It’s 4:56 on November 26th, 2019 and we’re near MP154.15 on Union Pacific’s Sunset Route as C45AH 8178 and C44CM 7334 roll a fast westbound stack train down the main and around 6480 and her eastbound loads of beer and autos stopped in the siding at Luling, Texas.
It’s 4:35 on November 26th, 2019 under gray autumn skies and a fast-fading Texas sun as wingless and flagless AC4400CW 6480 grinds upgrade on the siding at MP154.5 in Luling, Texas with loads of Corona beer and new autos bound for eastern markets. She’s had an easy time since dropping down Kingsbury Hill, which is the 10-mile-distant far ridgeline just to the left of her nose. But here she digs in on the steep climb out of the San Marcos river sink towards a red signal at the east end of the siding. There’s a fast westbound manifest breezing through Harwood and Dispatch 417 has given it priority over our eastbound 6480.
She won’t have long to wait.
A pair of BNSF ES44DCs led by number 7224 roll an eastbound freight into Kingsbury, Texas at 4:49 on the cloudy afternoon of November 16th, 2019.
It's a gorgeous Saturday afternoon and John Karges and I have the lawn chairs set up in the trackside shade as BNSF 7575 breaks the sleepy small town quiet of Sabinal, Texas as she rolls west down the Sunset Route with a block of Mexico-bound autoracks at 1:22 on October 5th, 2019.
With an eastbound BNSF freight holding the main, Dispatch 417 runs a westbound Union Pacific intermodal train through the siding and back out onto the mainline at Kingsbury, Texas at 3:36 on Sunday, November 3rd, 2019.
It's 10:06 on Wednesday, November 6th, 2019 and there's pre-Big Boy action on the Sunset Route east of Luling, Texas as long-hood forward SD70AH 8968 hustles the LAU-09 local eastward at MP147.25 near the location once know as Ivy Switch. The siding was torn out many years ago.
It's 5:25 on Saturday, October 5th, 2019 and the late afternoon sun lights up the face of 7330 as she heads westbound tonnage under the US 90 overpass west of Dunlay, Texas and past Enterprise junction at Control Point SA250. The track in the foreground is the east leg of a wye that is served by the Southwest Gulf Railroad whose parent company Vulcan Materials operates the Medina Quarry located nine track-miles north of the Sunset Route mainline.
With 24 GEVO cylinders banging away at the skies above Hondo, Texas, ES44AC 7458 and a sister roar through town with westbound tonnage at MP258.25 down on the Sunset Route at 11:02 on Saturday, October 5th, 2019.
At 12:46 on Saturday, October 5th, 2019, C44ACCTE 5592 provides the sole power as she roars through Sabinal, Texas at the head of a long intermodal train rolling east on the Sunset Route.
After waiting in the hole at Harwood, Texas for an eastbound freight to pass, 6747 leads her westbound charges out onto the main at 2:09 on October 8th, 2019. The small Texas, Gonzales & Northern interchange yard is jammed full of stored tank cars.
C44AC 7243 roars around a curve with westbound tonnage two miles west of Kingsbury, Texas at 12:50 on October 8th, 2019.
SD70ACe 8481 rolls the LAU-07 Harwood local eastbound through Ivy Switch at MP147.25 at 4:08 pm on September 10th, 2019.
With the turnouts lined for northbound movement onto UP's Cuero Subdivision, eastbound BNSF 6730 gently rolls through the points on the Sunset Route main at Flatonia, Texas and begins her northward journey toward home rails. It's 2:02 on Saturday, September 7th, 2019 and the 6730 has 20.4 miles to run up the Cuero Sub, where at West Point, TX she'll enter Union Pacific's Giddings Sub for the final 45.6 mile run to the company rails of the Galveston Subdivision at Caldwell, Texas.
It's 1:13 on a scorching hot September 7th, 2019 Saturday afternoon at the east end of the siding at Harwood, Texas as eastbound BNSF ES44C4 6730 charges tonnage down the Sunset Route main and assaults the 2.0 percent grade at MP142.25.
Matinee Meet.
Twelve-year old SD70ACe 8592 models her shiny new slippers on the runway of the siding in Luling, Texas as her conductor is on the ground checking out 2003-built SD70M 3915 rolling westbound tonnage down the Sunset Route main near MP153.7 at 3:57 on the hot Saturday afternoon of September 7th, 2019.
We're three miles west of Harwood, Texas near the unincorporated area the railroad has termed as Ivy Switch, and SD70ACe 8759 is dodging thunderstorms as she rolls westbound tonnage at MP147.25 at 3:40 on September 10th, 2019.
Chris Dotterman rides the left-hand cushions of AC4400CW No. 7269 as they pilot the 95 cars of the eastbound RBMPA-06 through Harwood, Texas at 12:57 on Saturday, September 7th, 2019. There's 4,211 feet of crushed limestone destined for Port Arthur putting 13,030 tons on the drawbar.
At 8:05 pm on August 10th, 2019 we're three miles east of Kingsbury, Texas as westbound ES44AC 5293 leans hard into the curve at MP161.75 on the Sunset Route and storms up Kingsbury Hill into the fast-fading light.
ES44AC 5293 warms her face in the hot Texas evening light as she tiptoes out of the shadows of the ancient thru-truss and onto the modern concrete ballast-deck that forms the western approach to the San Marcos River crossing at MP156.5 west of Luling. It's 7:57 pm on August 10th, 2019 and with temperatures still hovering around 100 degrees, the big GE rolls a long string of empty rock gons back west.
"The Rainy Day Route."
Luling, Texas, 11:15 am, April 24th, 2019.
SD70ACe 8375 brings westbound double-stacks around the curve at MP 152.75 and into Luling, Texas at 12:09 pm on Saturday, November 17th, 2018.
7279 Highballs through Hondo, Texas with westbound tonnage at 1:22 pm on July 25th, 2019.
We're west of D'Hanis, Texas at 3:07 pm on July 25th, 2019 as 7677 blasts across Seco Creek with eastbound merchandise.
From the shade of trackside red oak trees we enjoy the scene as Union Pacific and FerroMex motors team up to move westbound tonnage through Hondo, Texas at 5:52 pm on July 25th, 2019.
Under a pall of diesel smoke, a caravan of sliding-door refugees loaded with cases of Corona beer imported from south of the border thunders east through Hondo, Texas past MP258.25 at 6:07 pm on July 25th, 2019.
Westbound C44ACCTE 5759 thunders over US Highway 90 west of Harwood, Texas at 7:34 pm on July 15th, 2019.
BNSF 7273 rolls an eastbound empty unit tank train into Waelder, Texas at 7:58 pm on July 15th, 2019.
Above and below--- An eastbound train passes stored tank cars as it rolls under the old SP-style cantilever signal at MP144 in Harwood, Texas at 9:42 pm on July 15th, 2019.
Near sunset and under the spreading anvil of a towering thunderhead, veteran Warbonnet 769 rolls an empty ethanol unit tank train east past MP165 in Kingsbury, Texas at 8:06 pm on July 2nd, 2019.
Under threatening skies, Union Pacific 6701 rolls tonnage east near MP166, about a mile west of Kingsbury, Texas at 7:45 pm on July 2nd, 2019.
Above and below---BNSF 8156 rolls east down the main with a long string of brand new company autoracks near the east end of the siding at Kingsbury, Texas at 8:22 pm on July 2nd, 2019.
It's 10:54 pm on July 1st, 2019 and the conductor from Union Pacific 7616 is on the ground for a roll-by inspection as Amtrak's Train No. 1, the westbound Sunset Limited streaks down the mainline in Luling, Texas in a 20-second exposure.
With a westbound Union Pacific freight in the siding at Luling, Texas, BNSF 5436 thunders upgrade on the mainline as she climbs her eastbound merchandise out of the San Marcos River sink at 7:34 pm on July 1st, 2019.
In a 30-second exposure, a westbound train streaks across the Sandy Fork Creek bridge east of Harwood, Texas at 10:25 pm on June 28th, 2019.
Sunset on the Sunset Route. Luling, Texas, April 1st, 2019.
Luling lights.
The Fallen.
BNSF 6985 rolls eastbound across the San Marcos River bridge at 10:25 am on March 27th, 2019.
Eastbound BNSF ES44C4 grinds up the siding past a trackside patch of Texas bluebonnets in Luling, Texas at 10:29 am on March 27th, 2019.
Above and below---SD70AH 9018 leads a westbound block of autoracks at MP144 in Harwood, Texas at 1:45 pm on March 18th, 2019.
Above and below---The Sandy Fork Creek bridge near Harwood, Texas.
Above and below---The Sandy Fork Creek bridge near Harwood, Texas.
Looking west there's a high green signal for the mainline, but the siding at Luling, Texas holds a westbound train whose crew is dead on hours. March 9th, 2019.
And here comes westbound 8880 rolling a unit tank train around the curve and down the main at 4:45pm on March 9th, 2019.
Above and below---8773 rolls west into the late evening sun at MP154 in Luling, Texas at 5:52 pm on February 15th, 2019.
Sunset DPU.
7735 tip-toes through the morning fog with a westbound unit coal train at 9:05 on January 6th, 2019 in Luling, Texas.
Above and below---With a KCS unit in the hole at the west end of the siding, FerroMex 4628 leads an eastbound BNSF freight up out of the San Marcos River sink and into Luling, Texas at 11:31 am on Saturday, November 17th, 2018.
7890 speeds westbound tonnage through Luling, Texas at 1:19 pm on Saturday, November 17th, 2018. The scene below is the obligatory "going away" shot of the same train.
A westbound manifest freight races through Luling, Texas at 1:20 pm on Saturday, November 17th, 2018.
Westbound through Luling, Texas at 8:57 am on November 26th, 2018.