Western Railroad Discussion > A busy afternoon on the Austin sub...

It's been a while since I've had both the free time and the volume of trains to spend an afternoon watching action on the Austin Sub uninterrupted. So yesterday, while I was finishing up a video project for a client, I was able to enjoy some nice weather and "office" out of my car at the downtown Austin Amtrak Station, pausing my edit to photograph whatever action passed by. By the end of the four or so hours I was there, I'd seen about six trains and finished my project!

1) A northbound manifest passes the station, with an NS C40-9W trailing. UP has recently scrambled a bunch of the symbols on the Austin Sub as they finally decide to utilize their Brazos Yard project, so I'm having to relearn all the symbols again! This looked like it could have been MLDDI (Manifest, Laredo TX to Wilmer TX/Dallas Intermodal Terminal) but I'm not certain.

2) Another new train we've been seeing in recent weeks is actually a BNSF Z-train, the Z-EAPCHI (Intermodal, Eagle Pass TX to Chicago IL), which has been kinda neat for us. This is normally routed over the Glidden Subdivision, where BNSF has trackage rights, but due to MOW that way, UP has been sending it through Austin for about two weeks now. 

3) Next up came the 2MEGBZ (Manifest, Eagle Pass TX to Hearne TX/Brazos Yard). This is one of the new symbols, replacing the MEGAS (Manifest, Eagle Pass TX to St Louis MO/Alton & Southern), as well as the MEGSA (Manifest, Eagle Pass TX to San Antonio TX). It seems like UP has started running all the Eagle Pass traffic to Brazos Yard and then classifying it there, instead of San Antonio, as the Eagle Pass trains have had significantly more variety of rolling stock than I've seen in years.
I photographed this KCSM ACe crossing the North Lamar Boulevard underpass. That is not graffiti you see- the city has commissioned some artists to paint the walls with full murals to give drivers something to look at during the perpetual traffic jam on Lamar.

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4) An increasingly rare CNW autorack

5) A massive surprise was a cut of 16 or so DMIR/CN ore cars, fresh out of being manufactured in Mexico. These all had a built date of March 2024.

6) This boxcar was nice to see- this has always been one of my favorite designs of 50' high cubes, but I don't see them very much. 

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7) Soon after, the MLDNL (Manifest, Laredo TX to North Little Rock, AR) followed behind. 

8) Interesting pipe loads in some classic MoPac gons.

9) A patched-out Canada hopper

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10) Another patched Canada hopper. I don't recognize the RISX reporting mark.

11) There was also a cut of some UP MOW cars. These are pretty new, I think they're used for ties?

12) Another interesting load. Are these supports for panel track?

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13) This was on an earlier train that I didn't get pics of the power on, but I thought it was interesting to see another patched-out Canada hopper, this time one of the Saskatchewan cars. 

That was all that I got pics of, as I foolishly didn't think to check my card storage before I had my camera set on MSAFW (Manifest, San Antonio TX to Fort Worth TX) and had no free space. I decided to just call it a day as light faded.

Thanks for viewing!

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Great slide show from downtown Austin , TX. What variety.
Thanks for posting your images from the Austin and  Central TX area. 

Nice coverage, atx!  

texchief1