Western Railroad Discussion > Bluebonnets on a Herzog Work Train

Having failed to catch a one of the Union Pacific patched SP units that's still running around earlier in the day I didn't want to go home empty handed. I decided to see if Herzog had their two Ex-Santa Fe GP9u's out with a work train anywhere as I've never had much luck getting them in good conditions. Much to my luck I was able to find them dumping ballast in Dallas on a section of track recently replaced with concrete ties and new rail as part of a project to improve ride quality along the line. With the power not being in a good spot for photos I went to a crossing west of DGNO's Mockingbird yard and waited. Within minutes of arriving I heard the train requesting signals to head west and the rest is in the captions.

1) Passing DGNO's Mockingbird Yard west of Dallas
2) Going away shot as the engineers notches up the power into the clear signal
3) After they passing me I knew they'd be going into Irving to turn the train around and then drop off the ballast cars. This is them on the west side of the wye in Irving before reversing up the west leg of the wye.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/20 20:55 by Jadon.

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1) Crossing Britian Rd in Irving after coming around the east leg of the wye. The train is currently on BNSF's Madill sub with TRE being the two closest tracks.
2) While they were working in Irving there was also a DGNO train working a local industry. By the time Herzog got there DGNO was just waiting for their turn onto the mainline.
3) Spotting the cars in the yard within the wye

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1) A crew member waiting to reboard the power for the short trip back to TRE's yard a few miles down the line
Video: The now light power passing TRE's West Irving Station

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Bluebonnets or yellowbonnets?
Nice report, no matter what you call them.

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> Bluebonnets or yellowbonnets?
> Nice report, no matter what you call them.

Thank you! I've always heard them referred to as bluebonnets but I'm also not too caught up in the proper terminology. I'm sure there will be more chiming in on the topic either way.

Think of it this way. Do you call the old red and silver as silver bonnets ? A bonnet was a head covering . What part of a locomotive is considered the head ? The cab of course ! Never ever heard a warbonnet called a silver bonnet !!! On Santa Fe F units there were red and silver , blue and silver and yellow and silver. Not one of these were ever called Silver bonnets ! Sigh ....

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trainman Wrote:

> Think of it this way. Do you call the old red and silver as silver bonnets ?

No, but I haven't generally heard folks calling them "red bonnets," either.  Bluebonnets and yellowbonnets are just railfan nicknames with no official basis, so there isn't really an absolute "correct" usage for those terms, only conventional usage.  Even the term "warbonnet" referring to the Santa Fe passenger scheme didn't appear in the pages of Trains magazine until the 1960's.

Who cares what they are called, an Awesome catch and shots is all that matters!!! Really like shot #5!