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Monday, June 26, 2000
Friday, May 19,
2000
Thursday, May 11,
2000
Wednesday, May 3, 2000
Friday, April 28,
2000
Sunday, April 9,
2000
(The above information was posted on the Railspot list by Mike Murray (whose message
included a forwarded letter from Powell Felix, President
of Indiana Boxcar); Shane Deemer; and Bill Nash, Brakeman and webmaster of the Austin &
Texas Central Railroad.)
A few smaller news items...Engines IC 8126 and 8335 (both GP10s) are at Memphis, TN, and are
billed to ship via BNSF to Grainbelt at Clinton, OK... I was in Carrollton, TX on Friday
April 7 and spotted DGNO GP40 4016 (ex-NS high-nose GP40 "graffiti unit") out in the open
and TNER GP7 115 under the shed.
Well, it's been over a month since my last update. I wondered how soon I was going to start
slacking. But, it's been a productive month, as I've been able to run at least a couple
DOZEN rolls of film through the ole camera. During the weekend of May 19 and 20, I travelled
to Houston for a wedding, and was able to photograph the Angelina & Neches River; Texas
Southeastern; Moscow, Camden & San Augustine; Port Terminal RR Association; and the Russian
TEM7-A locomotives stored at the Port of Houston, all within a time span of about 6 hours.
On June 12 and 13, I made a trip to San Angelo and succeeded in getting my first shots of
beleaguered shortline South Orient operating in the year 2000. The railroad is currently making
one round trip a week between San Angelo and San Angelo Jct. For a complete account of my
trip out west, plus the latest news on the South Orient, read my post to the Railspot list
at the following url: (sorry, no pictures yet!)
http://www.railspot.com/gif/mail/railspot/jun00/msg00550.html
Then, last week, June 19 and 20, I made a pilgrimage to southwestern Oklahoma for the tail end
of the spring wheat harvest traffic rush on shortlines AT&L, Farmrail, and the WTJ. For the
results of that trip, follow this link:
http://www.railspot.com/gif/mail/railspot/jun00/msg00910.html
You'll be seeing the results of my efforts on some of the above trips during the coming months.
The most recent addition to the site is my DFW Critters page,
which I added as a link from my Obscurities page on the 24th. Other recent additions include
a couple dozen new photographs on the
South Orient pages.
What's next? Check back in a few weeks and find out! I'm getting ready to put a couple
batches of stuff together to have some scans made.
WSC
Engine ATCX 443, the second RSD15 for the Austin & Texas Central excursion train, arrived
in McNeil last week and is now in Cedar Park with the 442. The excursion train may
begin using one of the RSD15s as early as this weekend (meaning Saturday, May 20!) on
its run to Burnet.
The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram ran an article yesterday about the Coe Rail /
Ft. Worth & Western / Tarantula debacle. The article explains that Coe has ceased operation
of its Grapevine to Carrollton Texas Star Clipper
dinner train " because of an ongoing leagal dispute".
According to the article, Ft Worth & Western has accused Coe of falling behind in payments
to the tune of over $38,000 and failing to make over $400,000 in equipment repairs. Not to
mention the reputational damage caused to the Tarantula train at the hands of Coe stemming from
the March 15 collision with an FWWR freight near the Ft. Worth stockyards.
So, the "Bondo Flyer", as it was sarcastically / affectionately known to area fans, is
apparently no more. Wrecked F7 # 407 remains at FWWR's 8th Avenue yard in Ft. Worth,
while the rest of Coe's equipment (F7 416 and the Bondo Flyer dinner train cars) are to move
to Memphis on BNSF, thence CSX to Wixom, MI. A trace number for anyone wanting to follow the
F7 is CRLE 416.
WSC
Ft Worth & Western has resumed operation of the Tarantula passenger train, after
unceremoniously removing Coe Rail from the property. Reports on the Railspot list indicated
that one of FWWR's ex-South Orient diesels powered the passenger train last weekend.
Some site news...my cd's are here! Now if I could just find the time to put up the pages...
You'll see,
starting today, that I have put up a TXU page featuring the electrified line at Martin Lake in
east Texas. The only part of this page that doesn't work yet is the link to my Monticello
page, which is next on my agenda.
Check back soon for more.
WSC
Engine ATCX 442 (the Alco "Alligator" RSD15 en route to the Austin &
Texas Central) has arrived on the property, and is now at Cedar Park, northwest of Austin.
I'll do my best to report when it starts running.
Here in north Texas, bad news and good news for the local tourist operation: Reports from
the Railspot list indicate that the Ft Worth & Western is kicking Coe Rail (the operator of
the Texas Star Clipper dinner train and also the Tarantula passenger train) off its
property. It sounds as if the dinner train may be history; Ft Worth & Western will
reportedly resume operation of the Tarantula passenger train (without any assistance from
Coe Rail) this weekend.
More details as they become available...
WSC
WalMart is killing this site!! In case you didn't know, I have been using the services of my
friendly neighborhood WalMart's photo department to scan the images you see on this site.
WalMart sends the slides I submit to a lab outside the store for conversion to .pcd
format; they advertise this service as a two-week process. Well, over four weeks ago, I
dropped off a box of slides and I went back on Wednesday the 12th to pick them up, and found in
the envelope my box of slides, along with a letter explaining that they could not convert them
to a photo cd due to copyright concerns! It seems the emloyees at the lab were unable to
convert my slides to pcd's due to the fact that they might be violating copyright laws since
they did not have the copyright owner's permission to scan them. Never mind the
fact that the name I wrote on the envelope was the exact same name I had stamped on each and
every one of the slides! Who the hell did they think owned the copyright!? So, I turned them
back in, with a brief note explaining that, yes, I was the copyright owner of the
slides, and, yes, they did have permission to scan them for conversion to pcd's. That
was over two weeks ago, and they still haven't made it back yet. In the meantime, I
successfully turned in a separate box of South Orient stuff, which they did convert to pcd
format, with no mention of copyright concerns. The stuff they wouldn't scan was mostly TXU
electric stuff, with some Santa Fe Southern, and some critters and industrial stuff from the
Dallas / Ft Worth area. You'll get to see them just as soon as the "W" can fit it into
their busy schedule to scan my slides and return them. Man, good help sure is hard to find.
One more screw-up like this and I'll be increasing my credit card balance by several hundred
bones to invest in a good slide scanner.
Did I mention I had my South Orient pages up? Check 'em out...6
different pages, 36 images, with over 30 more pics to be added sometime in the next month.
(Again, we're at the mercy of the "W" place here...)
Local news...Coe Rail is using a DGNO engine, the TNER 115, to haul the Tarantula train around
Ft Worth. They had been using a BNSF unit, but apparently that got too expensive so they
struck a deal with the Dingo...and I guess the first day they were using the TNER 115 it
broke down and the crew had to taxi back to Hodge to pick up the BNSF unit and go rescue the
train! ATCX 442, one of the RSD15s from Indiana Boxcar that are en route to the Austin &
Texas Central, has entered Texas on the UP. UP's trace shows it went through Texarkana this
afternoon.
That's all for now. Check back in a couple weeks. Maybe I'll get some new pages up by then.
WSC
Big news concerning the Austin area…the Longhorn’s final day of operation was March 31, 2000.
Taking over the operations on the former SP / former Austin & Northwestern (and now former
Longhorn) Giddings - Llano line is the TransGlobal Solutions (TGS) division of Econorail,
using reporting marks AATR and working as the Austin Area Terminal Railroad. All Longhorn
power is being shipped out. LHRR 7250 (GP9), LHRR 8 (slug), and LHRR 9275
(SW1500) are reportedly at Elgin, awaiting interchange to BNSF, and will be sent to Camden,
NJ. Ex-ATSF GP20’s PREX 2018 / 2041 / 2047 will remain on the property to serve the Pioneer
limestone quarry south of Burnet. BNSF 2840, a GP39-2, was leased to Longhorn and will remain
on the property under short-term lease to TGS. UP 1925 (GP??) is also on the property, leased
to TGS. TGS has brought in ECRX 4472 (GP7) and 6563 (GP35). Interestingly, the 4472
previously operated on Longhorn under lease from Econorail in early 1999. See my Longhorn Railway page for a photo of the 4472. Both the 6563 and 4472
are reportedly painted in a blue and white Econorail scheme. Also on the way to the TGS
operation will be ECRX 9055 and 9088, former GRR units presently under repair in Georgetown.
When these two units arrive the BNSF 2840 and UP 1925 will be returned to BNSF and UP,
respectively.
As reported earlier on this site, Longhorn was never the owner of this trackage. Capital Metro
of Austin owns the track, and Longhorn was the operator until Capital Metro effectively kicked
them off the property over an alleged breach of contract. TGS will be operate the line under
a 6-month "emergency contract " until Capital Metro can locate a new permanent operator.
The biggest news in the area, however, is the impending arrival of two Alco RSD15’s from
Indiana Boxcar (IBCX) for the Austin & Texas Central, which operates excursion trains over
the Capital Metro line between Austin and Burnet. The A&TC is the excursion railroad
operated by the Austin Steam Train Association (also known as the "Hill Country Flyer").
A&TC’s steam engine, the SP 786, has been out of service since a crack in the cylinder
saddle was discovered; this has forced the railroad to use alternative diesel power (usually
in the form of a loaner locomotive from Longhorn). Due to the amount of time it will take to
raise the necessary money to repair the SP 786, the A&TC has been forced to shop for
diesels to power its excursion train. Alco RSD15 "Alligator" IBCX 442 will soon be en
route to A&TC from Defiance, OH, followed by RSD15 IBCX 443 from Connersville, OH. These
are former Indiana Hi-Rail (IHRC)locomotives…A&TC has purchased the 442 from IBCX, and the
443 will operate on the A&TC under a lease agreement, with IBCX retaining ownership. Both
units should arrive in April or May. Other IBCX locomotives already in the area include Alco
C-420 365 and EMD GP9 5913 on the Wilburton, Oklahoma-based Arkansas & Oklahoma (AOK).
Finally, some brief site news...Older news from February and March has been moved to the News
Archive. Check back around April 20th for some new photo pages, including some stuff on
Santa Fe Southern, Pecos Valley Southern, and the TXU Electric lines at Monticello and Martin
Lake. South Orient stuff will be up soon as well.
WSC
