Early Monday December 7th I headed out to take Christmas boxes to the UPS Store, and afterwards I followed the UP Baird Sub west from Benbrook towards Aledo. As I was driving alongside the siding at Iona, I heard the detector at Aledo sound off indicating a probable eastbound train. I pulled over at milepost 261 just short of where the 7366-foot siding used to end before it was extended west to a new length of 12,675 feet.
Within a few minutes a headlight swung around the curve from Aledo and the UP 7032 east rolled by on the main.
A closer look at the power shows a GE C44/60AC leading with an EMD SD70M in the middle.
Trailing was an old grey KCS of Mexico GE AC44CW sorely in need of a paint job.
I spotted this UP safety box car but could not find any information on the web about its purpose.
In the big picture I am against graffiti as my railroad customers do not want to see it in the photos I take for them, but these days it is unavoidable.
At least this one has Katy Railroad reporting marks.
I moved a bit further west and in a few minutes at 9:24 am, two DPU’s drifted to a stop right next to me.
I heard a radio conversation with the dispatcher that Davidson Yard did not want to bring the train in until they got one out. I decided to drive on west to Aledo for the westbound train. I looked over and saw the end of this train only cleared the new west end of the siding by a few cars which put its length at around 12,000 feet.
I waited a little over an hour in Aledo, and at 10:32 am a west bound merchandise train led by a relatively clean GE ES44AC with two GE AC44CW’s rolled past the grain elevator.
A hundred or so cars later two DPU’s appeared. the first one was another GE AC44CW.
The second was a very clean rebuilt GE C44ACM. I miss seeing more nice looking UP units like this one.
Sixty or more other freight cars drifted by and then two more DPU’s in the form of a GE ES44AC and a GE C44ACM brought up the rear.
I did not have a way to accurately quote the length of this train but I am sure it too was every bit of 12,000 or more feet long. Only a few years ago these two trains would not have been able to meet at Iona without performing a saw by move. All this would have been run as four trains instead of two.
A representation of an efficient operating ratio for the stockholder’s dividends? Maybe. Good operating practice and risky with long delays if something breaks down? Vegas odds to me.
