In June of 2024, Amtrak provided some interesting moments worth photographing. On June 9th, 2024, the Heartland Flyer was celebrating 25 years of Heartland Flyer Service between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City. Along with friend Steve Crise I caught train 821southbound through Saginaw with an expanded consist.
Decals had been applied to P42 number 168.
Normally operating with two coaches sandwiched between a pair of P42’s, for this week the train had two extra coaches and a lounge car.
P42 number 61 brought up the rear and would lead on the return trip north to Oklahoma City that evening.
The next day June 10th I caught both Trains 21 and 22 with four P42 locomotives. Probably due to repositioning power and/or 92-day inspections. Here is Train 22 arriving at Cleburne.
I hung around and later on I captured Amtrak 21 southbound between Cleburne and Rio Vista with a thunderstorm brewing in the background over Cleburne.
On June 11th for the third day in a row Amtrak provided something interesting in the form of Amtrak P42 number 138 in special paint leading train 22 at Cleburne.
A few days later on June 15th I captured Train 21 with P42 138 still leading as the train came under Trinity Metro headquarters just before arriving at Fort Worth Central Station.
On the way home after bagging this view, I got lucky and caught Fort Worth & Western out of Fort Worth heading to Cresson.
Five ex-Union Pacific SD60M’s are leading the train.
A pretty good day to wind up this stretch of interesting Amtrak operations!
