Baird Hill on the ex-T&P, ex-MP now Union Pacific around 130 miles west of Fort Worth is one of the steepest westbound grades on the Baird Subdivision. The town of Baird was founded in 1880 and named after Mathew Baird, a Director of the T&P Railroad. It was a crew change point in the early years and today the well-preserved depot is a museum worth visiting.
On Thursday, June 16th in 2022 I planned a trip out there to meet with local resident and railfan friend William Tollett. Another railfan friend Luke Meacham who lives near me was out of school for summer vacation and accepted my invite to accompany me. To make the day even more fun, retired UP engineer and historian Bruce Blalock and his friend Clif Jones would be driving up from Smithville to join us.
I picked Luke up around 8:00 am and we decided to see what UP trains we could catch on the way to Baird. Ourt first opportunity came at 8:51 am at the west switch of Gilbert Siding with an eastbound intermodal coming up the grade from the Brazos River bridge. The eastbound took the siding at Gilbert to meet a westbound intermodal coming up behind us.
Luke and I headed on west to the east end of Judd siding where we waited for the westbound train to catch up to us at 9:23 am. The westbound was coming out of the morning sun and we had a better opportunity for side-lighting here.
An eastbound intermodal was waiting in the Judd Siding right behind us, and as soon as the UP 7490 West passed by the eastbound accelerated towards Fort Worth.
Luke and I heard on the radio there would be an eastbound train in the siding at Eastland for the westbound intermodal, so we exited 120 and stopped at the east end of the siding to record the meet starting at 10:25 am. Two DPU’s were shoving hard on the rear of the westbound.
From here we drove on to Baird where the group met at the depot museum. The westbound intermodal was quickly catching up to us, so at 11:30 am we made this shot on the west side of the building where a UP track gang was setting up their equipment in the house track.
We gathered intel that an eastbound intermodal was coming in about an hour. William had permission from local landowners for us to drive within easy walking distance to the bridge located between the bottom of the grade and downtown Baird. The five of us made it to the base of the bridge with time to spare, and I decided to try for a “twofer” photographing the train both from the ground and from the air.
Around 12:40 pm we heard the train talking to the maintenance crew in Baird, so I launched the drone and took the first two photos a few seconds apart starting at 12:47 pm.
It was too bad the lead unit had taken on some grafitti. You can see our intrepid group in the foreground of the first drone view looking west. I rotated the drone to the east to capture this going away view with the two mid-train DPU’s. The road in the foreground is the old original two lane highway now on private property with I20 visible in the background.
Nothing else was close so we drove back to Baird and had a good lunch at the 1881 Cafe just down the street from the depot. After our late lunch, at 3:00 pm we caught an eastbound train coming down grade in dynamic braking at the grade crossing about 1/2 mile west of the depot.
At 4:11 pm the five of us caught another intermodal roaring up the westbound grade at the same location
As it was now late afternoon we visited the excellent museum in the old depot. I came away with multiple photos from inside the building including this brakeman’s cap. It is well worth the visit if you are in the area.
While we were inside another eastbound train passed by and I photographed it out the back door looking over the fence.
After leaving the museum, William took us around to the various railroad related landmarks around town. I had already photographed these locations on a previous visit with William. Those photos can be viewed in a previous blog entry at
https://fl9.com/2021/07/a-day-around-baird-hill/
Bruce set his camera on delayed release at the big wall mural for this group shot. Left to right are Bruce Blalock, Ken Fitzgerald, William Tollett, Luke Meacham and Clif Jones.
When the tour was done it was time to say our goodbyes and William headed out on his short drive of a few blocks while Bruce and Clif and Luke and I started our respective journeys back home. We heard the dispatcher talking to the westbound “ZAILC” nicknamed the “Laser” on the radio, so Luke and I headed about a mile south of I20 to catch it a few miles west of Cisco at 6:47 pm. It had six units including one BNSF all on the point.
An eastbound train was in the siding a few miles behind us at Dothan, and we beat it into Cisco for this view with the original Hilton Hotel in the background. This is a photo I had wanted for a long time but had not been able to be there for the lighting to be correct until this day at 7:04 pm.
Continuing to listen to the radio we heard this eastbound would take the siding at Eastland for another westbound. We retraced our steps from the morning and caught the westbound at the east end of Eastland Siding. I tried to be artistic and catch it at 7:44 pm with these flowers in the foreground.
As the last light of the day was quickly approaching, Luke and I decided to catch the eastbound train behind us passing the depot in Ranger for our last train of the day before heading on home. At 8:15 PM the UP 2747 East drifted on by the depot just as the sun was setting over our shoulders.
All five of us agreed later that we had a great day at Baird!
