This morning after I tore off yesterday’s calendar page to make today officially February 26th, my wife and I dropped my SUV off for service and ran some errands. Along the route I noticed a big crane sitting next to a bridge on the UP Baird Sub in Boaz Park in west Fort Worth. Something is in the works there, and later I saw in social media that a UP “Z” train was spotted eastbound through Brownwood on the BNSF Lampasas Sub.
The last time UP had a serious derailment between Fort Worth and Sweetwater, they diverted several of their hottest “Z” trains over the BNSF from Tecific just east of Sweetwater to Temple via the Lampasas Sub and then north to Fort Worth on the Fort Worth Sub to keep their Atlanta/Memphis to Los Angeles corridor up and running. Research showed this was happening again today as a westbound “Z” train was departing Fort Worth after noon southbound on the BNSF towards Temple while the eastbound “Z” spotted earlier in Brownwood was about to arrive in Temple where it would turn north.
Retrieving my car from the dealership meant I would miss the southbound, so I set my sights on catching the northbound when it passed through Cleburne later on. I arrived at the depot in Cleburne a little after 4:00 pm, and at 4:30 pm the Cleburne to Alliance turn arrived back in town and started to double over their train into the south end of the yard. With a GP40, SD70MAC, and two GP60’s for power this local never disappoints for variety.
The two diversion trains met at Meridian, and the next train for me was a southbound Kansas City to Temple manifest at 4:59 pm. This train west to Rio Vista to meet the eastbound “Z” train. I was ready in my chosen spot at 5:42 pm when the nearly 9,000-foot train with five units up front rolled through the composition I had chosen. While waiting I had alerted local railfan friend Jim Gibson, and he was standing just to my right for his photo.
With the goal accomplished, Jim and I drove a few blocks to Dillon Depot for refreshments in a railroad theme before parting ways.