On Friday, June 19th 2026, local friends let me know from the railfan grapevine that the UP ZAILC (Atlanta Norfolk Southern to Loa Angeles) passing through here the next morning would have Norfolk Southern locomotive 1067 the Reading Heritage Unit leading the train. I set my alarm for 7:00 am Saturday morning and immediately texted a friend who let me know the train had just changed crews at Mesquite Intermodal. From experience I knew I had roughly two hours to be in position in Aledo for its passing.
It was a completely overcast morning and was drearily looking like it could rain at any moment. I arrived at the west end of downtown Aledo where exists a nice wide view with low cut grass. If the sun was out, this spot would only be good in the afternoon. With complete overcast, it did not matter on this morning when I stopped here at 8:00 am as there was no backlighting.
The dispatcher told a westbound holding at Iona that Maintenance of Way had a window here until 9:00am. However within a few minutes a total of nine machines showed up in a procession and moved into the house track where they tied down for the day and released their track and time. I was able to make a test shot at 8:17 am when a different westbound “Z” train rolled by. How do I know it was a “Z” train? It had a large number of UPS trailers.
I expected the ZAILA around 9:00 am, and it did not disappoint as it came into view at 8:59 am. The Reading unit did not look too bad after all since they are not cleaned regularly any more. I lucked out in that since the tie and curve gangs had been working just ahead, this train was restricted to 15 mph through Aledo. I had plenty of time to record this sequence compared to when they normally roll through here at 50 mph.
If the sun had been out I might have chased this further west since it was my first exposure to this particular locomotive, but this was a “one and done” day due to the overcast which as usual lifted about an hour later.
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