Union Pacific ran a 29-car Heritage Fleet train with two SD70M’s to the Super Bowl, and afterwards they split it into two sections. One unit and 18 cars headed directly back to Council Bluffs and the UP 4404 with 11 cars took the old SP main through Arizona and New Mexico to El Paso. On the morning of Wednesday, February 17th, this train left El Paso bound for Fort Worth. It was an overcast day with high winds and a nasty wind chill, so rather than driving out towards Sweetwater before sunset, I decided instead to try a cell phone video of it passing Aledo.
I left the house around 7:30pm and met friends Paul Beverung with his grandson and granddaughter along with Luke Meacham and his mother Melinda out front of Monte’s Burritos in Aledo. It was bitterly cold and windy, so we lined up our three vehicles facing the tracks with the headlights on to light up the scene. A little after 8:00 pm we heard the train blowing for the quarry crossing west of Aledo and we all got into position. I made the following video with muted sound due to the wind.
After the train passed, we all waited to watch an eastbound freight and a westbound intermodal before heading home. Thursday morning, I was expecting the train to have left Fort Worth either north or east before sunrise. Instead, I learned a little after 7:00am that it was scheduled to leave at 8:30 am northbound on the Choctaw Sub as the PFWCB to Council Bluffs. Since the sun was fully out now, I decided to head north to catch it.
The train would be backlit in the morning light northbound out of Fort Worth, so I decided to drive to Mingo siding north of Denton where the Choctaw Sub runs east to west for a few miles. I found a good spot at the dead end of Collins Road on the south side in the middle of the siding. The main was the furthest track here so that gave me space for a desired 3/4 view in good light. I decided to use the Canon 7D Mark II with the 100-400mm zoom for a distant approach shot and then switch to the 5D Mark IV with the 24-105mm lens for a close up and then go back to the zoom combo for a going-away view. Starting at 10:21am here are the results.
The night before the shield was up and the inspection car Idaho was occupied but now it looked like Fort Worth to Council Bluffs was a true deadhead move. There was a Fort Worth to Denison MFWDN “super local” running close behind the passenger special and I hung around to catch it at 10:45am.
No other trains were close by, and I drove back home without encountering anything else worth photographing. Even so, the evening before and this morning were worth the effort!