Western Railroad Discussion > Standard cab EMDs live on the Austin Western!

A few days ago, I came upon a westbound Austin Western rock train at night in east Austin, TX. They don't run any freight traffic during the day due to CapMetro commuter service, but the shortline boasts 158 miles of trackage and it's not all in Austin, so I got to wondering where I might be able to photograph it in daylight. My previous attempts at this had never gone well, so I had kind of given up on getting good photos of Austin Western moving in daylight hours, especially in the shorter days of the winter months. But I soon learned that AWRR had a daytime turn based out of Manor, TX. I didn't have much information other than the fact tt went to Giddings and some pictures from others to indicate that it usually left in the morning. With that info, I hoppped in the car and drove alongside the tracks until I found a train. I ended up in luck.

I first encountered the turn just outside of Giddings, TX. It spends most of the run on a portion of branchline that was only reopened a few years ago after being out of service for a long time. 

1) CEFX SD60 #6011 leads the WB train past a small grade crossing off of Highway 290 near Giddings, TX

2) 6011 leads the train through the small town of Paige, TX. It's SOO Line heritage, as well as the later Indiana Railroad ownership really shows through here

3) 6011 and the train passing another crossing outside of Paige. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/21 11:03 by atx_railfan.

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4) Rounding a curve into McDade, TX

5) The full consist seen passing through the town of McDade. The trailing units are both of SP heritage- WAMX 3535 is a GP35R (ex-SP 6323), and WAMX 4252 is an SD40M-2 (ex-SP 7341, built as SD40 8441)

6) The SD60 passes an older style grade crossing in McDade

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7) A closeup of GP35 3535. 

8+9) 6011 splits vintage SP searchlights in Elgin, TX. Somewhat surprised to see these still around in 2021. 

 

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10+11) The consist arrives in Manor as the sun sets

12) Another SD60 was parked on a siding track outside of Texas Materials in Manor

Thank you for viewing !!!

 

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Hey,  nice work on the Austin Western !  You showed lots of variety in locations and angles . Thanks for sharing as I lived in Austin in the 1980's .

Thanks for visiting the old SP Austin branch.
The signals at Elgin are home signals for the interlocking that protects the track crossing.
Note the absence of number plates, which is the way to tell an automatic block signal (with number) from a "home" or controlling signal.
The operating rules are very different for home vs. automatic signals.

Great series, used to see that line a lot when traveling to Austin and always wondered what ran because I never saw anything. Now I know, thanks...

JG

jgilmore Wrote:
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> Great series, used to see that line a lot when
> traveling to Austin and always wondered what ran
> because I never saw anything. Now I know,
> thanks...
>
> JG

Yeah, on top of the metro rail, there is like one regularly scheduled freight each way per day (with extras occasionally as well) through the downtown area. This train originated on the eastern portion of the line and didn't go through Austin. There's quite a bit more action on Austin Western near McNeil, TX where it crosses the UP Austin Sub. 

So that's where the 6011 went. I remember seeing it and 6001 a lot when they were used on Watco's Kanawha River Railroad in West Virginia.

Nice photos.  Really like standard cabs. Thanks for posting.
ALLEN

krm152 Wrote:
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> Nice photos.  Really like standard cabs. Thanks
> for posting.
> ALLEN

Me too!  Standard cabs are cool!