By KenFL9 | Published:
December 14, 2011
When I left this story arc a few posts ago, Saturday October 15th came to a close after helping with successful visits by the World’s Greatest Railfans to the FWWR and the BNSF along with my working the UP Family Day at Davidson Yard. Sunday the 16th would turn out to be an even longer day for me managing the WGRF’s own visit to Davidson Yard in the morning followed by working as the photographer for two round trips to Cresson from the Stockyards on board the BNSF’s executive train via the FWWR. I met with the WGRF members in the shopping center parking lot off of Rogers Road across from the entrance to Davidson Yard at 9:00am, and after going over the rules and making sure everyone had their PPE on we carpooled into the yard. We stopped first on the north side of the shop area and the group photographed the units in the immediate area. I took a shot of the UP 9657, a C44-9W parked off of the turntable.
Next we moved to the west side of the shop area and with the help of UP officials we spotted several units for photography including these RCE platforms rebuilt from old B30-7’s.
On the south side of the yard lead and once again with the help of officials we were treated to poses by newly rebuilt SD40-2N #1613.
This was followed by the UP 8952 which is an ex-Missouri Pacific SD20-2.
After a second visit back by the switchers on the east side of the shop my time was beginning to run short, so I took the group to one last stop where the UP 1982, the M-K-T Heritage Unit was parked after the previous day’s activities.
Everyone had a great time, and after I was sure the last person had departed from UP property I checked my watch and saw that I was due at the Stockyards in 30 minutes to photograph Senator Kay Bailey Huchison boarding the BNSF executive passenger train.
By KenFL9 | Published:
December 6, 2011
It rained on us pretty much all the way as Judy and I drove to Olkahoma City on Saturday morning to attend the big annual train show. The rain in itself would not have stopped me from taking any pictures, but as our plans were to drive back home early Sunday morning I wanted to spend the maximum amount of time at the show Saturday afternoon. We had a great time as always and saw old friends while coming away with several bags full of model train items and memorabilia. My hat is off to old acquaintances Eddie Birch and David Eads and all the others who worked hard to make this show a success like it is every year!
After the show closed at 5:00pm we drove over to Primo’s D’Italia restaurant in Midwest City where we had a great Italian meal before heading to our room for the night. Sunday morning dawned overcast and cold with a chilling wind out of the northwest. We stopped in Norman along I35 for breakfast, and when we got on the Interstate once again at 8:30 am Amtrak 821 was on the radio coming south through Moore behind us. Judy allowed I could stop and let Amtrak catch up to us for one picture, so I got off I35 onto US 77 at Purcell and continued on south while looking at photo locations I had used repeatedly since the 1970’s as we passed through Wayne and then Paoli. I finally settled on the Garvin County Road 1115 crossing just north of Pauls Valley. This proved to be a good choice as one Texas railfan was already there.
Is that your winter coat David? 
As a Nathan K5LA announced Amtrak’s approach a few minutes later, the “Hawk” decided to move on.
Amtrak train 821 the southbound Heartland Flyer lived up to the “Flyer” part of its name as it came through the curve at around 70 mph with P42 number 74 leading. On a cloudy day like this thank goodness for digital!
I did not notice until I processed the photos from raw to jpg that the trailing unit was the consecutive number 75.
The rest of our drive home was uneventful except for more rain and a detour around north Fort Worth to avoid a wreck in I35. I went through my slide boxes and found this Kodak Ektachrome 64 view of Amtrak Train number 15 the Texas Chief at the same curve with SDP40F 500 leading on 02/07/1974. Note the baggage car, high levels and ex-California Zephyr dome car bringing up the rear.
Those trees sure have grown up in the past 37 years! When I took this photo the train was still known as the “Texas Chief”, but less than a month later on 3/7/1974 the AT&SF’s President John Reed revoked Amtrak’s rights to use that name due to his perception that the service had degraded below the standards set by the Santa Fe, and Amtrak changed it to the “Lone Star”.
By KenFL9 | Published:
November 29, 2011
I was too busy in August and let it pass by here on the website, but a recent discussion on the “Railspot” Yahoo Group brought to light my coverage of an inaugural unit train run on 08/11/2011 for a new customer on the FWWR called EOG Resources. A unit train averaging around 90 cars of unprocessed frac sand has been operating from a pit in Minnesota over the BNSF to Fort Worth in about three days. The entire train with BNSF power in DPU mode is interchanged to the FWWR and then taken to the new industrial park just northwest of Cleburne where the sand is unloaded at the MAALT transload facility by excavators crawling on top of the cars. The use of DPU power is a first on the FWWR and necessitated the hiring of an engineer already trained in this practice. After the cars are unloaded in less than a day the train is reassembled with all the power up front and takes about three days to get back to the pit with the entire cycle taking about a week to complete.
I was contracted to photograph the delivery of the first train and turned the results into a hard cover photo book for the FWWR that was given out to all the companies involved. The first train was scheduled to arrive in Fort Worth and run to Cleburne over the FWWR before dawn, and while I was prepared to shoot at night, luckily for me the train did not arrive at Cresson until after sunrise on the 11th. Here is my first photograph of the day as the train comes around the Cleburne leg of the wye at Cresson.
The train had come in to Fort Worth with approximately 60 loads with one BNSF C44 up front and one on the rear in DPU mode, and it stalled out on the 2% grade from Trinity Park up to Eighth Avenue. FWWR SD40-2 2018 was added to the rear as a second DPU, and the train was able to get started again. Here are the two rear DPU’s shoving around the wye at Cresson a few minutes later.
The entire train is visible in this photo at milepost seven on the Cleburne Sub between Godley and Cleburne. This is unprocessed frac sand so it is hauled in open top gondolas while in contrast processed frac sand is transported in closed hoppers.
The train was split into two parts while being spotted at the MAALT transload.
Here is one of the two CAT 315D excavators climbing on top of the first cut of cars.
Those excavator operators really know what they are doing and can scrape a car clean in just a few minutes!
The entire selection of twenty photos can be seen at EOG Inauguaral Sand Train
By KenFL9 | Published:
November 25, 2011
On the way back from the WGRF’s visit to BNSF North Yard I heard on the radio the employee passenger train was leaving Iona on its way back to Davidson Yard. I drove to the west end of the yard where I found the most favoring angle to catch the Rio Grande heritage unit on the east end of the consist.
The train composed of John Radovich’s ex-Amtrak coaches and several UP business cars ran seven round trips to Iona on October 15th with over 400 passengers on board each trip. Needless to say it was a success.
Paul Beverung brought his miniature live-steamer “Sara” which was big hit with the equally small children.
This clown was busy all day entertaining the crowd.
Operating a radio-controlled locomotive with supervision was also immensely popular with the kids.
Hot dogs with optional cheese and chili were plentiful and quickly served up by the management team.
The Ferris wheel, rubber-tired train, and portrait tents were also busy all afternoon.
As the sun dropped towards the western horizon the crews started to break down the tents and rides.
I climbed the stairs to the walkway over the yard leads and made this series of exposures as sunset approached.
Back down in the parking lot almost everything was broken down except for the large American flag and the Ferris Wheel.
MTO Johnny Stotts had a great idea that I get a photo of the flag with the yard behind it from the top of the Ferris wheel. It turned out to be an excellent suggestion!
Once I exited the Ferris Wheel I took one final photo of the tent stakes being removed so the parking lot would be back to normal for Sunday.
This year’s UP Family Day was a tremendous success with an estimated attendance of four to five thousand people. According to the local UP officials next year will be even better!
