Blog

Thanks to the UP and the railfan network I was well aware that last Sunday morning a westbound bare table train from Memphis to Los Angeles was headed up by two Norfolk Southern units with the SD70ACe #1065 Savannah & Atlanta heritage unit leading.  The schedule as of Friday showed the train changing crews in Fort Worth around 1:00 am with  no chance at any daylight shots.  By Saturday afternoon the schedule started to slide as I had hoped, so I got up at 5:00 am Sunday morning and checked again.

The train had just shown through Grand Prairie so I showered and got dressed before heading to the west end of Davidson Yard.  I heard the inbound crew call the crest tower on the radio and they were told they would be going to the west end of bypass number four.  I headed that way too and took my first photos just before 6:00 am after the train had come to a stop.

At 6:10 the car man showed up and blue flagged the train for his inspection.

At 6:18 the crew van showed up and the swap was accomplished.  The inbound crew was very friendly and said they had seen several railfans out between Big Sandy and Fort Worth even though it had been the middle of the night.

By 6:40 am the car man had cleared the train and they called the tower that they were ready to depart.  The dispatcher held them in place while he met two intermodal trains at Iona ten miles west, so they did not get moving until 7:32 am right after sunrise.  While there were cloud banks in the east and west this started to look promising for photography.  I shot the train in several spots as it pulled slowly down the lead waiting for the eastbound intermodal train to go by after the meet at Iona.

I jumped on ahead to the entrance ramp onto I20 at Benbrook , and to my benefit it was here the sun chose to make what would be its only appearance of the morning.

I headed west on I20 while listening to the radio for the crew to call restrictive signals if they were going to take the siding at Iona.  I did not hear anything so I drove on west to the exit for Annetta just east of Weatherford.  It was now I heard the crew call they were taking the siding at Iona and then the detector went off at Aledo with the passage of an eastbound train.  I was disappointed at missing the meet, but then thinking it through with the mainline at Iona between the road and the siding I realized my photo opportunities would have been limited.  Wanting a clear “out in the country” shot I had probably done the right thing by going on to Annetta.

I set up at the Center Point Road crossing and waited.  At 8:40 am I could hear the distant K5LAA horn blowing for the FM 5 crossing about three miles away.  It echoed off the hills to the north and I was kicking myself for not setting up for video or just audio recording also.  Then as the train got close the horn echo symphony was drowned out by a group of motorcycles that would have ruined any recording.  Back to concentrating on still photography, I took two shots in quick succession as the train pounded by on its way west.

I could see from the solid clouds out west there was no chance of sun as far as the eye could see, so I chose this point to head back home rather than continue the chase.  The Savannah & Atlanta was formed in the early 1900’s and became the shortest route between Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia via a connection with the Central of Georgia at Camak.  It was purchased by the Central of Georgia in 1951 which was merged into the Southern Railway in the 1970’s which in turn became part of the Norfolk Southern and is now remembered with this very nice heritage unit!