Western Railroad Discussion > If you can't go around, go over

I’m not coordinated enough to fly a drone, but there are other ways to get elevation.  Here in the DFW area, the easiest way is to buy a daily ticket on Texrail and then bring a camera along.  One of the interesting features of Texrail is that they had multiple railroad and geographic obstacles to circumvent; so instead of trying to figure a way around, they just built structures to go over.  So here’s a quick tour of the most notable of them.

First scene consists of an eastbound leaving Mercantile Station (north Ft. Worth) with a large flyover in the distance.  Next, a ride on the train from the station over the flyover which crosses UP’s Choctaw’s Sub at FWWR Jct.  The track to the left parallel to Texrail is UP’s Choctaw 1 track, and it junctions with Choctaw 2 at FWWR Jct.  When you come down, FWWR’s ex-Cotton Belt line to Grapevine is adjacent to the Texrail line.  They connect in about 1 mile, and then Texrail shares the track with FWWR, which runs on CTC, concrete ties and welded rail to the north end of DFW Airport.

Second scene is WB over FWWR’s Hodge Yard.  They had to fit the route under I-35W, but get high enough to get over FWWR's wye and industry spur.  Nice view of the engine facility while you're up in the air!

Third scene is WB over the new bridge over the Trinity River.  This was the fourth bridge over the river, with UP’s Duncan Sub, BNSF’s Wichita Falls Sub and BNSF’s Ft. Worth Sub the next bridges over.  The crane is now building the fifth bridge, as BNSF double tracks the Ft. Worth Sub.

Final scene is the roller coaster over UP’s Peach Yard.  First shot is EB, to about the half way point; here, Texrail operates on the third floor with UP’s Choctaw 2 crossing under but over Peach Yard.  The second half of this scene is on a WB train going over the whole structure; going WB gives a better view of the Choctaw Sub and North siding as it goes under.

Thanks for riding along. 

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Thanks for sharing. It kind of reminds you of interurbans that often would do the same thing, mostly because steam roads didn't want them to cross at grade.

Victor Baird



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/10/23 20:40 by wabash2800.

HomerBedloe Wrote:
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> Thanks for riding along. 

Hey, thanks for sharing! Very interesting seeing what's been done around Ft.Worth / Dallas.
 

Wow, thanks for posting the video. That was a fun sight seeing trip.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Interesting views from the train. Impressive that they've gotten all this infrastructure done. Thanks for sharing.

I've been following along with lots of interesting construction photos. Great video, yup, almost a roller-coaster ride. Victor is correct, interurbans often built similar infrastructure to cross "steam roads". Freight roads can't climb these steep inclines so parallel at grade. Similar to the commuter rails in Florida. Thanks for posting.
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