Drone Images - Cleburne, TX - 2-25-2019The weather forecast for this evening was perfect, so I decided to head south to Cleburne to do some photography. Southbound train H-KCKTPL1-25 provided some action on arrival. The train was on the mainline and had cut away with a few cars to set out one hopper car in 9-Track. The train also changed crews before departing. This was all done near the historic former Santa Fe shop facility which once built the famous "CF7" fleet of locomotives. The weather was great to take some images of the shops! Next, northbound Amtrak train No. 22, the Texas Eagle, pulled into town and detrained all of its passengers into two buses due to a derailment at Joshua. The train then wyed to run south as No. 21. After backing north of the depot to take on fuel from a truck, the train would be ready for the run to San Antonio once the passengers and crew arrived from Fort Worth. Alvarado to Clark empty rock train U-VRDCAK0-01 was tied down at North Cleburne with four units on the head end. And the evening was rounded out with a few shots of the Fort Worth Western Job No. 501 working the FWWR Cleburne branch. All in all...not a bad day! Chris
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UP SD60 2166 and UP SD40N 1859Usually the Roanoke, Texas local power sports a lone UP SD40N, however UP SD60 2166 has recently been added to the consist. To my recollection this is the first SD60 we have had in local service here. This evening I was able to take advantage of the evening light to record the consist and get some detail shots of the PTC antenna arrangement on UP SD40N 1859. Chris
New essay added to the Meridian Speedway Library I recently came across a link to an essay written by Danny Johnson and published in The Trackside Photographer. Titled "A World Apart, A World Within" this work details his personal experience exploring the North Louisiana Delta Region served by the KCS Meridian Speedway. Of course the photography that accompanies the text is excellent!  The insight in this work is very relevant to the Meridian Speedway concept that my website serves to share. I asked Danny if he would mind if I added this article to my Meridian Speedway Library and he graciously agreed. He is in the company of some great authors. I had not before heard of The Trackside Photographer. This website is a collection of photo-essays contributed by a wide range of authors on a variety of railroad related topics. I recommend highly that you take a look. The button below will take you to the home page of The Trackside Photographer. Linked to the following button is the article "A World Apart, A World Within" in the Meridian Speedway Library.  Chris
TGN 8021 - RIO BRAVO - Arrives on the Property Having decided to make the TGN business car fleet a reality, a roster was made, decals comissioned, and the first car purchased. A Walthers Proto Rock Island 85' Budd 1-Drawing Room 29-Seat Lounge arrived today. This car will be one of two club lounge cars in the fleet - TGN 8021 the RIO BRAVO.  I think I have finalized the paint scheme. The fleet will primarily be stainless steel Budd cars. The roofs and underbodys will be painted a dark green and the sides and ends will be stainless steel. This is inspired by Southern Railway lightweight cars which sported a black roof. I believe this scheme will be unique and not confused with other passenger car owners.  Chris
An Unlikely 2019 Locomotive Consist - 2-12-2019Thanks to some friends in Kansas City who tipped me off that BNSF Kansas City, KS to Temple, TX train H-KCKTPL1-10 was headed south with three SD40-2s for power. This is very uncommon these days on any Class I railroad. I looked at the weather and saw a forecast of clear skies all day. I decided it would be a great day to try out my new Mavic Air drone that my wife got me for Christmas! So northward I went on I-35...Oklahoma-bound to intercept the H-KCKTPL1-10. The below slideshow is the result! Chris
TGN 527193 - NTO 527565 - NTO 527748
In addition to the E&C Shops car belonging to Greg McComas, this batch included two ExactRail Gunderson 6269 cars. Both were purchased as model EE-1452-1 decorated for BNSF. I chose this model because they were brown and would not need a coat of primer. The lettering was also pretty sparse and looked easy to remove. I created a rather detailed spec-sheet for the decals and submitted it to Circus City decals. They (Matthew Welke) did an amazing job on the decal sheet, and it was done very quickly!  Next I made a quick revision to the roster. These cars were in the 527000 series, with the first 500 being T&GN and the second 500 being NT&O. I divided the numbers further, designating the E&C Shops cars as TGN 527000-527099 and NTO 527500-527599. The ExactRail cars would fill the rest of the numbers, TGN 527100-527499 and NTO 527600-NTO 527999. The BNSF markings came off easily using Solvaset-Soaked paper towel patches to soften the letters. Scotch-Tape then removed them cleanly! I mixed a 50/50 batch of Scalecoat II Boxcar Red and Boxcar Red #2 which is standard for these cars. The paint went on smoothly with my Iwata Revolution airbrush. The Circus City decals were a pleasure to work with. Each car has a total of 58 individual decals! Today the cars received dull coat to seal the decals. On the advise of Eric Goodman I used an aerosol can of Krylon ColorMaster Flat Crystal Clear. I picked up a can at WalMart! Being careful to just spray a very thin and even layer of the product on the cars, the result is very good! I do miss the Floquil flat finish however....    NTO 527565 will be interchanged to the MCIS soon. As Greg models a later time period than I do, this car will be updated with yellow FRA conspicuity stripes.
A shipment from ExactRail arrived on Monday. Included were four more copies of BNSF 726653... Batch 2 will be making its way to the paint booth soon! Chris |
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- - - Homepage of the Natchez Trace and Orient Railway and Texas and Great Northern Railway - HO Scale Meridian Speedway - Created by Christopher M. Palmieri - - -
© Christopher M. Palmieri - 1st Publish 12-10-2014
© Christopher M. Palmieri - 1st Publish 12-10-2014