Out & About – Aug. 4, 2011

Defying the 100 degree temperature at 6:30 PM yesterday, I ventured out to see what might be running. I headed towards KCS’ Kendleton yard first, hoping for a southbound, as the late afternoon sun would be perfect.  As luck would have it, there were two trains, but both were northbound.

The first one was already on the UP by the time I got to Rosenberg, and just not shoot-able due to harsh  backlighting. The second train was the Rosenberg-Port of Houston local which was out of sight in the yard as it built its train. Oh well…

Hoping to salvage something for my trouble, I headed toward the UP Glidden sub as I had heard the DS talk to two westbounds. By the time I got to East Bernard, the first westbound was by me, but I found a spot I could live with and waited for the following westbound. Within 5 minutes I was rewarded with nice series of shots of an empty rock train blowing by at 50 mph.

UP 4403 comes off the San Bernard River bridge at East Bernard, TX, 8/4/2011

As I headed back toward home on US 90, the DS gave a warrant to the KCS local that I missed at Kendleton earlier, authorizing it to proceed to CP SA036 in Rosenberg. I wasn’t too optimistic because the approach into Rosenberg is virtually buried in brush, especially along the west side of the track.

As I entered Rosenberg, I found a spot where the brush wasn’t a problem-the overpass over Hwy 90. It’s not the most photogenic spot, but my options were pretty limited at this point. At 7:53 PM , KCS 2818 came into view.

Well, looks like the KCS painters have been busy! Despite the KCS local stopping in a spot where it was in deep shade and backlit, I wanted to try a few shots of the colorful unit.

The last 2 views are definitely not the most fulfilling of shots, but sometimes something is better than nothing.