On the morning of February 8th, 2023 my wife and I left home for New Mexico on a business trio with a some extra time built in for fun. We drove a good ways west on I20 before I heard an eastbound train on the radio that I decided could be caught at the FM 2228 crossing just west of Baird. We only had to wait a few minutes before the UP 6042 East came by the west end of Putnam siding.
This was a long train with two mid-train DPU’s and probably a “Z” classification as it had UPS trailers on board.
Arriving in Sweetwater later on, we had overtaken a westbound intermodal that I caught from the business route overpass at the east end of town. In the background you can see where this train on the UP Baird Sub is passing under the BNSF Slaton Sub.
After checking into our hotel, on the way to dinner we heard the Texas & Oklahoma cement train coming back from Maryneal and I drove over to the north side of town. We first intercepted them at a grade crossing near the west end of the BNSF yard where they would interchange and tie down.
They were operating with their current power consisting of an SD40-2 rebuilt in a SD45 car body, a GP40, and a SD40-2.
Turning around and getting ahead of the slow moving train we caught them one more time entering the yard. It was fortunate the sun went behind a cloud at this time or these last three photos would have been severely back lit.
I know some of the crew menbers and they stopped for s few minutes when they recognized me taking their picture. Afterwards we had a nice dinner and rested up before heading to Mountainair, New Mexico the next day.