After spending time on the UP Baird Sub near the house on Monday and only catching two trains I went back on Wednesday, December 10th and had better results. Less than ten minutes from the house I parked off the road at what used to be the west end of Iona siding now extended to 12,675 feet.
There is a nice curve here for westbound trains albeit with a few weeds and the morning light improves as the sun swings around. My plan was if I heard an eastbound train hit the detector in Aledo first, I would have time to relocate to a more photogenic spot for eastbounds.
I assumed I would be able to hear a westbound train blowing its horn for the crossing at the east end of the siding so I could easily step out of the Explorer and be ready for the shot.
I was happily catching up on reading my current train magazines when at 10:45 am I heard a growing rumble from the east. I looked up to see a westbound rolling towards me around the curve. Luckily I already had the camera ready to shoot and I jumped out with only a few seconds to spare.
With four units up front, a Norfolk Southern SD70M-2 leading, green Hub Group trailers and UPS on the rear suggested to me that this was the ZAILC Atlanta to Los Angeles “Laser”.
Keeping my near miss in mind I went back to my reading while paying closer attention to the outside environment. At 11:35 am my original premise was validated when I heard a Nathan K5H horn blowing for the crossing at the east end of the siding. This time I was in position in plenty of time as another westbound “Z” train with containers and UPS trailers on the rear showed up.
At noon I once again heard a horn to the east, but this time the westbound called an approach signal down the main at the east end of Iona. Soon a third westbound intermodal rolled by as it prepared to stop at the west end on the main.
I decided to move to the east end of the siding since my view of the actual siding was now blocked. Then things got interesting on the radio as a fourth westbound – the UP 2565 – called this train now stopped on the main and asked them how long they were and if they had pulled all the way to the west end. The answers were just under 8,000 feet and yes.
The fourth westbound indicated they would flag the red signal at the east end on the main and pull in to clear behind the stopped train. I arrived at the east end just in time to photograph the UP 2565 occupying the crossing as the conductor gave me a friendly wave.
I had been wondering what this last westbound would turn out to be, and they now identified themselves on the radio as the “79 local”; better known as the LBG79 long distance local from Davidson Yard to Abilene. This local takes interchange traffic to the Southern Switching Company short line in Abilene and swaps cars with the Abilene to Roscoe local. At somewhere around 3,000 feet in length they pulled up on the main behind the intermodal train with about 1,000 feet to spare.
I got ready for an eastbound train to come through the siding, and was once again surprised when I heard on the radio that it was the LBG80 eastbound Abilene local. For the past few years this LBG79 / LBG80 pair of locals has traveled westbound to Abilene one day and back to Fort Worth the next day upon the crew’s rest.
This was an interesting development with both locals at Iona at the same time, but then the LBG80 came out of the siding with one more surprise up front. Recently the typical power on the local has been a pair of big road units exemplified by the LBG79 in the photo above. However, Wednesday’s eastbound local was powered by a pair of SD40N’s rebuilt in the Little Rock shops.
This surprise was worthy of three more photos.
With this rare three-way meet completed at Iona and the likelihood of any other trains showing up in the near future being slim, I followed the eastbound local into Fort Worth and then ran a few socially-distanced errands.