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This morning on Christmas Eve the sun came out again here, a sight that has been rare for the past week or so.  I had warning the UP’s westbound ZMNLA2 Marion (Memphis) to Los Angeles train was led by the UP’s MP heritage locomotive 1982.  As the train would be primarily coming out of the sun anywhere near my home on the Baird Sub, I opted to catch the train at Aledo and just do the best I could with the situation.  When I heard the train stopping at the west end of Davidson Yard for a crew change I left the house and braved the wind chill in the 30’s to get this photo at 11:10am.

I caught a quick side view with the church steeple protruding from the roof of the unit with the Aledo water tower in the background.

The fairly long Z train had three units up front and one SD70ACe bringing up the rear as it passed the hotbox detector at milepost 264.

I had heard the 1982 West give a highball on the radio to an eastbound train in the siding at Iona, so I started to head that way in case it was going to sit there while the light was good.  I heard the train highball a second westbound, so I quickly set up again at the east end of  Aledo for this view of what looks like the ZATLA or “Laser” train from Altanta to Los Angeles as it rolled by with two UP and two NS units up front with the Bryant Grain elevator in the background.  Note one of the new anti-trespasser fences Aledo in constructing on both sides of the tracks all the way through town.

Now I resumed my drive east to Iona and arrived just in time to get this eastbound merchandise train leaving the siding with seven locomotives and around 80 cars.

With three trains including a heritage in the camera it is time to get ready for Christmas tonight.  Happy holidays to everyone!!