I figured that I would be at home all day today on Christmas duty but shortly before noon the boss gave me a hall pass to deliver a gift to a friend of hers in Benbrook. Naturally on the way home I decided to parallel the UP Baird Sub and Santa Claus rewarded me with a westbound intermodal. This train was barely doing 10 mph up the grade between Benbrook and Iona so I had no problem getting into position at the east end of the siding for two photos.
The middle unit was shut down so this around 6,000 foot train was working hard up the one percent grade. Seeing that I had plenty of time I drove ahead to where the west end of the siding used to be and got it one more time as it came around the down grade curve rapidly picking up speed.
By the time all these pink Ocean Network containers came by the train was up to around the 50 mph track speed on the down side of this roller coaster.
As few trains are out and running on Christmas day, I felt pretty fortunate for this catch on the way back home!
