On Wednesday December 17th, I learned from social media that two Canadian National units were bringing 100 empty hopper cars south on the BNSF from storage on the Texas Northwestern at Etter. Figuring they would pass through my area on the Fort Worth Sub in the morning I headed on over to Joshua to wait. Not long after I arrived this northbound manifest came by at 10:44 am.
I drove a bit further north behind Joshua’s sports complex and a few minutes later at 11:13 am caught a northbound auto rack and intermodal with a KCS unit in the consist.
Listening to the radio it sounded like the southbound train with CN power would meet these two northbounds around Tower 55 so I drove further north to a point about halfway between Crowley and Joshua. I found a brand new grade crossing serving the back side of a new housing development and I set up there to wait as the spot offered perfect 3/4 midday light. At 12:33 pm I was rewarded with this sequence.
I will have to ask the meaning of the yellow and blue lines painted on the ballast. As I had a few more hours of free time I decided to see if I could beat the train to somewhere south of Cleburne for one more photo op. This train met a northbound empty grain train at Midway in Cleburne, so that slowed them down enough that I was able to easily have time to make it to the crossing at the north switch of Blum siding south of Rio Vista.
I set up with both cameras ready and first took a telephoto view at 1:20 pm as the train came up out of the sag at the Nolan River.
A few seconds later I used the second camera to capture a wider angle view.
This was enough of a chase for me as the sun was starting to be more nose on for southbound trains, so I decided to wait in this area for southbound Amtrak 21 later this afternoon. I parked at a crossing at the north end of the big curve south of Rio Vista to wait and read. An important phone call came in and I was still on it when the head end of a northbound empty coal roared by with an SD70ACe up front.
The head end photo would have been totally back lit, but fortunately I was off the call at 2:05 pm when the rear end came by and I caught this well lit going away photo of an-ex BN executive paint SD70MAC.
Twelve minutes later at 2:17 pm an empty grain train approached my location and I decided to go for the “into the sun” shot.
These two northbounds went into the sidings at Birds and Crowley respectively to meet southbound Amtrak 21. By the time P42 number 18 with five cars zipped past me at 3:03 pm I was waiting in the middle of the big curve in good light.
Another northbound empty coal train was waiting for Amtrak 21 in the siding at Kopperl, and it passed me at 3:36 pm.
I started back towards home while paying attention to the radio for any more well lit southbound trains. I heard this empty coal up around Crowley as it met a loaded southbound coal, so I found a nice open spot just south of Cleburne where there were no trees to cast long late afternoon shadows. My planning was rewarded at 4:20 pm with this view.
The going away view was my last photo for the day.
Seven freights and one passenger train with no clouds all day made for a pretty good time out.
