Western Railroad Discussion > The Sulphur Train

Last sunday after church meeting assembly, I went down to the Tyler Texas former Cotton Belt depot to see if Uncle Peter might be up for a bit of after church entertainment. Since I had just taken my meds, I couldn't go eat sunday dinner very soon, so a bit of foamin' was the next best thing.

When I drove across the Spring Street grade xing, and in front of the block signal to check out its color, I was pleased to see that it was green. This meant that a westbound was imminent. Yellow means nothing's going on, and red would have meant "you're too late" for the show. When I turned back around, and looked in the other direction, I saw a blue dismal sitting on the west yard lead with another dismal and a long string of tank cars. I did a quick U turn, and drove back to a parking place and got out with my camera in hand to record the power, the train, and what they did for the next 20 minutes or so.

First off, right after I got out of my pickup, they whistled off, "toot toot" and slowly started rolling slowly westward and off of the yard lead and onto the mainline. This was a fairly long train of 50-60 cars or so, and just as soon as the last car cleared the block signal that's just 20 feet or so west of the Spring Street xing, they stopped. A couple of minutes later the train started moving backward and thru the spring switch that's about 5 feet east of the grade xing, & between the yard lead track and the mainline. After the locos had backed all of the way back thru this switch, they stopped and waited while the brakeman walked back up to the headend after he had had to walk back and put a derail back into place somewhere back in the yard.

The lead loco was CEFX SD40-2 3131, nee SP SD45 7453/8886 and HLCX SD40-2 7232, nee BN SD40-2 7232.
More photos in this story to follow shortly.

Con

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1.Here's a typical molten sulphur car that was in this train.

2.Here's the aforementioned block signal with the train.

3.Here's a good shot of the former SD45. Steamjocky, do you reckon that your initials are still carved into that loco somewhere?

There's a few more shots yet to go after these three.

Con

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1. Here is the train sitting and waiting on the brakeman. I started to write the "head" brakeman, but since there isn't any more rear brakeman anymore, I reckon that there can't be any front brakeman either?

2. Just in case there's any question as to where the toilet water goes, here's a sign that clears up this mystery.

3. Last picture in this thread. That's my railfan chasing vehicle in this picture. It's a '96 Ford Ranger, and it's still running as good as new, this is to be expected though, after all it is a Ford. I am a Ford man.

Con

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Highball the rolling bomb...?

Nice pics.

Thanks for sharing.

We call it the Stinky Slinky when it rolls through here...

Nice to see what it looks like down in Tejas Con!

Would that happen to be a OTYCX? I noticed they used to run those. I rolled one by one day and was almost knocked down by fumes.

Unit history and everything eh Con ? Not bad ...


TCS - colton last night reminded me of texas heat and humidity

mad_dog Wrote:
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> Would that happen to be a OTYCX? I noticed they
> used to run those. I rolled one by one day and
> was almost knocked down by fumes.

I'm not sure how the BNVGAT/GATBNV are routed, that's our stinker...

What's that matter Con, your local preacher a little light on the "Brimstone" and need more?
—Mac

MacBeau Wrote:
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> What's that matter Con, your local preacher a
> little light on the "Brimstone" and need more?
> —Mac


Naw, our preacher emphasizes the Grace of God not the condemnation. I just like trains, even the "Shtinky slinky" kinds.

Con