On March 19th I left home to drive to College Station to participate in the delivery of Union Pacific’s SD70ACe number 4141 to the George H. W. Bush Library the next day. Photo wise my first stop on the way down was a personal favorite, the 12-mile long mine to power plant railroad owned by Vistra Energy/TXU located southeast of Kosse, TX. Getting off Highway 7, I headed down the dirt roads to grade crossing #2 where I parked. I only had to wait about thirty minutes before one of the two train sets, an empty heading back to the mine, came into view with the homemade cab car leading.
With the advent of Covid19 it has been about two years since my last visit here, and at least this cab car has been repainted into a patriotic theme. It is hard to miss that number!
After sixty or so empties rolled by I spotted two units in the form of ex-Luminant #53007, ex-Southern Pacific SD40T-#2835 and ex-EMD Demonstrator #5309 working in tandem to push the empty train.
I took this going away view which had the best possible lighting for the early afternoon.
The train was moving slowly enough that I was able to drive to grade crossing #1 in time to catch the locomotives one more time.
Knowing it would be a while now before I saw the other train I decided to head over to the UP in Bremond and follow it south. When I passed the south end of the siding at Seger just north of Hearne there were two southbound trains waiting.
I had some time to kill, so I stopped in Bryan where from the radio I knew two southbound trains were coming my way on the Navasota Sub from Valley Junction. I set up close to Bush Junction just south of downtown Bryan and soon was rewarded with this shot of UP 2610 with the LaSalle Hotel prominent in the background.
The UP 4357 South was not far behind and I moved a little closer to downtown at the corner of East 28th and South Bryan Avenue to record its passing.
Now it was time to head to my lodging for this trip and get ready for a safety briefing Saturday morning regarding the delivery of the Bush 4141 locomotive to the Library.
