Today was the start of Memorial Day weekend. To kick it off, I decided to dedicate my time to two of my favorite activities. Bicycling, and train watching.
I chose a rural route to bike, one that would lead to a railroading wye. The long grass in Texas was just fading from spring green to summer brown. I enjoyed watching it ripple as the sky above me constantly changed, threatening severe weather at some moments and completely tranquil at others.
Not only did I find the wye, but there were two trains on it! I don’t think I’ve ever seen four-axle KCS power before, but needless to say, I was thrilled. Kansas City Southern is the only major North American railroad not to have a direct entry into Chicago, so it’s the Class 1 I know least about.
The train was stopped, but I could hear it start up and get moving through the countryside parallel to me as I returned to Denton. I got a good shot of it over a large hill.
After getting back to my apartment, I thought to myself, why let the train greatness end? I had heard on Facebook that Saginaw, TX has an annual train-watching ritual. Every Memorial Day Friday evening, several dozen railfans gather in the old depot (now a museum) beside two major rail lines and spend 24 hours, day and night, and do nothing but watch trains, talk trains, photograph trains, discuss trains, and do everything that train-related. All of this was only forty-five minutes away!
I decided to catch the tail end of the event, called “24 hours at Saginaw.” When I got there, I was greeted with an encouraging sign:
The depot was wedged in front of several diamonds and between three massive, massive grain elevators. I had seen the grain elevators miles before I had arrived. They looked like shuttle launchers, blotting out the horizon. I would later learn that the three combined consisted of arguably the largest grain complex in the world (Harrison, Kansas seems to have the title of largest elevator, but the three elevators of Saginaw, all owned by the same company, might have more storage capacity). So large were these elevators that every time a train came by and blew its horn, the horn blast would be completely repeated by their massive concrete walls. I have no photograph of them in their entireties, however, as even the second-largest one was too big for my zoom.
The trains were a little scare, but not too bad. I saw an Amtrak passenger train and was hearkened back to my memories of riding from Longview to Chicago. There were also two Santa Fe Yellowbonnets that did some track work around the massive elevators, and a track truck.
Between trains, I fraternized with my fellow railfanning brethren (not a sexist term; pretty much the only females there were wives who had been dragged along) and looked at the antique railroading equipment on display:
Several railfans brought along their own equipment, including several old Speedsters that they worked on. Some kids and I rode a maintenance cart up and down the inactive track in front of the depot.
All in all, it was a great day! I even got my own paper train to commemorate the event (as opposed to paper dolls I guess!). Next year, I’ll have to tough it out for all twenty-four hours!
railfanchemist 