PTRA Motive Power Variety Pack
May 21, 1966 was just another day at the PTRA roundhouse in Houston, with HB&T 32, an AS616 working in the background and MP SW1200 1253, CRIP RS1 744, and two SP units in Halloween colors, an S12 and an NW2 further back on the service tracks.
Before 1996, PTRA’s motive power was provided by its owner railroads, hence the variety pack of locomotives in this view.
Hauling You Know What in West Texas
Somewhere in far West Texas, GP35 626 and 2 siblings have the daily Fort Worth to El Paso (FEZ ?) hotshot well in hand.
If I had to guess, I’d say the shot’s from about 1968, and location is in the Big Spring, Texas area. Your opinions and guesses are welcome.
* Hauling freight. What did you think?
Why Me?
As much as I whine about clouds, you guys probably wonder why I persist in my photographic endeavors. I too, wonder. This past Friday (9/22/2017) had yet another example of how unfair life has been to me 😉.
UP manifest MEWTU-23 had had an elusive, brand-new SD70ACe-T4 on the point. In the 15 minutes that I waited for UP 3039 at Stafford near MP 21, there was amazing sun. As the train came into view, the one cloud in the western sky drove a dagger into my heart (metaphorically).
Cursing my bad luck, I almost brought the camera down from my eye in disgust. But I persisted, making some quick settings changes to compensate for the cloud’s treachery.
These are good looking units. MOAR PLZ.
Had I been 200 yards east, I would have been OK. But I wasn’t. Somebody, please call me a waahhh-mbulance!
No Drama, Just the Pics
Here’s two pics from my action-packed Saturday (9/22/2017) night as described in my previous post.
First is Amtrak #1 passing the former Imperial Sugar mill in Sugar Land, Texas just after 7:30 PM. Imperial ceased operations here some 10+ years back. Most of the old mill complex has been demolished, but the current plan is to save the iconic “Char House” and re-develop it with retail and loft apartments.
KCS grain train GKCQRS is back on the move at Missouri City, TX after a 90+ minute delay while the wayward auto was removed from the ROW at Sugar Land, TX. There’s only a handful of SD70ACe’s remaining in the as-delivered grey paint scheme so catching them leading is a treat.
I captured images of another 4-5 trains after KCS 4002 which I’ll post eventually…
I Shut Down the Railroad
Some of you might recall I’ve developed an interest in night photography using an array of remotely triggered flash units. That’s what I was doing last night, 9/23/2017, in Sugar Land, near MP 25 of UP’s Glidden sub.
One train, Amtrak #1 had gone by me about 7:35 PM, and I was adjusting my flash units in anticipation of another westbound train which my ATCS screen showed to be at West Junction, about 13 miles east of my location.
I was pretty focused on my chores when I noticed an odd, persistent sound behind me, one that I’d never heard before. It was kind of a medium pitched whine along with the sound of flying rocks. I turned to see what was the cause of this sound was. This is what I saw: (Note my SUV in the background. If you look real hard, you can see my light stands.)
To say that I was shocked would be an understatement! After a few double takes to comprehend what had just happened, I ran over to the driver’s door to check on the driver. It was an elderly Asian fellow who told me that he turned onto what he thought was the street.  He then asked if I would help him push his, very stuck in the ballast on the passenger side, and high centered on the rail head on the driver’s side, car.
I told him there was no way we could push the car free and that he needed to get out of the car because a train was on the way.
As he got out of his car, I called UP’s Terminal Dispatcher #2 to advise him that there was a car stuck on main #1 at MP 24.56. After answering a few questions for him, he told me that he was putting a block on both mains at my location. I then told the dispatcher that I would call 911 to get police and wrecker assistance to our location.
Once the police arrived, I looked at the ATCS screen to see where the westbound I was waiting for had stopped.  Note the two blue segments near Sugar Land Yard. They show the dispatcher track block. Note the red segment to the right. That’s KCS 4002 which was stopped after my call to the dispatcher, just a bit over 5 miles from the location of the stuck car.
Not to be overly dramatic, but had I not been taking night pictures at that spot, there might have been a very different ending to this story.
Long story short, police arrived to the scene promptly, a wrecker shortly thereafter, and the car was pulled off the track by 8:35 PM. Trains didn’t start moving again until 9:40 PM account the time needed for a UP track inspector to reach the scene to ensure the track was not damaged.
Since I had a camera and lights handy, I captured a few views of the recovery operation.
PS – Yes, I did get some decent shots of some trains, but that’s another post…
Tilting at Clouds
I actually walked out the door this morning to catch #2 passing through Sugar Land, but there were some huge clouds obscuring the sun. I came to my senses and went back in to enjoy my Sunday morning coffee. I’m just tired of my recent, repeated losing battles with the clouds, and also tired because of being up until 3AM this morning.
That said, I did get out this past Friday, 9/22/2017, morning when ATCS showed the DS holding an eastbound and #2 at Rosenberg for a KCS westbound train. I figured I could make the 20 minute drive to the Brazos River bridge in time to catch these two eastbounds there.
I arrived there with 2-3 minutes to spare, but so did some clouds. I had nice sun on the bridge, but the head end of UP 5111 (ZLAJX?) was another matter. Sigh.
#2 came into view about 5 minutes behind the intermodal in better sun.
The intermodal went into the hole at Harlem to let #2 pass him. As soon as #2 passed me, I headed east to redeem myself with UP 5111.  You’d think it would be easy enough on US 90 to get ahead of a freight train that’s getting underway, but you’d be wrong. I was able to get ahead of the intermodal only because [redacted in order to preserve my 5th Amendment rights]. I really needn’t have bothered because I was rewarded with this final shot in the smallest sucker hole ever just east of MP24.
Sometimes You Win…
Sometimes you win, most of the time, no. True at the casinos, and for me trackside the last week or so. Here’s an example of my “suffering”.
As CSXT 204 approached my location this past Wednesday at MP 21 of UP’s Glidden sub (Stafford, TX) the sun started to pop out at the last second. It was gonna be epic! Then again, maybe not…
The sun gods laughed at me. But I cursed them with the fire of a googleplex of hypernovas. Then I used a bit of PhotoShop on image 2, so it kind of worked out…
Light ‘Em Up!
No, not enemy combatants or cigarettes, but your typical railfan subjects.
I got out a bit last night. 9/13/17, to try my luck at multi-flash photography with a kindred spirit. We only had two lights to play with, but it was manageable with the stationary subjects we shot.
UP SD40N 1890 waiting to enter the Rohm & Haas plant in Bayport. Bayport
is an industrial area just south of Strang Yard.
CREX 1340 is doing DPU duties on a BNSF loaded rock train near the south end
of the Mykawa siding in south Houston, near Hobby airport.
Lastly, BNSF 8172 on a short tank train waits at the north end of Mykawa siding for a route to open up into the Houston terminal area.
As you might guess, I really like the look of the night shots. Stay tuned, I need to practice this new way of shooting as I’d like to use it for the KCS Christmas train which will be visiting my area later this year after a two year absence.
Railfanning After Dark – Take 1
A friends after-dark flash images persuaded me to stick my toe in the water with multi-strobe photography. I received the triggers last week, but work duties prevented me from trying them out until this past Monday when we got word that UP SD70ACE T-4 3048 was set to lead the MEWFP-11 (Houston-Freeport,TX).
As it turned out, the power got swapped around at the last minute in Houston, and the SD70ACE T-4 was trailing, but freshly re-painted AC4400CW 6556 was a nice catch regardless. Image captured at 10:26 at Alvin, Texas.
5 Car PV Surprise!
I had a job today in downtown Houston that wrapped up about 30 minutes before #2’s departure this mid-day, I decided today’s the day to finally photograph #2 at a new location for me, just north of downtown passing over I-45, I-10, and the bayou.
At the last minute I opted for a wider angle and was rewarded with a good vantage point to capture the 5 PV’s that were (unbeknownst to me) bringing up the rear of #2.
For the historically minded, I was standing just off the Katy Trail, a walking trail that’s along the MKT’s ROW from downtown to old Eureka Yard.
Lemonade or Nothing?
As all photographers understand, photography is all about the light. And sometimes, the lighting powers that be will get the last laugh on us, and the imagery we visualized before pressing the shutter release. Today was one of those days for me.
It rained the better part of the day here in Houston and I had no intention of heading out. But a bit after 7:00 PM, the first few rays of amazing storm light started to appear as the sun worked its way below the cloud bottoms. Not to mention ATCSMon showed 4 trains approaching my neck of the woods! Two WB’s and an EB were on each side of CP SA022, the Sugar Land (TX) cross-overs, waiting for Amtrak #1 to thread its way through the freights.
I grabbed some gear and started the 10 minute drive to CP SA022. About halfway there, another layer of clouds started doing a number on my visions of storm light. By the time I arrived, the sun was gone, buried behind clouds.
My first reaction was to head back home, tail secured between my legs. But I decided to do something with the lemons that I’d just unexpectedly received. 4 trains are still coming to my location, I can crank up the ISO, and why not shoot video just because, right?
Here’s the end result of my “misfortune”, 3 minutes and 15 seconds of freshly squeezed lemonade.
This past Saturday, 6/17/2017, Amtrak #1 took a circuitous route into the Houston depot. Instead of the normal straight shot via the Lafayette and Houston subs, the train made a hard right turn at Tower 87 on to the East Belt sub. The train made a left turn at Belt Junction on to the West Belt sub. It then traveled south to CP LF365 where it re-joined the Houston sub, but on the freight main . To reach the depot, the train had to go  west to Chaney Jct where the freight main and passenger main converge. The train then backed in, about 2 miles, to the depot.
I know all of this information is gibberish unless you’re a Houston-area railfan, but the bottom line is I was able to catch #1 at several unusual locations in the Houston terminal.
I had received word earlier in the day that heritage painted P42DC 822 was leading #1 so I timed some family duties on the east side of Houston to coincide with its arrival to the east side of Houston.
Shots #1 and #2 show the train in the east yard of Englewood. I pulled up literally seconds before the train arrived at 6:01 PM, actually having to sprint the 15 yards to get to the right spot on the I-610 overpass.
You might recall that the 822 led #1 10 days prior. Remember the “Monster Sunset Limited” video? During the 10 days since, it was on an inspection train between OKC and KC. It then went to Chicago where it got assigned to the City of New Orleans to New Orleans. And then right back on the Sunset Limited.
Shortly after getting back in the car, I heard the engineer on #1 call out a diverging signal at Tower 87, cluing me in on the unusual routing. I never learned the reason for the different routing, but either trackwork or congestion at Englewood Yard are likely suspects.
Clouds arrived at CP EB034, Homestead Jct. shortly before #1 did, but a quick ISO adjustment saved the day.
We’re at Tower 210 along a segment of triple track. The train had to be lined on main 1 in order to get to the depot, so I wasn’t too annoyed at about the tight angle for the shot.
The next two views are near MP 362, about a mile north of downtown. Note the Houston Metro light rail flyover in the second shot.
The final view shows the train at the Silver St. grade crossing as it’s making the reverse move into the depot. The time is 6:49 PM.
It ended up taking 50 minutes for the train to travel the 7 miles from Englewood to the depot. Of course that’s 7 miles via the normal routing. Having to use “great circle” routing and mixing in a 2 mile reverse move, I guess 50 minutes ain’t too shabby.
Southwest Rails 