On the last day of June I drove to Cleburne to meet friend Jeremy Krauss who was riding up on Amtrak 22 with the intention of taking him to lunch and then putting him on Amtrak 21 for the trip back home. This was a birthday present trip for Jeremy and I promised to make it more enjoyable for him since the Cleburne depot has no agent and the waiting room is kept locked. The temperature was in the 90’s when Amtrak 22 arrived at 1:20 pm as a single cloud blocked the sun.
I took Jeremy to lunch and we were back at the station when Amtrak 21 rolled in at 2:47 pm.
While Jeremy boarded the train I walked down to the locomotives and took these two photos before the train throttled up for the southbound run.
A loaded coal train with two units up front and two DPU’s pushing on the rear that Amtrak 21 had run around at Crowley blasted through Cleburne at 3:22 pm.
The loaded coal met a northbound empty coal at Rio Vista that was in the siding there for both Amtrak 21 and this southbound train. I did not have to wait long as the empty, also in a 2 x 2 configuration, cleared the display caboose in Cleburne at 3:55 pm.
Nothing else was close by, so with the temperature pushing 100 degrees I decided it was time to head home after accomplishing my mission to help Jeremy.
