Western Railroad Discussion > A festive pre-Christmas chase with an old friend...

Yesterday morning, on the eve of Christmas Eve (is there a fancy word for that day?), my childhood friend Daniel texted me letting me know that he was getting ready to work a local round trip from Taylor, TX to Smithville, TX (UP's LAW51). He's been a UP conductor for a few years now (you can see my portraits of him in a previous post) and working this particular job for about a year, but I hadn't had the chance to photograph one of his trains on this line yet. The Taylor to Smithville stretch of the ex-MKT is one of the lowest traffic Class I mainlines in the state, seeing just 3-4 trains/day on average. So I decided to bundle up (just kidding -- it was 79 degrees out) and drive out to Taylor to make chase.

1) When I got to Taylor, UP's LAW21 crew was building the LAW51's train with SD70M #3880. Although this SD70M is also used on the road locals, it's pretty funny to see the SD70M relegated to yard switcher, while building a train for a local powered by SD40-2 and GP38-2 rebuilds. 

2) The LAW51's power ties onto its train.

3) The cloud cover was a bummer, but the wreath and ribbons tied to the front handrails of the lead SD40N were a nice festive touch. Here, the LAW51 ducks under the US-79 bypass just outside of Taylor. This is a steep uphill grade and all three units were working hard.

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4) Still cursing the clouds, it wasn't hard to keep pace with the train along SH-95.

5) The sun finally came out in Coupland, where MOW crews had just finished up work for the day (and presumably for the week). For more on Coupland, see my post from yesterday about their preserved MKT depot and Rock Island caboose.

6) The sun wasn't out for long, but a small private crossing south of Coupland gave me a better view of the festive adornments on the leader.

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Nice chase.
JB

7) This telephoto view north of Elgin really emphasizes the rolling hills at play on this line. The southbound grade peaks at around 1.2% uphill between Taylor and Elgin. 

8) The clouds began to recede again in Elgin, where I couldn't resist framing the classic standard cab EMD power with the MKT depot and the last set of active searchlight signals in Central Texas. These signals protect the interlocking with Watco's Austin Western Railroad (AWRR). 

9) After getting stuck behind a slow moving farm truck, I began to worry that I had lost the chase. I found a secluded little bridge in Sayersville and figured I'd wait a few minutes. Within 30 seconds, the local flew by at track speed of 50 MPH.

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10) The sun came out fully in Bastrop, which made the colors really stand out.

11) Bastrop to Smithville is a difficult chase to pull off, but the local had a slow order so I was able to get ahead of it at Upton. I had pulled off the road on the backlit side, when some friendly residents noticed our cameras and offered to let us cross their private crossing and shoot pictures from the sunny side.

12) Arriving in Smithville. I'd never shot something on this line in Smithville before, which brought some nice new perspectives to a tried-and-true spot. The town's railroad heritage is evident on the water tower. Once a division point on the MKT, Smithville is quieter these days. That said, it's still a vital UP crew base and remains home to a small yard, used for classification for a separate local that's staged from here. 

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13) The local pulls onto a yard lead to set out its cars.

14) Another view of the wreath.

15) I always enjoy the higher contrast winter evening light, as it can allow for some backlit shots that just look muddy in the summertime light. Here the local sets out its cars, along with GP38N #823. While the GP38N was being used for power on this run, it was being delivered to Smithville as new power for their local. 
 

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16-17) Having set out the train, the local runs to the other end of the yard to run around its pickups. My friend Daniel rides the shove in a festive outfit, stopping to set the derail.

18) Daniel grabs the EOT from the inbound cut to affix on the outbounds.

At this point, the sun was setting and I needed to get home to Austin, so I called it a day. It's still so surreal to see a friend who I grew up watching trains with now working on the railroad himself! Daniel has lucked into a railroad assignment that gives him Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, but I'd like to say thank you to the many, many railroaders who don't have the luxury of calling this Christmas anything other than a Thursday. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to all. Thanks for viewing.

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Awesome series with some nice looking power! Really like #7.

You shot a great set of images

Fun outing it appears. Thanks for posting.

“Yesterday morning, on the eve of Christmas Eve (is there a fancy word for that day?)”

FESTIVUS!!

Festivus for the rest of us!

Regards

Posted from iPhone

In my family we called the 23rd Christmas Eve eve. 

Thanks for the pics...

Excellent series!