On Thursday February 10th the sun rose into a perfectly cloudless sky, and so I decided to head up to the Wabtec locomotive facility in far north Fort Worth. My hope was to catch one of the rebuilds for Fortescue Metals Group in Australia that had been doing their first testing outside the building the previous Monday. When I arrived around 8:30 am only locomotive FMG 101 was outside the gate on the test track facing north with no other signs of activity.
I drove further north to Lambert Junction south of Justin where my friend Troy Minnick was waiting so we could maybe catch a BNSF train or two while we awaited developments at the plant. Troy and I got to talking and were not paying close attention when a northbound BNSF train led by warbonnet GE number 4710 snuck up behind us. We had missed a head-on and 3/4 photo by the time I got my camera out for this slightly trailing broadside view at 9:20am.
The train had a red signal at Lambert for a few minutes before being lined up by the dispatcher and this gave Troy and I the opportunity to move ahead of it to Justin for this view a few minutes later.
We kept on driving by the plant on a regular basis and saw two more non-descript BNSF freights until 11:14am when FMG 104 was brought out and parked at the north end of the plant. A technician took decibel measurements of the horn and the engine at idle while I captured this telephoto view through the fences from the shoulder of FM 156.
I patiently waited on the shoulder of FM 156 and my reward came at 12:13 pm when FMG 110 came out of the plant to face south and was coupled up back-to-back with FMG 101. In the first photo in this sequence three FMG locomotives are visible; from left to right numbers 101 on the test track, number 104 parked in the distance and number 110 on the transfer table.
The light was on the nose of the FMG 110 and I had to bring out the details later at home in Lightroom.
Thanks to local expert Michael Palmieri, the serial number and build date indicate this unit utilized BNSF C44-9 number 4822 as a core to be rebuilt into a AC44C6M as FMG 110. The FMG 110 was coupled up to the FMG 101 and shortly thereafter the Wabtec crew started a run north on the test track towards Justin. Almost immediately the crew encountered a technical problem and brough the two locomotives back to their point of departure for troubleshooting.
Very quickly I calculated the sun would come around to naturally light the side of the south-facing FMG 110 by 2:30 pm if they did not move. I needed to be home before 4:00 pm, so once again I waited patiently and snapped this view at 2:33 pm.
There was no sign the units would operate again soon so I headed on home. I found out later from a local foamer named Travis that his wife had sent him to the grocery store and he was lucky enough to catch them out testing. I would have loved to have had the time to wait longer to see the testing, but I was happy my patience had paid off with good photos of at least one unit.
