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Austin Steam Train 6/22/2008

Chris Parker and I slept in this morning and after a good continental breakfast, we checked out of the Best Western Temple Inn. We headed over to our first stop of the day, the Temple Railroad Museum. We pulled into the parking lot and started looking around the outside exhibits.

The Moody Texas Station houses a model railroad.

The "Bay Window" end of the Moody Depot and the Santa Fe 3423.

The Santa Fe 4-6-2 3423.

Four views of the Santa Fe 3423 cab.

SLSF 450 Troop sleeper.

Pullman Clover Glade a 1913 8 sections/4 compartments.

Amtrak Sleeper 2968 Pine Mesa, a 10/6 model.

Santa Fe 2301.

Santa Fe Caboose 1556.

MKT Caboose 140.

Santa Fe 1680.

Missouri Pacific Caboose.

Two views of BNSF 9338 South.

In the small park south of the station, handcar rides are given.

Two views of the grounds.

Views of the Santa Fe Temple, Texas Station.

The BNSF 9338 leaves Temple, Texas.

The BNSF Temple engine facility. We left crossing over the tracks and parked before walking out onto the bridge.

Overview of the Temple Station Area.

Overview of the BNSF Temple engine facility.

BNSF power set came out of the servicing facility.

BNSF GP-30 2402. We drove over to the yard gate for a few more pictures.

BNSF Cigar Bend Herald on this tower. We headed out of Temple after stopping a Best Buys. Next we headed to Georgetown looking for the Georgetown Railroad and on the way out of town we found it.

Georgetown Railroad switchers. From there, we drove the rest of the way to Cedar Park. We picked up our tickets then went and had steak for lunch. After a good lunch, we returned to the station to ride the train.

Before lunch, we took a shot of Austin Western 5108.

View of our train for today's run.

Austin & Texas Central RSD-15 442.

Our car for this trip, the Nickel Plate Railroad City of Chicago Pullman 1343. Our train consisted of RSD-12 442, Coaches Lake Buchanon 1684, Lake Marble Falls 1699, Gift Shop Lake Austin 1726, Coaches Buckeye Lake ATCX 325 and Buckeye Trail ACTX325, NKP City of Chicago Pullman 151 and Santa Fe 1343. We boarded the City of Chicago and had Table Seats 17-18. I was served a Coca-Cola and waited for the trip to start. At 1 PM the train started back into the wye before we pulled out onto the mainline.

Leaving Cedar Park behind as we start north up the mainline towards Bertram.

A look down the straight track as we gain our track speed.

Our train took a little "S" curve as we head northwest towards Bertram, the train's destination for today.

Colorful plant life as we took another curve.

The train crosses another small trestle along the line.

Our train crossed the 140 foot wooden trestle across the South Gabriel River.

One more small bridge was crossed.

Our Alco looks good pulling our train long hood forward into another curve.

Heading for another straight piece of track.

Our train is about to take another of the slight curves on this rail line.

There are few short trestles on this railroad like this one.

The train took a pair of curves on the line and a little smoke means the Alco is working hard pulling our train up the short hill.

A wide variety of plant life can be found along our route.

This radio tower is the tenth highest structure in the world and is the tallest in the State of Texas.

We arrived into Bertram and Chris parker decided to get off and I would ride to the siding.

Leaving the Bertram Station for the siding.

Chris Parker takes a picture of me as I take a picture of him.

The train took a curve with a clear shot of the train.

Our train heading into the siding.

A traffic signal serves some purpose.

We are in the siding now and the RSD-15 will cut off to run around the train.

Our RSD-15 runs around the train.

Inside of the Lake Buchanon.

Inside of the Lake Marble Falls.

Inside of the Lake Austin.

Inside of the Buckeye Lake.

Inside of the City of Chicago.

Inside of the Santa Fe 1343.

The train at Bertram where we picked up our passengers who had gotten off.

Austin Western RSD-15 442 ex Santa Fe 942 ex 9842.

Our engineer for this trip.

Passengers reboarding the train.

One last look at the Bertram Depot. The train returned to Cedar Park and I relaxed the whole way there. A special thanks to the Austin Steam Train for an excellent trip aboard their train.

Chris and I drove back to Belton on Interstate 35 where we gassed up and got some drinks and snacks. Just north of Moody, Texas on Texas 317 we caught a slow moving BNSF coal train with two units on the point clawing up a hill with four more units on the rear. It put on quite a show. We made a stop in McGregor, Texas.

The McGregor, Texas Station.

The Welcome to Crawford Texas Sign with George and Laura Bush pictures on it. I dropped my pants in honor of seeing this sign.

A look into Crawford, Texas. After Crawford we caught another BNSF freight. When we reached Valley Mills, we turned onto Texas Highway 6 and at Clifton we stopped at a Sonic Drive Inn. At Meridian, Texas we turned on Texas 174 which we took back to the Fort Worth area from there we made our way back to the Best Western DFW Inn. I used their Business Center to print my Boarding Pass then checked the Internet before calling it a night.

Up at 4:15 AM and after we checked out we made our way back to the Car Rental Drop Off Location at Dallas Fort Worth Airport and then took the shuttle to Terminal C. After security we waited at Gate 14 and loaded the plane. We left twenty minutes late due to so many planes in front of us and took off at 7:08 AM CDT. The movie was the "Spiderwhick Concenalls". The plane landed at LAX at 8:54 AM. Out in front it took about twenty minutes for the LAUPT Flyway Shuttle to arrive and we got a tour of Los Angeles due to heavy traffic. At LAUPT Surfliner 768 was delayed by signal problems so when Surfliner 565 arrived into the station it turned to become a late running Surfliner 768. My mother picked me up and then dropped me off at home ending a great trip to the 2008 NRHS Convention in Fort Worth, Texas.