Blog

The Panhandle and West Texas have seen snow already this season, but the forecast for Sunday, January 10th foretold measurable snow close enough to home that I set a goal to maximize the opportunity. This seems to only happen around DFW every five years or so, and I wanted to be on the busiest railroad in the area with the heaviest snowfall. I checked the weather forecasts from the local TV stations and the National Weather Service in the days leading up to last Sunday.

I got up at 5:30 am on Sunday to make the decision to either head west on the UP or south on the BNSF. Research with friends indicated I would see the highest number of trains and the most snow by heading south following the BNSF Fort Worth Sub towards Temple. It was dry when I left the house at 7:00 am, but I encountered rain at first and then sleet by the time I passed Cleburne before sunrise. South of Rio Vista on Highway 174 I encountered my first train of the day, a northbound at the same location where I had captured my first train of the year a few days earlier.

The sleet covered pavement added a nice reflection at 7:46 am as the northbound sped by.

I was aware this was the first of four trains fleeting northbound, so I drove only a short distance to the north end of Blum siding. As soon as the signal could cycle back to green the second northbound arrived at 7:57 am. Snow on the pilot heralded the storm that was coming my way.

I had a short gap before the next two northbounds and I used the time to drive to the County Road 1104 overpass just north of the Brazos River. It was snowing heavily now and made for a great scene as an empty coal train roared upgrade through the cut below.

The sound of the two units in run 8 reverberated off the sides of the cut at 8:13 am as the ditch lights lit up the track.

A green signal showed a beacon through the snow for the train to keep rolling north.

Soon the solid tone of steel wheel on welded rail ended with a roar of the two DPU’s passing underneath the bridge.

The final of four northbounds was too close behind this train for me to risk missing it by moving in search of a different background, so I was rewarded with a second sequence here at 8:26 am.

At this time there were no southbound trains out of Fort Worth and the next northbounds were still around McGregor. The roads were snow covered but passable between 40 and 50 mph in my 4×4 Explorer. There was a southbound rock train in the siding at Morgan without a crew but I passed on it for now with the intention of making it to the north siding switch at Meridian for the next northbound.

As hoped I arrived with time to spare so I took a few scenic shots without trains. It was hard but someone had to do it with this beautiful snowfall.

I liked this scene with the signal and switch hardware at the north end of Meridian and used it to frame up this empty hopper train with one DPU at 9:38 am.

As the sound faded away into the storm and this pastoral scene returned to silence, it was time for decisions about the rest of the day. My original plan was to be in McGregor to catch Amtrak 22 in the station, and I was about to depart in that direction when I heard from friend Jason Burke who was ahead of me at Valley Mills. Jason let me know that the roads between Valley Mills and McGregor were very slick, but even more important it was snowing less the further south he went.

It appeared I was right in the middle of the maximum snow accumulation band stretching from Morgan to Valley Mills. Since my ultimate goal was to catch trains in the falling and ultimately deep as possible snow, I decided to stay here and let the trains including Amtrak 22 come to me. As the snow continued to fall in Meridian, I waited for the arrival of the day’s first southbound in the form of a loaded coal train at 10:52 am.

Now at 11:00 am all the cows were out trying to figure out what was going on and where was their lunch?

The red signals at North Meridian provided a stark contrast to the winter wonderland.

At 11:58 am another northbound was approaching and I planned three photos. The first with the train in the distance and including the ranch gate on the left; the second panning to the right with the signals and station sign at North Meridian; and the third panning ahead of the train to include the tree and cows in the background.

I decided to include my transportation in the first going away shot.

This long autorack train with just two units seemed to be a bit underpowered for the weather as it kept losing speed as it passed by.

The snow did not improve the look of the graffiti that disfigured almost all of the cars.

With the siding at Morgan still blocked by a dead rock train, this northbound went to Kopperl to meet a southbound loaded grain train that subsequently arrived at Meridian at 1:18 pm.

The addition of graffiti has also done no favors for the BNSF’s Colorado and Southern hopper car.

And by now you may be wondering what happened to Amtrak 22? According to friend Jeremy Krauss in Temple, Amtrak 22 was only a few minutes behind schedule into Taylor, but then the UP made it wait almost an hour for a southbound freight to arrive. Then when 22 finally made it to Temple the crew had to clean out the switches on the UP to BNSF connector and both into and out of the station.

By the time Amtrak left Temple, the BNSF dispatcher let them know to expect more delays. All siding switches were having to be broomed out by Maintenance of Way and there were numerous trains for it to meet. Amtrak’s San Antonio crew would not make Fort Worth today on their remaining hours of service and would have to be relieved enroute somewhere.

Now I was especially glad I had lingered here in the snow zone and not continued on to McGregor. It was beginning to appear doubtful that I would even see a passenger train this day. I decided to wait here for two more northbound freight trains and then head back north to Morgan. For the first train at 2:28 pm, I decided to switch to the other side of the main and use the telephoto zoom for a different perspective of the storm.

The final northbound I intended to catch here passed by at 3:38 pm and I caught the empty grain train both approaching and going away.

The road was more clear as I drove back north to Morgan, and I found this empty grain train again stopped just south of town. The reason became evident when I arrived at the south end of Morgan siding and observed that Maintenanced of Way was there to clean out the switch as there was now a crew on the southbound rock train in the siding at 3:57 pm.

It was decided to let the northbound empty grain train run first and then clean out the switch to let the southbound out.

The two workers did a quick and thorough job of cleaning out the switch.

The Fort Worth dispatcher lined the switch at 4:08 pm and gave the southbound rock train a signal out of the siding.

I was aware there were three more southbound trains out of Fort Worth and that the first one was coming into Rio Vista. I headed on north and cut across towards Kopperl and then north along the tracks towards the south end of the Brazos River bridge. At 4:56 pm a southbound intermodal going to the KCS at Robstown came by this open area at a private crossing.

A fairly rare BNSF SD75I and a KCSM GE unit made for an interesting power lashup.

This loaded coal train was right behind at 5:08 pm, and I moved up a mile to the south end of the bridge for these views.

The light was fading fast now, so I moved on to the north end of Blum for what would be my last train of the day. A southbound green signal was beckoning when I parked and got ready for the photo.

Official sunset was at 5:43 pm and this southbound came by at 5:49 pm as I stretched to 6400 ISO to capture it.

It was obvious that much less snow had fallen here during the day so I had indeed been in the right place at Meridian. I lined up one final view with the crossing signal and the rapidly retreating DPU.

Darkness quickly set in and Amtrak 22 was still down around Clifton meeting these southbounds. I drove by the depot at Cleburne with thoughts of a time exposure when it arrived, but found the area to be poorly lighted as a light rain was now falling. I headed on home and arrived at 7:00 pm, exactly twelve hours after I left. No accidents, lots of good photos I hope in your opinion too, and overall a great snow day in Texas!