Blog

Saturday January 23rd was completely overcast with an off and on light drizzle. I probably would have stayed home but my young friend Ethan Whetstone was in Fort Worth and wanted to railfan. To maintain proper social distancing I dove my vehicle and Ethan’s grandmother drove him to the locations he wanted to visit.

I met them shortly after 8:00 am on Arizona Street southeast of Tower 55 to begin the day with some BNSF and UP action. The first train for the day was a northbound BNSF intermodal from the KCS at Robstown to Chicago with six units up front.

The timing was perfect to catch the train just as a southbound UP showed up.

As soon as the rear end of the UP cleared, we captured a second meet between the rear end of the northbound and a southbound BNSF Chicago to Pearland intermodal.

After a bit of slack time a northbound BNSF empty grain train rewarded us with a pair of KCS units.

Next up was a southbound BNSF loaded ballast train led by the four sixes with one DPU on the north end.

A few minutes later a northbound UP empty grain train rolled north out of the Ney Yard Bypass.

Fortunately this train quickly got up to speed and the rear end cleared us just in time for us to photograph one more BNSF northbound train before moving on.

Ethan wanted to catch a TEXRail train next so we drove over to the warehouse parking lot at Sixth Street Junction. I missed a shot at an eastbound TRE train but Ethan caught it through his grandmother’s windshield. We only had to wait a few minutes before a westbound TEXRail showed up and headed into the “Hole in the Wall” under the UP Choctaw Sub.

Our next goal was to catch a few TRE trains and be in position for Amtrak 21 as it ran over the TRE between Dallas and Fort Worth. I led Ethan and his grandmother to one of my favorite spots in Richland Hills on the straight away just west of the station at Handley-Ederville Road. At 11:03 am we captured the eastbound train number 3912 with the same equipment I had missed earlier.

After meeting the eastbound at Hurst siding we caught the westbound train number 3913 accelerating away from its station stop at Richland HIlls.

Roughly 45 minutes later the cycle repeated itself as eastbound train number 3914 began to slow for its station stop.

And a few minutes later westbound train 3915 left the station on its way to Fort Worth.

Now it was time for the main event as Amtrak 21 had left Dallas at 11:50 am in its normal slot to fit in with the TRE shuttles. Ethan’s grandmother snapped the first photo of us at 12:35 pm while the train drew near making the 79 mph track speed allowed it at this location.

We were done here now, and the next item on the checklist was to drive up to the Wabtec/GE locomotive plant. We had intel the ES44AC single unit order for Cerrejon Railway in Columbia that I shared here during testing before Christmas was now on the GE to BNSF delivery track just south of Justin. The information was correct and the unit was coupled up with two AC44C6M rebuilds for Norfolk Southern.

One of the northbound signals at Lambert over on the BNSF main was lit up green, so we waited a few minutes for this view including two sets of all GE and Wabtec/GE power at 2:24 pm.

As we were about to get back on FM 156 another northbound showed up with more GE’s from two railroads.

From here we decided to head back south towards Saginaw. we made a stop at the Avondale-Haslet Road crossing to catch an intermodal train inbound to Alliance Yard off the Wichita Falls Sub. While we were waiting, a set of BNSF power followed a few minutes later by the contract switching company pulled down close to us while working the south end of the intermodal facility.

At 3:57 pm atop the retaining wall we photographed the inbound train arriving at its destination.

The trailing unit was an older GE Dash 9 in the “H1” paint scheme.

We arrived at the depot parking lot at Saginaw just as one of the yard jobs was coming out from switching the flour mill. The fog was starting to lower over the grain elevators in the background.

The yard job was waiting for a southbound loaded coal train off the Wichita Falls Sub to pull into the west pass at Saginaw.

With the coal train out of the way at 4:43 pm, the yard job came out onto the main and then backed down to the Saginaw Yard office.

The power consisted of an SD40-2 and an SD40-2R.

The conductor and switchman were now guarding the reverse move from the shoving platform. With the drizzle and cold breeze they are bundled up for a reason atop their open perch.

It slowly became darker and the fog thickened as we waited for northbound Amtrak 822 to roll past us and over the diamonds at 5:38 pm.

Ethan and his grandmother were going to wait here for another train or two, but I decided it was time to start back for home as the fog continued to lower visibility to a few hundred feet. I headed south and when I got down to the East Industrial Avenue crossing I noticed how the yard lights created an interesting canopy in the fog over the two units switching below. I pulled over and got out for a few final moody views.

Walking back to the car I took one final shot of the crossing lights and traffic lights looming out of the fog.

I decided to stay off of Loop 820 and to go home through Fort Worth. Fortunately by the time I got down to the Stockyards area the fog was left behind and the rest of the trip home was uneventful. Overall a great day out photographing with a good friend Ethan Whetstone!