Western Railroad Discussion > Some rarities on the Austin sub...

Went out railfanning this morning and was not disappointed- ended up being one of my most fruitful mornings in recent memory!

1) A high-wide load special move approaches Pressler St in downtown Austin

2) That move passes McNeil

3) A rerouted MKBLI (Manifest, Kirby Yard San Antonio, TX to Livonia, LA) passes McNeil with a patched SP AC44 trailing, UP 6378.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/23 16:22 by atx_railfan.

---

---

---

4) As I expressed in my post the other day (https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5686609), I never expected to see an SP painted AC44 in 2023. So imagine my shock when a friend tipped me off to UP 6378 trailing north on this manifest a mere six days after the last SPatch I caught here! Espee lives.

5) Something I haven't seen before- An autorack with GATX logos

6) Shortly after this train passed, I went over to the diamonds at McNeil to catch another NB. Unfortunately, my camera malfunctioned and the shutter did not fire for the head end, but I was able to get some reference photos for my modeling of the rolling stock. Next up was a rerouted MEPFW (Manifest, El Paso, TX to Fort Worth, TX)

---

---

---

7) It's always nice to see standard cabs on road freights these days, even if dead-in-tow. An SD40N and GP60 pair was trailing, headed to Fort Worth for service.

8-9) This is my go-to spot for taking straight-on rolling stock reference shots for modeling (hence the lack of especially creative angles today), and my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw not one, but TWO 40' boxcars in the consist. A nearly extinct breed, these cars now only exist in captive service, or so I'd thought. These certainly seemed like they'd been interchanged, as they were marked for the Arizona Eastern, not UP. I never thought I'd see a 40' boxcar on a mainline freight.  

---

---

---

10) This old Texas Mexican Railway boxcar was neat too

11) A factory-fresh CN covered hopper


Thanks for viewing!

---

---

Some nice photos there!. Did you get a shot of the car with the transformer on it?

Thanks
Tom

Tom Daspit
Morgan Hill, CA
Tom's Trains

tomd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some nice photos there!. Did you get a shot of the
> car with the transformer on it?
>
> Thanks
> Tom

I tried, but my shot was cut off!. The train caught me off guard with how fast it was moving! I expected a speed restriction, but it seemed to be doing maybe even the passenger limit!

---

I saw that wide load special move in Austin.
Behind the loco were two gondola cars bracketing the depressed well car with the wide load.
Was hoping you had a picture of the entire train as it was so unique.

GN1969 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I saw that wide load special move in Austin.
> Behind the loco were two gondola cars bracketing
> the depressed well car with the wide load.
> Was hoping you had a picture of the entire train
> as it was so unique.

I kinda got it in chunks. Did not adequately prep for the train unfortunately!
 

---

---

Surprising to see a CN car probably built in Mexico. Thanks for posting your day's work.

thanks for posting the photo of the KRL flat with the transformer!

Tom Daspit
Morgan Hill, CA
Tom's Trains

atx_railfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 8-9) This is my go-to spot for taking straight-on
> rolling stock reference shots for modeling (hence
> the lack of especially creative angles today), and
> my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw not one,
> but TWO 40' boxcars in the consist. A nearly
> extinct breed, these cars now only exist in
> captive service, or so I'd thought. These
> certainly seemed like they'd been interchanged, as
> they were marked for the Arizona Eastern, not UP.
> I never thought I'd see a 40' boxcar on a mainline
> freight.  

Those boxcars were built in the mid 1970s so they have no restrictions on them.

Nice shots, atx!

texchief1
RC Lundgren

these carry copper concentrate. ASARCO, now gone, here in Omaha, used to receive these.