Sunday October 19, 2025, dawned with full sun which aligned with my plan to photograph a southbound BNSF Officer Special on the bridge over the Brazos River south of Rio Vista. The last time I attempted this earlier in the year with the drone, the train did not reach the Brazos River crossing until twilight after sunset, so I was hoping for better luck this time. I left home at 1:00 pm as the train was not scheduled to leave Alliance Yard until mid afternoon.
It would take me a little over an hour to reach the bridge, and passing through Cresson I made quick stop when I spotted two FWWR SD40-2’s parked in the yard.
Over the radio I heard a southbound manifest train heading to Temple that was leaving Crowley. I made it to my launch point a few hundred yards south of the bridge and had the drone in position looking west when the train showed up at 2:43 pm. I photographed both the head end and the single DPU bringing up the rear.
In younger days and before the proliferation of drones with excellent cameras, I would climb to the top of the knoll behind the train for my photos here.
Amtrak train 21 was 17 minutes behind at 3:01 pm.
A southbound intermodal train from Chicago to Eagle Pass crossed the river at 4:09 pm.
Close on its heels at 4:21 pm was a southbound grain train with two units up front and two more shoving on the rear.
A northbound empty grain train had been waiting in the siding at Kopperl for the last three southbounds. It rolled out onto the bridge at 4:46 pm.
Next up at 4:49 pm was another southbound unit train that met the northbound at Blum.
And where was the OCS train in all of this? It was coming out of Rio Vista and I captured the following sequence starting at 5:08 pm. The train was too long to catch all of it on the bridge but the last car is just visible behind a tree.
As soon as the train was out of sight, I packed up the drone and started the drive back home. Coming into Rio Vista I heard still another southbound grain train leaving Cleburne. I set up at the south switch and used the DSLR for this last shot of the day as the advancing sunset shadows were almost up to the rail.
I arrived back home a little after full darkness with the knowledge that I had accomplished my goal this time around. All the other trains that BNSF ran did not hurt either!