I headed north towards Kansas on April 02, 2023, on a business trip and had time for train photos along the way. My first stop was in Gainesville, Texas where at 10:05 am I photographed two Dash 9-44CW locomotives resting in the yard between regular assignments to the Oklahoma City local.
This Sunday’s local northbound to Oklahoma City was already out and running. I decided to visit old haunts from my senior year in High School and captured the train at 11:51 am with two more DASH 9-44CW’s leading north of Gene Autry, Oklahoma. A retired BNSF GenSet heading north out of the Galveston deadline was trailing on its way to a new owner.
Continuing on north I once again detoured off of I35 at Pauls Valley. This time I had only a few minutes to spare to catch this northbound Z train at 2:09 pm.
Later on as I was approaching Perry, I heard on the radio there was a northbound coming up behind me on the BNSF Red Rock Sub while an eastbound train had left Enid on the Avard Sub. I headed down to the old ATSF depot where at 4:13 pm the northbound passed by the east side of the depot at 4:13 PM. The northbound’s rear end had passed by me when at 4:16 pm the eastbound streamed by the west side of the depot. If only they had shown up simultaneously sometime in that three-minute window! That is a photo I have never gotten, but hopefully some day!
I heard on the radio that a westbound train on the Avard Sub would be meeting the eastbound that had just passed at Morrison, sixteen miles to the east. The afternoon light would be perfect to capture the westbound train passing the old SLSF (Frisco) train order office just to the right of the elevator visible in the background of the photo above, so I headed on over there.
The meet took longer than I anticipated, but considering how seldom I get to Perry , I decided that it would be worth the later arrival in Wichita. The westbound finally arrived at 5:49 pm and rolled through on its way to Enid without fanfare.
What makes the above photo meaningful to me is that forty-two years, 6 months and 13 days earlier I was standing in almost the same spot for the westbound passage of Frisco train QLA as the resident agent exchanged waves with the engineer.
Worth the wait? For me, absolutely to capture the “Now and Then”.