On Monday September 30th, 2026 the skies were overcast with intermittent rain and wind gusts over 30 mph in Fort Worth. I had errands to run, the last of which was to catch the BNSF 250 locomotive with a 15-car business train on its way from Galveston to Los Angeles via Fort Worth. The train was occupied with BNSF officials and their guests from Galveston to Saginaw, and then running empty to the west coast via the Wichita Falls and Red River Valley Subdivisions for more events. As the train was approaching Tower 55, I headed to downtown Fort Worth with the intention of photographing it somewhere south of Saginaw and then again north of the crew change point before letting it go.
The skies were quite dark around Central Station with light rain and winds gusting over 30 mph, and with trains parked everywhere there was no good ground shot available that would allow the whole train to be included photo. The rain and wind pretty much ruled out using the drone to accomplish this desire, so I kept heading north. I checked around Tower 60 north of the Trinity river, but a gathering of BNSF Maintenance of Way trucks would clutter up a photo there too. The weather continued to be unfavorable for the drone and fencing on every overpass precluded using my DSLR.
It was far from my first choice of a location, but fate intervened when I once again stumbled across fellow railfans Jadon Henderson and Caden Cotton at the NE 38th Street grade crossing just south of the south end of Saginaw where the radio indicated the train would be stopping to unload its passengers. As it approached us on Main one, I chose an angle too far to the side to get the whole train in the photo as the southbound Cleburne Local was parked on the number two main right behind us and I did not want to stand in the foul. I barely cropped the junk yard out of the right side of my photo taken at 3:02 pm.
Notice the small staff on the engineer’s side holding a broken American flag. But the Texas flag survives! As the last car passed I scored the going away photo of the Glacier View theater car with the Cleburne local.
I headed north up Main Street at the train spotted up under the overpass to let its passengers off to board waiting vans. I could not see a good photo composition but then decided to jump the curb and park on the street side of the old security fence that was installed when this area was a Santa Fe railroad intermodal facility before Alliance Yard was built. The result was this shot, the composition if which you are free to love or hate!
Monitoring the radio, I heard the plan was to have the new Wichita Falls crew fuel the train from a truck in Saginaw Yard before its departure. With no idea how long this would take I worked my way north looking for a good departure photo location. The depot in Saginaw was out due to multiple fellow foamers with their tripods set up. I finally decided on the shadow (east) side at Hicks Avondale School Road on the Wichita Falls Sub since the sun was not out and settled in to wait.
At 4:38 pm I could hear an air horn to the south and I set up hoping this was my target train. It was not, and to add insult to injury it turned out to be an UP-powered empty welded rail train heading west.
My spirits picked up again at 4:55 pm as another horn heralded a second westbound train, but once again disappointment reigned as this time it was an Alliance to Pasco, Washington manifest train.
I heard both trains stop on the main at Avondale Siding about two miles up the line with several east bounds approaching. I figured this meant my target train would not head west until later on, so I entered the line of bumper-to-bumper traffic on southbound Business 287. A few minutes later as I continued to creep along I spotted a headlight coming west on the Wichita Falls Sub. Figuring this had to be the passenger train, I got lucky and was able to exit 287 at the Hicks Field Road crossing. The third time was the charm and I even had sun when the train slowly trundled by at 5:53 pm.
I was only allowed to turn north back onto Business 287 and I raced back to Hicks Avondale School Road. There I had a nice open area with sun south of the crossing but the train stopped behind the trees as it had a red signal at this time with the two pervious westbounds ahead of it at Avondale. I kept on looking at my watch and the sun dropping towards the horizon. Then finally at 6:31 pm an eastbound cleared up into the siding at Avondale and the two westbounds already there started to pull.
The business train got a flashing yellow and throttled up behind the trees. There was just enough sun left to photograph locomotive 250 again and each of the fifteen cars individually as they crept by me.
The sun was gone as I pointed the car towards home. Business 287 was a nightmare of stopped cars as I encountered a malfunctioning red light and then a detour. I finally ended up on far north Boat Club Road and was able to make it down to Loop 820 before making any real speed towards home.
