Yesterday morning on social media it was reported a southbound loaded grain train on the BNSF with three CN units for power was just leaving Arkansas City, Kansas heading to Eagle Pass, Texas. I figured it would come through my prime area south of Fort Worth during the night last night but this morning it had only made it to the Red River just after sunrise on Sunday, December 20th. I kept track of it s progress through friends and made sure I was trackside when it passed Tower 55.
The situation was eerily similar to this past Wednesday that has already been blogged, as now I had a southbound train with all CN power south of Fort Worth just after noon. The sun was right down the track in Joshua so once again I drove north to the new crossing at Lakewood Drive about halfway to Crowley. The sun was still at a 3/4 lighting angle there, and at 12:52 pm, nineteen minutes later than catching Wednesday’s train with CN power at 12:33 pm, I scored this sequence.
I first took a 400mm telephoto with my Canon 7D Mark II and then quickly switched to the Canon 5D Mark IV with the 24-105mm zoom for the rest of these photos. Up front was a pair of C44-9W’s.
Shoving on the rear was ES44DC number 2271.
The dispatcher told the CN 2656 South crew that they would take the siding at Joshua to meet Amtrak 22 North that had just left Rio Vista. Knowing any shot of Amtrak would be severely backlit, I drove back south to the spot behind the Joshua Athletic complex where I could get a wide angle view. It was very appropriate the today’s train 22 was pulled by P42 number 22.
The dispatcher told the CN 2656 South they would meet one more northbound at Midway; and that at that time there were no other northbounds out of Temple. I stayed where I was and a few minutes later caught this merchandise train pulled by a ES44DC.
The added bonus for waiting was obviously this BNSF Dash 9-44CW still in its as-delivered warbonnet paint after all these years.
With my primary goal of catching the CN power achieved, it was time to head home for a necessarily late lunch.
