Heritage on Christmas Eve

By KenFL9 | Published: December 24, 2011

Today here in Fort Worth has been overcast, cold and rainy. I had learned the SP heritage unit was the trailing DPU on the Z-MQLC this morning, but while it is snowing less than 100 miles to the west, that was too far to drive with Christmas eve commitments. The train was due through Fort Worth around 8:30am, so Judy and I left the house early and had breakfast out before I dropped her off to finish up some Christmas shopping. I heard the train call for a route through Davidson Yard, and the answer was to pull down to the west end of Bypass #5 for a crew change. I drove to milepost 253 on the Baird Sub just west of the yard along Vickery Avenue where the old “Bomber” spur left the main line. There is a nice wide-open view here in both directions which would make it easy to photograph the train both coming and going. The temperature was 40 degrees at 8:36am when SD70Ace 8655 came by milepost 253 running wide open.

UP 8655 West Z-MQLC Fort Worth TX 12-24-11

Two minutes later the rear DPU’s came by also in Run 8, and I captured the 1996 pushing hard.

UP 1996 DPU on UP 8655 West Z-MQLC Fort Worth TX 12-24-11

It started to rain almost immediately after I took the shot, and I hopped right back in the SUV to avoid being both cold and wet. When I got back to the store Judy was just finishing up her shopping, so my timing this Christmas Eve on getting a train shot and staying in good graces was perfect!

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Passing Primrose

By KenFL9 | Published: December 23, 2011

Tuesday afternoon a few minutes before the BNSF executive train was scheduled out of the Stockyards to run to Cresson and back over the FWWR with a group of BNSF employees I drove to the old AT&SF siding at Primrose on the Dublin Sub just east of Lake Benbrook. I wanted a long telephoto of the train coming around the curve at the east end of the siding and then a close up as it passed my location, and I decided there would not be time to change lenses using my Canon 5D body alone to accomplish this. Instead I put my 100-400mm “L” zoom on the APC-S small sensor 60D body to make it the equivalent of 640mm for the long shot and left my 24-105mm “L” on the full-size sensor 5D body for the slightly wide angle view when the train was about to pass my location. Around 2:45pm I took this first view with the 60D body and the long telephoto completey extended as the train exited the curve at the north end of Primrose.

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A few seconds later I captured this close up view with the 5D body and the medium telephoto set to 50mm.

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I switched back to the 60D with the long telephoto for this going away view with milepost 8 visible on the left.

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From here I stopped back in town to get something to drink and decided I would catch the return trip from the Lancaster Avenue overpass as the train exited Forest Park. I parked at the west end of the bridge and waited until the train was passing Eightlh Avenue before heading up to the bridge’s sidewalk. The train was in shadow as it left Forest Park along the Trinity River.

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A few seconds later I caught the nose in one of the remaining patches of sunshine.

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Vehicle traffic on Lancaster was light so I was able to cross over easily and get the going away shot with the old Montgomery Ward building in the background.

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With two different passenger specials recorded to my memory cards I packed it in and drove home to process the results.

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Passenger Specials on Tuesday

By KenFL9 | Published: December 20, 2011

After a weekend full of UP, BNSF, FWWR and the WGRF group, Monday October 17th was a day of rest. Tuesday the 18th however things got busy around here again. In the morning the American Association of Private Rail Car Owners (AAPRCO) special train of 20 or so privately-owned railcars was due to leave Fort Worth northbound on the BNSF on its way to Kansas City. In the afternoon the BNSF executive train would make a run with BNSF employees from the Stockyards to Cresson and back that I planned to photograph from trackside. The best sun angles for the northbound AAPRCO special would be in the short stretch of east-west track at Metro, so I left the house early and headed that way. My first stop of the day was shortly after sunrise at the grade crossing south of Alliance Yard where I caught this Quality Terminal Services SW1400/SD9 pair switching the intermodal terminal.

QTS 1478 Haslet TX 10-18-11 001
QTS 1478 Haslet TX 10-18-11 002

Driving north I managed to pull over at the north end of Ponder in time to catch the southbound RoadRailer with the normal two NS units up front.

NS 7705 South Ponder TX 10-18-11

When I arrived at Metro I heard the KCS intermodal train out of Zacha Junction on the radio coming through Denton, and the BNSF dispatcher told them they would make their connection with the northbound BNSF Z-ALTWSP train before the AAPRCO special came through. Now that I knew I would not miss my prize I drove a mile back south for this shot of the short KCS train approaching Metro.

KCS 2824 Metro TX 10-18-11 001
KCS 2824 Metro TX 10-18-11 002

Heading back to the west end of Metro I met up with Troy Minnick and Roger Bee as the KCS train pulled to a stop.

KCS 2824 Metro TX 10-18-11 003

Five minutes later the BNSF 4107 North pulled up alongside and proceeded to pick up the KCS intermodal cars from Dallas.

KCS 2824 BNSF 4107 Metro TX 10-18-11 004

This move took about 30 minutes to complete, and then the Z-ALTWSP left on its trip towards Willow Springs and the KCS power retreated out of sight as usual. After a brief wait the AAPRCO special streamed past our location. I shot a picture of every car in the train, but for the sake of brevity here are the coming and going views.

Amtrak 0071 North AAPRCO Special Metro TX 10-18-11 001

Bringing up the rear was the Central Pacific “Promontory Point” with a Kansas City Chief drumhead on the rear. Very classy!

Amtrak 0071 North AAPRCO Special Metro TX 10-18-11 002

I headed back towards Fort Worth following the BNSF and was rewarded with this view of the BNSF 8212 North between Justin and Ponder but my luck with cloudless skies ran out here.

BNSF 8212 North Justin TX 10-18-11

I hoped for better results when I would be shooting the BNSF passenger train in a few hours.

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Two Round Trips to Cresson

By KenFL9 | Published: December 18, 2011

On Sunday October 16th after leaving the WGRF group at Davidson Yard, I was glad there were no traffic jams on I30 or I35 and I made it to the Stockyards in twenty minutes. That gave me ten minutes to spare before I was scheduled to take this group picture of members of The Links organization and school children who would be taking the first of two round trips that afternoon to Cresson and back via the FWWR on the BNSF executive train.

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A few minutes later Senator Kay Bailey Huchison arrived.

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After the train’s departure at 1:00pm Senator Huchison was given a demonstration of Robotics and other projects the children were working on in school.

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Here is a scene looking out the back of the Glacier View at the rear of the train.

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Even the snacks were carefully prepared and arranged.

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Back at the Stockyards the group detrained and headed to one of the meeting rooms for an awards ceremony.

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Here is Senator Huchison posing with some of The Links members.

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The BNSF received this award for their support.

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The Links members posed for a group picture at the end of the ceremony.

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Back in the Stockyards Shed the train was preparing for the second round trip to Cresson, this time with the sponsors of the Boys and Girls clubs on board.

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A wonderful buffet was prepared by the BNSF’s superlative staff.

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As we crossed over Mustang Creek I managed to get this shot with minimal reflections through one of the dome car windows.

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At Cresson the entire train was turned on the wye. Here we are going around the Cleburne leg getting ready to start back to Fort Worth as BNSF police protect the grade crossing just ahead.

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Back at Fort Worth it was after dark by the time passengers disembarked from the train.

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Soon the empty train pulled out of the shed with the Glacier View’s track inspection lights bringing up the rear.

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A minute later solitude returned to the Stockyards shed.

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Over at the Northeast 23rd Street grade crossing I caught the train one last time as it backed up through Tower 60 on the way to FWWR Hodge Yard for the night.

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For me it was the end to a very long but overall successful day!

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