Out & About – October 21, 2011

I went to Dayton, TX yesterday.  Dayton is at MP 327 on UP’s Lafayette sub mainline, about 30 miles east of Englewood Yard in Houston.  UP’s Baytown sub branches off from the east end of Dayton Yard. In addition, KCS and BNSF have trackage rights through there, so just about anything can be seen in Dayton.

Upon my arrival, a BNSF job with 2 gensets was waiting at the west end of the yard, with a headlight in the background. Note how the head end of each train is in good light, with a big cloud shading the train. The clouds were moving so quickly, I wouldn’t know until the last second whether I’d have good sun or not.

BNSF 1221 waits at the west end of Dayton, TX as a westbound approaches in the background.

The threatening cloud moved on as the distant headlight revealed itself as KCS 708.

It was a short train of some odd-looking flat cars.  The decks appeared to have ballast on them. Any KCS fan out there know just what these cars are for?

Once the KCS got by me I headed toward the east end of Dayton Yard where a BNSF train was coming off of the Baytown Branch. As soon as I arrived, I saw BNSF 980 crossing Hwy 90 as it prepared to enter Dayton yard.

I don’t get to see much BNSF H1 on the point these days, so I decided to chase this train on my way back to Houston. The images from that chase will be the subject of my next post, hopefully tomorrow…