Blog

The majority of Tuesday January 19th was an overcast day in southern Oklahoma and north Texas.  This was less than desirable news as the Norfolk Southern’s Southern Railway heritage engine was leading a southbound loaded 114 car grain train down the BNSF’s ex-ATSF Red Rock Sub heading to Houston.  This was a rare enough occurrence that I decided to give chase regardless, and after an invisible sunrise friend Troy Minnick and I were northbound on I35 approaching the Texas and Oklahoma border shortly before 11:00am.  Friend Dwane Stevens of Ardmore had been following the train south from there and reported it was waiting for Amtrak 821 to catch up before taking the siding at Marietta and cutting the town in half.  When Dwane called back to say 821 had overtaken the grain train, Troy and I exited off of I35 onto old US Highway 77 and cut over to the grade crossing on Lake Gladney Road a mile or two south of Thackerville.  Within a few minutes we caught Amtrak 187 passing through the wide load detector that protects the Red River Bridge just ahead.

Dwane called again to say the NS 8099 South was out of the siding at Marietta, so Troy and I moved to the north switch at Thackerville where we got our first shots a few minutes later as the train once again took the siding; this time to meet the northbound Z-ALTWSP that was at Valley View for Amtrak 821.  We had already seen a loaded tie train train in the siding at Gainesville so this was as far as the grain train could advance.

Both sides of the NS 8099 were dirty and in pretty rough shape with the numbers hard to read, so I decided to concentrate on the nose as much as possible for the rest of the day.  With that in mind I took this view as the train pulled down the siding and stopped short of the Cemetery Road crossing.

The conductor dismounted and the three of us talked railroading until it was time for them to pull all the way into the clear so the Z-ALTWSP would have a green signal when it arrived.  Troy and I relocated to the south end of the siding to record the meet just before Z-ALTWSP came blasting up hill out of the Red River bottoms.

The dispatcher told the grain train they would have a clear shot to Alliance Yard for a crew change and then lined them out of the siding.

We skipped on past Gainesville and waited for the NS 8099 to catch up just north of Valley View.  The train was running close to 60 mph at this point.

We used I35 to our advantage to get ahead again and chose to stop next at South Wye.

Look to the right of the NS 8099 in the first photo and you can catch a glimpse of the KCS job that brought UPS cars from Wylie to add to the Z-ALTWSP we saw earlier.  The two GP40’s were waiting to get inbound UPS trailers from the Z-WSPALT that was also southbound about 40 miles behind us.  We overtook the train again and then north of Ponder I spotted a flashing yellow signal that probably meant a meet ahead.  Troy and I stopped for this scene from a small bluff beside FM 156 that we had used before.

Back in the vehicle we heard the detector south of Ponder give a reading of 12 axles.  The dispatcher had promised them a straight shot to Alliance but now I was guessing they were going to meet the almost daily “GE Job” testing new locomotives from the plant at Haslet.  We pulled over in downtown Ponder and my guess was confirmed as two BNSF ES44C4’s were pulling through the siding.

The going away shot was the keeper and my personal favorite from the day.

For our next location we chose to catch the train passing the north end of the Alliance Yard lead at Lambert.

The going away photo shows the train to be in a 2 x 2 configuration but the BNSF 5796 broke down along the way south and the BNSF 4163 was added at Arkansas City, KS.

Troy and I parted company here.  The crew change was to take place at CP Beth in Alliance Yard so I opted to drive on to the diamonds at Saginaw and meet friend David Steckler and others waiting there.  The crew change went smoothly and we did not have to wait for very long before the NS 8099 and its new crew rolled by on the way to Temple.

I took a chance and took loop 820 to I35 South in an attempt to beat the train to Tower 55 for one last photo.  Traffic was light for once and I made it with a minute to spare as the train took a green signal and quickly accelerated across the diamonds and past the silent tower.

There were several new hoppers in the train and I managed to catch one of them.

One hundred and fourteen loads later the one working and one off-line DPU pushing the 15,849 ton train rolled by South Tower 55.

The sun was starting to come out south of Fort Worth and I could tell if I elected to jump ahead to Joshua and/or Cleburne I would be able to get that elusive full sun photo.  On the other hand while the NS 8099 was mechanically sound, it needed a wash job and some paint and I had other important tasks to accomplish before the end of the day.  Whether or not I was successful with these cloudy day photos I leave up to the reader’s jury!