The potential for rain was taken out of the forecast for Tuesday December 29th, so I decided to head north to catch the southbound Heartland Flyer. This day in addition to the three high level coaches bookended by a pair of GE P42 locomotives, the two Webb Rail ex-Northern Pacific cars were behind the north end locomotive as I had photographed the day before. I left the house a bit after 9:00 am intending to camp out at my chosen photo location in Ponder and maybe catch some freight action before Amtrak.
This turned out to be a well rewarded decision as at 10:35 am a northbound autorack and merchandise train pulled into the siding at Ponder and came around the sweeping curve.
The lead unit ES44C4 3266 is a recent release from the Wabtec/GE locomotive plant a few miles back in Haslet.
Over the radio I heard the dispatcher tell the 3266 North that they would be here for at least two southbounds. I decided to relocate to the north switch for the first meet at 10:44 am.
In the middle of the 6271 South’s locomotive consist was an old veteran in the form of DASH 9-44CW number 710 in red warbonnet.
For the second southbound train I decided to move about 1.5 miles north to a good vantage point on the shoulder of FM 156 as the train was leaving Metro. About fifteen minutes later I could see a headlight passing under the Highway 380 overpass about two miles north but it appeared to be creeping along. The question of why was answered a minute later when a 10 mph slow order was discussed on the radio.
After what seemed like an eternity the BNSF 9250 South reached my location and started to accelerate out of the slow order.
This merchandise train had a bit of everything including untreated railroad ties.
Four cars of big chunk coal.
And multiple cars of scrap metal.
All shepharded on the rear by another SD70ACe in DPU mode.
The dispatcher called the 3266 North in the siding at Ponder and told them he was going to have to keep them there for the southbound “Z” train that was now passing Metro. The “Z” train was not exempt from the 10 mph slow order and its head end also started to accelerate just moments before passing my location at 11:36 am as Amtrak was just stopping in Gainesville a few minutes behind schedule.
This train also had a rare unit in the consist, another DASH 9-44CW this time in “H1” paint.
You can see the beginnings of exhaust plumes as the engineer notches out the throttle after the rear end has passed over the slow order.
The dispatcher once again called the BNSF 3266 North, and they came back with “We’re here for Amtrak too, right?” To which the dispatcher could only reply “Yes”. This foiled my Plan A to photograph 821 in the big curve at Ponder as I did not want freight cars as a backdrop, and there was now a southbound train in the siding at Metro that could potentially be in the way there.
Amtrak 821 was now out of Gainesville, so I decided I had just enough time to reach the big open space between the track and FM 156 just north of Krum that would offer an unobstructed side view of the train. I made it into position about two minutes before 821 appeared at 11:49 am.
The going away shot is what I was really after here, and it turned out to be a good one clearly showing the whole train with no obstructions and highlighting the two private cars.
Remembering that Amtrak was also subject to the upcoming 10 mph slow order, I decided I had nothing to lose by taking advantage of this rare opportunity. On a normal day I would never be able to overtake this fast train for another photo, so why not see if I could make it back to Ponder for the original view I wanted even if it had freight cars as a background.
I passed Amtrak just as the train was braking to enter the 10 mph slow order. I did not know how long the slow order was, but it was long enough that I was entering Ponder when I heard Amtrak’s conductor tell the engineer they were clear of it. I parked and walked to my desired position with about a minute to spare at noon when 821 came blasting around the curve at the north end as it met the northbound in the siding.
The previous shot was nothing special as once again I was in position primarily for the going away shots that would highlight the private cars.
The autoracks did not detract quite as much as I had feared ,and including an identifier in the form of the Ponder water tower did not hurt either.
Now that catching Amtrak again was out of the question short of going to the Fort Worth station, I decided to catch the 3266 North one more time north of the north switch as it finally started to move again after an hour and 25 minutes.
Now I drove back south towards Justin keeping in mind there was a southbound train behind me at Metro. Just north of Justin I was surprised by another northbound that had slipped out of Alliance Yard. I pulled over on the shoulder of FM 156 and took this grab shot of an empty grain train out the rolled down window at 12:19 pm.
I heard this train was going to Ponder to mee the southbound out of Metro so I pulled in at the crossing at the north end of the Wabtec/GE test track. I caught up on texts and emails then got into position when I heard the detector north of here sound off. My reward for my last train of the day at 1:42 pm turned out to be a Loram/Georgetown conveyor belt self-unloading ballast train.
This day was the first time I can remember seeing any private cars on the Heartland Flyer since?? So I was satisfied with my results for the time and effort along with the morning BNSF freight action.