Spring Break breakdown - 7

Closure

Saturday, March 21: We had spent the previous night in Midland. (One of my traveling companions was craving IHOP, and we believed Midland would have the nearest one). I woke up early on Saturday and went out to take a few photos...

Eastbound UP train passes downtown Midland, TX

Eastbound stack train (left) passes a freight east of Midland at Chub siding.

Our trip home was generally uneventful, although we stopped several times to take train photos. We dragged our feet so much, in fact, that Mom, L and M (who left from Ruidoso that morning) caught up to us near Abilene, despite Miss C, C and I having more than a 200-mile head start!

An ominous sign? Passing a casket truck on I-20. They must have been stocking up for all the Swine Flu casualties...

That completes the Spring Break trip. Check back soon for April activities.

WSC

np: Rage Against the Machine - "Wake Up"

return to west Texas

Thursday, November 13. I had spent the previous night in Slaton, and woke up to clear skies and a nice sunrise. I'd spend the morning between Slaton and Post on the BNSF Slaton Sub, and then head down to the UP Toyah Sub west of Sweetwater in the afternoon...

Sunrise at Slaton. A westbound coal empty is ready to depart, as a westbound freight enters the yard in the distance.

I had wanted to catch an eastbound heading down through the cuts along the edge of the Caprock at Buenos...

... but all I got were two westbounds.

The second westbound: BNSF 7396 at Buenos.

I headed to Colorado City to start the afternoon on the UP Toyah Sub. This Z-train was the second of six westbounds I'd see that day.

Westbound Z-train leaving Colorado City.

I raced the Z to the overpass near Coahoma for another shot... I was lucky the highway department had the outside lane of westbound I-20 blocked off!

Back at Colorado City, I set up for another westbound.

Westbound stacks approaching Roscoe.

I burned the last hour of daylight getting a few shots of the TXOR (Texas & Oklahoma) SD9s, tied down on the line to Maryneal south of Sweetwater. The BNSF 1733 looks like it's seen better days. But I wonder how it SOUNDS! Maybe someday I'll catch them running...

BNSF 1733 on the TXOR south of Sweetwater.

Coming next: finishing out the month of November, and a quick December re-cap...

WSC

np: Stevie Ray Vaughan - "Voo Doo Child"

heading home

Saturday, November 8...

Before we started back toward north Texas, I spent a few hours along the former Texas & Pacific main line (now the UP Toyah Subdivision) in far west Texas between Van Horn and Sierra Blanca. The temperature was in the low 20s, and the dispatcher was having lots of trouble with frozen switches and broken rails. Lots of trains were nearby, but the cold weather trouble was slowing them down. Still, I managed to catch a few... it's always an enjoyable experience to shoot a few photos along the tracks in one of my favorite parts of the state.

Westbound MFWEP rolls downgrade approaching Allamore, Texas. The train has just crested the summit of the hill at Crusher -- the highest elevation on the former T&P.

MFWEP west of Eagle Flat.

MFWEP holds the siding at Sierra Blanca to meet an eastbound.

Eastbound stacks at Sierra Blanca, TX.

A meet at Eagle Flat

Racing through Allamore.

After a late breakfast in Van Horn, we started for home. Miss C was in a hurry to get back to see her boy, so our stops were limited, and we made the most of the 80 mph speed limit on I-10 and I-20 west of Odessa...

We did make one stop in Toyah to document the dismantling of the town's landmark steam-era water tower. Wonder where that tank is headed?

The first time I've ever driven 80 mph (legally). I believe the speed limit was still 75 when I was out there a couple years ago...


Miss C was behind the wheel for the home stretch as we overtook an 18-wheeler on I-20...

And that concludes our adventure. Let's see, our trip lasted a week, but it has taken me THREE WEEKS to post enough blog reports and photos to do it justice. And it's been over 5 weeks since we got back. Amazingly, this was only the FIRST HALF of my two-week vacation! Stay tuned for a look at what I did during that second week.

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np: KTCK 1310 "the Ticket" post-game analysis on last night's Cowboys win over the Giants

Way to New Mexico - 1

Today's entry is the first of several that will document our recent New Mexico vacation -- my first visit there in three years. It's amazing to think that I've been to Hawaii twice since the last time I was in New Mexico.

I'm shooting photos of so many things these days that I'm going to have to break my reports up into separate categories -- trains, ghost signs, kids and family, etc. So if you don't see what you're interested in this time, just check back in a day or two.

Early on the morning of Sunday, March 16, I headed west on I-20. Mom and K and the kids had left the day before. It would be a leisurely trip since I was by myself. Here are a few of the trains I saw...

One of the first trains I saw after hitting the road on Sunday March 16 was this UP westbound led by the Missouri Pacific "heritage" locomotive # 1982, shown here leaving Baird, Texas on a stack train bound for California. Interestingly, once the locomotive arrived in the Los Angeles area, UP sent it north on a ZLCBR train, which rerouted up the Oregon Trunk and through the Columbia River gorge. So by the time I was a few days into my New Mexico trip, the 1982 was in Washington State!

Faded T&P lettering graces a concrete bridge at Loraine, TX.

An eastbound races through a cut at Colorado City, TX.

Brownfield, Texas: Santa Fe-style station sign and locomotives in the Texas Northeastern scheme.

ILSX 1387 at Brownfield, Texas: March 16, 2008

This fading Amerail logo adorns the side of a storage boxcar at Brownfield.

Next up: Way to New Mexico - 2, featuring west Texas ghost signs and other roadside views.

WSC

np: James McMurtry - Angeline