It was another good weather day on November 25, 2025 when I made a round trip drive to Brownwood to meet a model railroader friend and pick up an HO scale locomotive from him. Just before 10:00 am I stopped in at the Fort Worth & Western’s Dublin yard office just as all the crews were getting their morning briefing. I sat in and learned that one of the jobs was going to San Angelo Junction west of Brownwood on the BNSF Lampasas Sub to interchange with Texas Pacifico. I planned on catching them somewhere along the way.
After the briefing I went outside and launched the drone to catch the first moves of the road switcher that would head to Comanche. The power was parked on the Peanut Line to Gorman.
The first move was to head north to the yard. The Santa Fe depot used to stand on the other side of the crossing on the left side.
After the power moved off the Peanut Line I flew back to photograph ex-CNW GP50 number 2043.
I drove on down to Brownwood and met up with my friend. We left his vehicle parked at the railroad museum and did some exploring around town. Next we drove west along the BNSF with the idea of catching the FWWR on its way to San Angelo Junction. We pulled into Bangs and within a few minutes lucked into this eastbound BNSF train with power in a 2 x 2 configuration.
We heard on the radio this train would be meeting the westbound FWWR at Brownwood so we decided to wait in Bangs. An hour later the FWWR passed by westbound with two SD40-2’s and two hopper cars in tow.
Driving back to Brownwood we found local short line Texas Rock Crusher was in the BNSF yard getting ready to drag interchange cars over to their railroad. Leading the way back was GP40-2 number 103 (ex-Rock Island), GP38 101 (ex- B&O) and both of their SD40-3 (ex-Canadian National).
My friend and I were both getting hungry and we decided to try the “Runaway Train” restaurant on the south side of town built around an ex-Santa Fe crew car.
We had two excellent hamburgers and highly recommend this place! Driving back by the BNSF yard we found the yard job switching with two SD40-2’s, one ex-BN and one ex-Santa Fe that have evaded the paint gun for over 30 years.
It was now 3:30 pm and we parted ways to head back to our respective homes. As I headed north on US Highway 377, I heard on the radio the FWWR San Angelo Junction turn was catching up to me. I pulled over in the town of Blanket and composed this view to compensate for the backlighting as the sun started to set in the southwest.
I drove to Comanche ahead of the train where the old Santa Fe depot still stands, occupied by a small business.
The train caught up to me in about 20 minutes and I composed this view of it passing the depot.
Overtaking the train once again, I decided to use the drone to capture the train going over the Leon River bridge between Comanche and Dublin. The train caught up to me right at sunset.
In this final view for the day it looks like the river bed has been dry for quite some time.
I arrived back home around 7:00 pm after a very good day!
