Shortly after 7:00 am Sunday morning February 20th, I learned the MFWBM Fort Worth to Bellmead (Waco) manifest train was getting ready to leave Ney Yard in Fort Worth headed south. Tipping the scale in favor of a chase was the fact that an empty rock train from Houston to Chico was south of Waco headed north with the UP 1982 MP Heritage unit leading.
As my friend Ethan Whetstone was in town from Oklahoma visiting his grandmother, I quickly alerted him to this opportunity and they agreed to meet me in downtown Burleson. We all pulled up to the south end of downtown around 9:00am and had time to visit before the UP 1111 South came through at 9:22am.
There is a yellow piece of metal that has been added below the window sill that partially obscures the word “Powered” and I am not sure what that is. Ethan and his grandmother decided to follow me on south in further pursuit of the UP 1111 until it met the UP 1982 North so our two-car caravan hopped on I35. We exited at Grandview to look for another uncluttered photo opportunity and saw the UP 1111’s train was lined into the siding as a northbound was already stopped on the main. We found a good spot for these views at 10:14am.
As soon as the MFWBM was in the clear the northbound blasted out of town towards Fort Worth with a mixed power lashup.
As soon as we bagged this photo we hopped into our vehicles and passed the south end of the siding just as the UP 1111 was coming out of the siding back to the main. We drove to Itasca where we found another open spot for what turned out to be our last clear view of this train.
The radio indicated the UP 1111 was taking the siding at Hill just a few miles south for three northbounds, the third of which would be the UP 1982 north. As the light for northbound trains was less than ideal we decided to stay in Itasca for the first train since we had a pretty good broadside at this location. That train arrived at 11:14am with a UP leader and two CSX units in two different recent paint schemes.
We decided to head on south towards Hill siding, and along the way met a northbound empty coal train with all UP power. Ethan’s grandmother pulled over so he could photograph it but I decided to pass on it. We continued on down to HIll siding where th UP 1111 South was stopped near the south end in a spot not accessible to the public. Just as in golf, we decided to not take a penalty and to play the ball in its undesirable location. I got out the long telephoto and took these two views as the UP 1982 North rolled by on the main at 11:42 am.
The meeting shot was pretty bad due to the trees, but we had no choice. Bidding the UP 1111 South farewell, we turned back north after the UP 1982 North. Our first stop was at this location a few miles north of Hill siding.
There were a few slow orders around Itasca so we were able to easily get ahead again and stopped inside a shallow curve along the highway a mile or so south of the south end of Grandview siding. Ethan and I took these photos at 12:05 pm as we got a few extra toots from the engineer.
There was a loaded coal in the siding at Grandview as the MP Heritage unit held the main, and as it had no interesting power we decided to pass on it and continue our chase of the UP 1982 North. I led Ethan and his grandmother to one more location in Burleson passing the old elevator. The overcast skies worked in our favor so we could shoot the other side of the UP 1982 here at 12:59 pm.
As is evident in this view, Ethan and I noticed from the chord it was sounding the 1982’s original K5LAA horn has been replaced with a K5H horn. As it was now 1:00pm and home was not far away by taking FM 1187 west, I decided to end my day here while Ethan and his grandmother continued on north to catch this train and others at Saginaw. I have seen his photo there on Facebook and it turned out well.
