I got the word early on Wednesday May 6th that the nine new Mexican Tren Maya ES44’s I did not catch on the 3rd were definitely on today’s Alliance to Temple merchandise train, tucked in behind the BNSF power. I decided there would be time to try to catch them at Crowley ay my spot on the west side of the main before my 11:00 am ankle rehabilitation appointment in Aledo. I raced over to Crowley and was pulling into my desired spot when I heard on the radio the dispatcher was sending the Cleburne to Alliance Turn up the main here at Crowley.
Deja Vu from my adventure with the funeral train on April 26th flashed through my mind as I quickly drove north up the west side of the track and made it across to the east side less than five minutes before the target train showed up and came south down the siding just as it started to rain. Not my ideal photography situation but you learn to adapt as this was my only shot at these new units.
Ironically the road power included another Mexican unit in the form of a Ferromex in new paint.
The nine new units were all facing south so the spot I ended up in worked out perfectly for photographing them without any obstructions.
Now the Alliance Turn on the main was pulling up towards the red signal at the north end and I could see through the cars on the southbound that it had a warbonnet unit leading. I relocated to the north end of the siding and the rain was now coming down hard and readily visible. The rear end device of the train in the siding was also quite noticeable.
I took one more photo of the engineer’s side as the train came to a halt. The dispatcher siad he would have them moving in a few minutes.
I decided since I was going to drive north up to I20 to head towards Aledo that I would try for one more photo. I headed north on FM 731 and turned left on Risinger Road back to the Fort Worth Sub. Going over the crossing I could see the headlight to the south and made a U-turn at the next street. There was no place to pull off the road at the crossing but luckily there were no cars behind me so I waited in the right lane and took this photo through the car’s passenger window.
Mission accomplished with a bonus and I made it to rehab in Aledo with ten minutes to spare!
