UP Brazos River Bridge-A Different Perspective
Here’s a beautifully shot video showing UP’s Brazos River bridge in Richmond,TX during the current flood event.
It was shot on 5/31, several days before the bridge pier failure that closed the Glidden sub to rail traffic.
UP Brazos River Bridge Woes
Over the past week or so, I’ve made 3 trips to see the Brazos River at historic levels due to extreme rain events in Central Texas. This post will cover the 3 different trips in chronological order.
May 31, 2016
A KCS empty grain train proceeds east across the Brazos River bridge at Richmond, TX, near MP 32 of the Glidden sub, about 30 miles southwest of Houston, TX. Compare this first image to the second image, from 11/24/2014, showing the Brazos River under more typical conditions.
A tighter view of the east end of the bridge. The river is running about 40 feet higher than normal!
June 4, 2016
So much water for so long has compromised the easternmost pier of the bridge. The Glidden sub is closed up to 14 days according to the UP. The 30-40 trains per day that pass through here are being re-routed. Note that 50-60 feet of the east approach to the bridge is now visible because all of the trees that obscured it have been washed away! To give you a better idea of the scale of the change in the river, the employees in the next image are standing above where the shoreline was.
It’s clear that pier between the approach and the truss has settled 3-4 feet. What isn’t clear is the condition of the piers supporting the approach, to the extent they’ve been exposed to unprecedented water flows.
June 6, 2016
The rain has stopped so it’s time for another visit to see what recovery efforts might be underway.
The river appears to be down a good 5 feet or so, but there’s a long way to go to the typical depth of 15 feet compared to the 54 feet depth when it crested on June 4.
The next 2 views show the north face of the bridge.
I assume the yellow tape is to provide a legal fig leaf should some miscreant venture across the bridge, stumble, and fall to a watery demise.
An OHIO crane (hopefully not made in China) is visible on the east approach to the bridge.
UP has selected Jay-Reese Contractors, out of Austin, to get this bridge back in service.
Before they can work on the bridge, they have to be able to get to it. They’ve cut a road through the trees and mud to provide access. This is the line of 18-wheelers waiting their turn to dump their loads of rock.
It’s a good 200 feet from Hwy 90A to the right-of-way.
I’ll try to document as much of the work as possible over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned…
Better Late Than Never
Here’s a dashcam video of #2 last summer, 7/14/2015 to be exact, with Heritage P42DC 156 leading.
West Junction is in far southwest Houston, where the Glidden sub ends, diverging to the Harrisburg
or Houston subdivision.
Sorry about the bug strike on my windshield. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to orient
my car toward the track to see how the dashcam would capture the train.
Go East, Young Man!
Historically, if you wanted to see big-time SP power, you would go west. Donner, Cajon, Beaumont Hill, etc. were a parade of SP’s best and biggest power. Understandably so, what with the grades to be surmounted.
However, if you were interested in less than super-sized power, you must go east. Historically, the T&L lines were the refuge of smaller power, again because of the grades, or lack thereof. Yes, there were some (company) political issues as well, but that’s a different thread.
Here’s a wonderful illustration of my point: an eastbound manifest at Waelder, TX in 1985. 5 units, all 4-axle, have what appears to be a WCHOM in hand as it passes the west switch of Waelder siding. Note the dimmed headlights, a courtesy, tradition, and rules-requirement, in preparation to meet a westbound that’s waiting in the siding.
If you wanted to see 4 T-2’s on the point, 4 more on the swing helper, and 2 more for good measure shoving on the caboose, you’d definitely go west. But if you had a hankering for something smaller, say a GP38-2 / GP35 / GP35 / GP9 / GP38-2 lash-up, you’d best disregard Mr. Greeley’s exhortation.
False Advertising
The Santa Fe was apparently misleading its San Diegan passengers, offering passage to San Diego behind EMD F7’s. Then they pull the old bait & switch trick, showing up with ATSF 90, its unique F-M Erie-built cab A-B-A set. Shameless, I tell you!
Photo at Santa Ana, CA in 1955
Old School Christmas
Two days before Christmas and its 72° with 95% humidity here in Sugar Land. Christmas Day calls for 80° and thunderstorms. That’s not Christmas weather. It’s more like mid-April! I guess we can add the weather to the list of things that were better back in the day. 🙂
Southern Pacific U30C 7934 is just over a year old as it holds its LA-bound manifest at Newhall, CA on December 19, 1970. Newhall is in the foothills south of Soledad Canyon. A strong winter storm has just passed through evidenced by the amount of snow on the ground all the way down to Newhall’s elevation of 1,373 feet.
I hope you have a Merry Christmas and I hope we all have a great 2016!
Where Are the Trains?
Today is one of the nicest days of the year, yet no rail traffic on UP’s Glidden sub. What’s up with that?
It appears that a scheduled maintenance curfew is in effect, pretty much across the entire sub. Check out the ATCSMon display as of 11:30 this morning:
Red and green segments (click to enlarge image) indicate track occupancy and line-ups, respectively. The only active rail in 190 miles is on the mainline at Kirby.
Blue and purple segments indicate track that is out of service. Blue is MOW, purple is parked trains. As you can see, there are 14 blue segments.
So much for my plans of getting out today to capitalize on the beautiful weather…
2015 KCS Holiday Express in Wharton, TX
The vast majority of locals that came out to see the Holiday Express were unaware of the KCS business train, and if they did notice it, didn’t care about it.
They came out to see the main event: the festively decorated and brightly lighted Christmas train. It’s led by “Rudy”, a smiling steam engine, a flat car carrying Santa’s sleigh, reindeer, and a miniature village; a ginger bread boxcar; an elves’ workshop; the reindeer stable; and a red & white caboose bringing up the markers.
The lines were long for the 3-car tour. The lines were even longer to visit Santa, who had set up outside along the north side of the depot.
As I didn’t brave the lines to visit Santa, I left the festivities empty-handed. But my sadness was short-lived.
Needing fuel, I pulled into the Buc-ee’s store in Wharton where I was the happy recipient of a surprise Christmas gift:
A full tank, 24 gallons, set me back a grand total of $32 and change. Thanks Santa!
Apparently, there’s a price war with the WalMart that’s across the street. Wal-Mart’s price was a penny more than Buc-ee’s. Buc-ee’s didn’t start the war, but they sure as hell don’t intend to lose it.
Regardless of the reason, it was a most welcome gift!
2015 KCS Holiday Express
So, where were we? Oh, I remember. We journeyed back to the 1960’s to check out the KCS Southern Belle passenger train as a prelude to viewing it in its current iteration.
I made the 30 minute drive to Wharton last Thursday evening, Dec.3, 2015, to see what evening photographic opportunities I could avail myself of. Even though it had been a beautiful day, I didn’t consider any daytime shots because the north-facing train would be severely back-lighted all day.
I arrived about 5:30 PM, shortly after the sun had set. I found the head-end in a decent enough spot just south of FM 102. Luckily, it was about 75 feet beyond some fairly heavy brush that would have put a quick end to my photographic plans.
I did some existing light shots to pass the time until it got dark enough to use my LED video light. Even though the sun has set, you can see just how back-lighted the train was.
I occupied myself with various set-up tasks over the next 25 minutes. I started shooting just after 6:00 PM. Reviewing the camera LCD, I was pleasantly surprised with just how nicely this scene was photographing.
Over the next 45 minutes, I captured several hundred images of this beautiful train, albeit mostly from the front because of the heavy brush and limitations of the LED light. The trickiest part was setting up the light without blowing out the scotchlite striping and lettering. Holding the camera steady was also a challenge because I didn’t take a jacket to ward of the 47 degree temperature. Here’s a few of my faves:
The rear of the train is being illuminated by some portable light towers set up by the KCS to light up the general area of the Christmas train set.
It would have been nice to have a more powerful light, but what can you really do? An almost proper roster view of KCS 1:
A slightly different perspective of the lead unit:
There was a bit of dust in the air from a rice dryer that was across the street from the train, just enough to create a nice effect from the headlights. I also like the soft light on the right-of-way. Easily, my favorite shot of the evening:
Nearly an hour after beginning, I was content with the head-end capture. I wanted to check out the Holiday Express. I started driving south and realized that most of Wharton County had the same plan because cars were parked all over the place and I was still 4-5 blocks away from the festivities.
I finally found a spot and made my way toward the crowds. Details and images in my next post, hopefully tomorrow.
Southern Belle Flashback / Prelude
“A simultaneous flashback and prelude? It’s not possible! Is this some sort of temporal anomaly?”
“Negative, Captain. Sensors do not indicate any temporal disturbances in this sector-stand by for an explanation.”
The 2015 KCS Holiday Express wrapped up its Rosenberg subdivision tour last week. As you know, the Holiday Express is a Christmas-themed 6 car display train. It’s added to the rear of KCS’s Southern Belle business train as it makes its annual trek over the KCS system.
It stopped at Kendleton, El Campo, Victoria, Ganado, and Wharton between 11/29 and 12/3. Bad weather and work obligations didn’t allow me to check it out on the first 4 days it was in the area, but things came together for me last Thusday, 12/3/15.
Yes, I did get some nice images. But before we look at them, I thought it might be fun to look at a few vintage views of the original Southern Belle.
First up is a 6/18/1961 view of Train #2, the northbound Southern Belle at Joplin, MO. It’s led by E3A 21 which is notable for being the KCS’ first diesel locomotive.
KCS E3A 21 was built 9/1938 as EMC 822, a demonstrator of EMC’s new-fangled diesel locomotives. KCS acquired it in 1939, and a sister unit, to inaugurate KCS’ foray into the streamliner business, the Southern Belle.
A new passenger train was a big deal back then, evidenced by this KCS-produced news reel:
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Next up is an interesting June, 1966 view of the Southern Belle with E8A 25 doing the honors and a second E8 trailing.. One E-unit was the norm for this train. No location is noted on the slide, but it looks like Arkansas or Oklahoma.
Last up is KCS E8A 28 is moving at track speed in this 12/1967 view. The power and train are quite clean, belying the trains imminent demise. Again, no location noted on the slide.
The Southern Belle of these images had its best days behind it (I suppose that’s true for most of us…) and was nearing the end of its tenure. Its last run was Nov. 2, 1969.
Old Dog, Young Pup
I got out this past Thursday, 11/19/15, to take advantage of some fine weather. There was a decent amount of traffic which I’ll cover at a later date, but I wanted to share the highlight of the day.
I was waiting for the second of two eastbounds at my usual location, MP 20.6, in Stafford. I hadn’t heard any radio traffic to clue me in to its identity until it was but a few minutes away when I hear the DS call the MKBHO-18 (manifest Kirby-Houston), CSXT 7531 East.
Hot Dayum! I’m always in the mood for a standard-cab leader! Within a few minutes, it comes into view.
To the extent it was a beautiful day, I don’t think the engineer minded the lack of A/C.
As the trailing unit passed me, I noticed that it seemed to be fairly new. Being occupied with image capture, I didn’t grasp exactly what I was witnessing.
Unbeknownst to me as I was snapping away was that this consist was made up of one of the oldest and one of the newest GE locomotives in Class 1 service in the U.S. Lead unit 7531, a 6/89 vintage C40-8, is over 26 years older than trailing unit CSXT 3304, a 9/2015-built ET44AH. It’s one of the first production Tier-4 units.
I found it fitting that the old dog was leading the young pup, as if a gesture of respect from a unit just beginning its career to one that’s running out its last miles.
In doing the research to prepare this post, I came across a shot of this consist taken less than a week prior, but the roles were reversed. Matthew Griffin captured it on empty auto rack train AMLSJR (Auto Mira Loma,TX-San Jose,TX) at Banning, CA on 11/13/15. San Jose is UP’s designation for the Toyota Tundra assembly plant just south of San Antonio.
The consist got switched around, probably at San Antonio, before being assigned to the MKBHO on the 18th. Regardless of their sequence, it’s exceeding rare to see a lash-up of GE’s spanning over 25 years between them.
When you consider how few Tier-4 units and how few C40-8’s are in service, it qualifies as a consist not likely to be repeated.
Out & About – October 13, 2015
No overarching narrative in this episode, just a beautiful Tuesday in October and a few trains through my neck of the woods. The day had an inauspicious start, though. Plenty of westbound traffic in the morning for which there wasn’t a decent shot. Thanks, Obama.
My prospects improved when eastbound traffic started after lunch. The only decent light for eastbounds in the early afternoon is the tangent between MP 19 and MP 21, so there I went.
First up at 12:54 PM is the eastbound Sunset Limited, running almost 2 hours behind schedule as it passes the intermediate signal at MP 20.5. This is just west of the Promenade Blvd grade crossing in Stafford.
I’ve never concerned myself with baggage cars, but since Amtrak has started taking delivery of 55 new baggage cars, bazillion mile veterans like 1714 are on short time. The 1714 is a 1953 Budd product, originally ATSF 2850.
Following Amtrak was an eastbound KCS manifest at 1:17 PM. This shot is about 200 yards west of the Amtrak view. Note the new intermediate signals. They’ll be cut in once the second main track goes into service.
It’s not common to see a KCS through freight with only one unit. SD70ACe 4102 was working hard as it passed me, at least run 6, to maintain it’s 30mph pace.
A few boxcars seemed notable because they were really clean.
Next up was UP 7420 East with the ILBEW (intermodal Long Beach-Englewood) at 1:45 PM.
It’s typically an early morning train into Englewood, but I didn’t dwell on its tardiness because it had colorful trailing motors, a KCS SD70ACe and a CSXT SD40-2 re-build.
If the UP could re-build it’s SD40-2 fleet without ruining the lines of the classic spartan cab, why couldn’t CSX? I think the technical term for the looks of the CSX SD40-2 re-builds is fugly.
Auto racks up front followed by international containers is SOP for the ILBEW.
Right behind the ILBEW was a KCS empty grain train led by AC4400CW KCS 4624 at 2:01 PM.
The days of complete trainsets of black hoppers is over. You should have gotten your pictures when you could…
Is there a better looking covered hopper paint scheme out there?
This is the paint scheme, loosely speaking, that KCS chose for its newest covered hoppers. At least they kept the large logo…
That was it for traffic for a while. I went home and piddled around as I’m prone to do. A glimpse at ATCS around 4:00 PM showed a westbound line-up from Heacker to Sugar Land. A quick drive to MP 21 yielded the QEWWC, a late afternoon regular through here, with a fine power consist.
Still lookin’ good after all the years…
Your typical QEWWC is heavy on steel, chemicals, covered hoppers, and loaded boxcars.
Bringing up the rear was the perfect bookend for the train, a DPU set with another SP patch trailing.
Like I said, still lookin’ good after all the years.
A not too shabby way to end the day…
Southwest Rails 