On December 24th as the FWWR prepared for a day off on Christmas Day, It was decided the Dublin Turn would only run as far as Tolar and leave their Dublin cars there for one of the Dublin jobs to come pick up on December 26th. The train got out of the yard a little after 11:30am with a matching lashup of all four SD40′s lugging around 80 cars. I had Christmas chores to finish, but since it is only a few minutes from home, with advance warning I caught the train climbing the grade out of the Mustang Creek bottom towards Cresson. The weather was mild and sunny and the four turbocharged units in Run 8 sounded great as they passed me near milepost 16 making around 20 mph.
I drove on ahead a mile to catch them one more time at the grade crossing on the way to Cresson. The fir trees and fence of the house out of sight to the left added a little color to the dry Texas winter scene.
The last twenty cars of the train were filled with natural gas pipe headed for the loadout at Decordova between Granbury and Tolar.
The crew called me on the radio and requested a set of prints of these shots for the engineer and conductor, and I told them I would be happy to oblige and put a selection in each of their stockings hung over the fireplace at Hodge Yard.
I do miss the nightly Dublin turn. Those blue and yellows really pop in the sunlight!