I had word yesterday via social media that the UP’s ZAILC train westbound this morning – Saturday May 1st – off the Meridian Speedway at Shreveport, Louisiana was led by the NS 4004 and four UP units. The Norfolk Southern 4004 was rebuilt by NS from an older DC traction locomotive into a 4,400 horsepower AC traction locomotive with the new designation AC44C6M and was painted in a special scheme. My plan “A” in spite of the overcast and rainy weather was to photograph the train in the Aledo area around 1:00 pm.
This changed around 11:00 am when I heard the ZAILC had set out the 4004 and the first UP unit behind it at the Mesquite Intermodal Terminal and was continuing west with the remaining three UP units. As a result I decided to skip the train and meet my wife for lunch in west Fort Worth. Around 1:00 pm as we were eating I received word that the train had just been seen on the Fort Worth railcam at Tower 55 with the 4004 still leading four UP units. I quickly checked my contact and sure enough the setout had not taken place after all.
We finished eating and my wife was going shopping on the way home. I checked with friend Luke Meacham who was waiting for the train in Aledo and it had not passed him there yet. I came up with a spur of the moment Plan “B” and decided to hop on I30 west to I20 west with the intention of beating the train to Judd siding about 25 miles west of Weatherford.
As there are several areas west of Fort Worth on the UP Baird Sub where even Z trains have to slow down (especially one approaching 10,000 feet in length) I felt like I would have no problem winning the race to Judd. I stayed just above the speed limits on the interstate and arrived at the east end of Judd 15 minutes ahead of the ZAILC. I framed up my first and second shots with the bluffs in the background.
The blue accent stripe indicates this unit was rebuilt at the ex Pennsylvania Railroad Juniata Shops at Altoona, Pennsylvania.
I heard on the radio that the ZAILC would take the siding at Strawn for a 15,000 foot eastbound stack train. I decided to drive five miles further west to the small community of Gordon where I only had to wait a few minutes before the eastbound showed up.
I turned slightly to the right to catch the two head end units with one of this area’s numerous small hills.
What seemed like and endless stream of moving containers stretched away from me to the horizon.
After three minutes a single mid train DPU chugged by as it was dwarfed by the double stacks on each end.
After the DPU was out of sight around the curve behind me the view to the west returned to an endless stream of containers.
In another minute the last car appeared in the distance and rolled by me just as I was making my U-turn to head back to I20 and home. Plan “A” had been thwarted by bad intel but Plan “B” saved the day!
