I had no definite plans when I woke up on Friday February 03 of 2025, but a message soon changed that. BNSF was in running a 17-car passenger train out of Topeka to New Orleans for the Super Bowl on February 9th and it was southbound out of Oklahoma City. I decided I did not want to catch it in the urban landscape around Fort Worth, and would instead charge up my drone gear and catch it down around the Brazos River bridge between Blum and Kopperl. I learned from a friend the crew for the Alliance Yard to Temple segment was called for 11:00 am.
With all my DSLR and drone equipment fully charged, I left the house a little after noon. A friend let me know the special was leaving Alliance Yard, but without knowledge of its running priority, I did not want to take any chances by catching it around Fort Worth and then not beating it to the Brazos River bridge. As I was passing Cleburne I looked at the Amtrak tracker on my phone and saw the train was passing Kopperl.
The light angles were far from perfect with the northbound train coming out of the sun but I decided to catch it passing the school grounds on the south side of Rio Vista. My friend Jeremy Krauss from Temple was riding the train to Cleburne, and I waved to him at 1:13 pm as the late-running number 22 raced by.
There was a southbound loaded Ethanol train in the siding at Rio Vista just over my shoulder, and I decided to move on south to the north end of Blum siding to catch it. There was apparently a slow order there as the train eased by at around 30 mph after taking until 1:55 pm to arrive. Two units up front and a single DPU in BNSF H1 paint shoving on the rear end.
I got a call the special was holding at Saginaw with several trains between it and Tower 55. It was starting to look like I could have caught it in Fort Worth and beat down here after all, but I was now committed to my first decision. I heard over the radio that Amtrak 21 had left Fort Worth Central Station and would meet Amtrak 22 at Birds as there was an empty auto rack train in the siding at Crowley that would not move until Amtrak 21 had overtaken it.
I held my position at the Blum north switch to keep up with the passenger train’s movements as I could hear BNSF dispatcher DS22 using the Fort Worth radio tower. Already having numerous photos of Amtrak crossing the Brazos River was also a consideration. As Amtrak 21 closed in on my position I composed a distant shot with a tractor shed and a grove of trees, a closeup photo, and then closure with a going-away photo including the North Blum sign. At 3:09 pm I carried out this sequence.
GE P42DC number 53 is really showing its age!
The southbound empty auto rack was finally out of Crowley, and it appeared the special would follow the southbound Cleburne local and a loaded coal train passing Tower 55. I drove further south on Highway 174 to the Johnson County Road 1104 wooden bridge over the main in a deep man-made cut. This the last public access to the track until the south side of the Brazos River, and the auto rack caught up to me here at 3:49 pm.
There was a northbound manifest train at Kopperl with a NS leader, and I let this one go as I made my way to the south bank of the Brazos River where I have permission from the landowners to photograph from. I expected the northbound to take the siding at either Blum or Rio Vista and then the southbound loaded coal and the special to arrive shortly, but the dispatcher had other plans. The northbound crew was short on time so the dispatcher brought the loaded coal down to Rio Vista and the passenger train stopped at Midway siding on the north side of Cleburne.
I waited patiently as the sun dropped lower in the southwest. I thought for sure after the northbound met both trains the dispatcher would leave the loaded coal at Rio Vista and run the passenger train around it there. Once again I was wrong and the passenger train was still behind the loaded coal as both approached the slow order at Blum. When the coal train passed the detector back at milepost 301 near the County Road 1104 overpass, I launched my Mavic 3 Pro drone and maneuvered into position for this sequence starting at 5:21 pm amidst lengthening shadows.
By this time a northbound auto rack train was in the siding at Kopperl several miles to the south. Now I hoped the dispatcher would keep the special moving south behind the loaded coal train, as my time for direct sun was running out with sunset scheduled for 6:03 pm. After a bit when I did not hear any radio conversations nor the detectors north of me at mileposts 301 and 307, I had a bad feeling and launched the drone to take a look to the south. Sure enough when I got up around 200 feet I could see the low sun reflecting off a line of auto racks heading north towards me out of Kopperl. Starting at 5:46 pm I captured the following sequence if its passage over the river.
After the auto rack cleared the bridge I made this exposure after my interest was piqued by the shadows of the trees at the end of the short peninsula along the north bank of the river.
The last traces of direct sunlight now left the valley in shadow as 6:03 pm came and went. The passenger special had met the northbound at Blum, and I launched the drone again when I heard the detector at milepost 301 sound off. Six minutes later at 6:09 pm the headlight appeared at the end of the distant cut and I proceeded with the following “Hail Mary Pass” to finally catch this train.
In this day and time it is great to see a 17-car passenger train composed of all single level cars.
So is this a win or a loss? I will be interested to hear your answers!
