rear too, the UP 7858.
The westbound train was long gone, so I drove to Aledo and parked under a shade tree on the west side of the town hall park. I monitored the radio while I caught up on my reading, but there was no word about the MODFW. After an hour my solitude was interrupted by the UP 6709 West with two other units and a manifest train.
On the rear a UP and another NS engine were idling in DPU mode.
Still nothing was heard regarding the MODFW, and I was about to give up when I heard a faint transmission from a westbound leaving Fort Worth that I thought had identified itself as the “BNSF something 455″. Thinking this might be a currently infrequent BNSF trackage rights train I hung out until 7:31pm when it turned out to be the NS 8455 West with a solid black lashup and another manifest train in tow.
The light was about gone now, and then I finally heard the MODFW was between Preble and Weatherford, putting it at my location well after dark. I decided to settle for the three trains I had caught and let the brass ring go for this day as I headed on back to the house.
