When I was loading my Explorer at the hotel in El Dorado, Kansas on the morning of January 19th, the temperature was 23 degrees with a wind chill of 9 degrees. That fact plus it was completely overcast helped me to quickly make up my mind to pass on any railfanning and head south towards Texas. I made it all the way to Guthrie, Oklahoma for fuel and decided to check out the old Santa Fe depot where I hung out some back in Santa Fe days over 40 years ago. It was still cold and windy as I photographed the currently unoccupied building.
A headlight appeared from the south at 10:47 am, and an autorack train came by with a CP leader; something I never saw here in the old days.
Social media had alerted me to the fact that a BNSF officer’s train was also northbound out of Houston, TX on its way back to Topeka, KS. The train was approaching Temple, TX at that time, and I decided to intercept it somewhere in southern Oklahoma or north Texas. I drove straight through and made it to Metro, TX north of Denton where the one unit, nine-car special arrived at 3:04 pm. I was using a Canon 24-105 lens and my first shot was at 105 mm as the train slowed for a yellow signal.
My second photo a few seconds later was a wide angle zoomed back to 27 mm, and it is my favorite of this sequence.
As the William Strong theater car passed by bringing up the rear, I was expecting to see the protective shield down at the back of the car. I was surprised to see it up and at least one passenger looking out.
The special had a red board at the north end of Metro due to maintenance of way clearing up ahead, and this gave me a brief opportunity for a shot of the other side of the train as it came to a stop.
A few seconds later the signal switched to green and the train quickly accelerated out of sight under the I35 overpass behind me. It was still early enough that I made it home and unloaded my gear before dark.
