Saturday, Jeff, Ron, and me took a trip to the Train show in San Antonio. (It wasn’t worth writing about and I’ve put pictures of the same old layouts on here before.) We decided to leave and on our way back to the Houston area we decided to stop by the Flatonia diamond where we were fortunate enough to catch 4 trains in little over an hour. Here’s some pics:
The first train was a gravel train heading east towards Houston.
The second train was a mixed freight heading west from the north. (DALSA ROUTE)
There’s an old SP boxcar. Those will soon be gone.
Our third train was the San Antonio Coal train. It was empty and heading east then turning north eventally picking up another load at the powder river basin in Wyoming. The conductor surely was friendly. As the train went by, he opened the window, was grinning from ear to ear and waved to us as the lead locomotive went by.
i’ll try to make it if Betty don’t have me knee deep in garden and landscaping mud. Tis’ the season for all that planting, and mowing, and mulching, and …sheez! (now you know why I don’t care much for spring time.) …chuck
LOL yes it could be a baseball diamond but in railroad terms it’s where two tracks cross at a 90º angle.
Flatonia Texas is a great place to railfan. Not only do they have a covered pavillion for railfans, but it’s where the Sunset route crosses the Dalsa route with three wyes connecting the diamond. The Dalsa route starts in Port Lavaca on the Texas coast and ends in Dallas while the Sunset route starts in LA California and ends in New Orleans. (it actually goes all the way to Florida but terminates to a different railroad in New Orleans.) Trains usually come thru the diamond every 10 - 15 minutes on a good day…chuck
