First, a pair of BNSF Gen Set locomotives leading an older Santa Fe unit leaves the PTRA’s North Yard, after dropping off a yard to yard transfer train, they are crossing Clinton Road bridge, headed to BNSF’s New South Yard.
Second, what the weather looks like most mornings here…true, if you can get high enough, the weather is great, but those lower clouds are dumping several inches of rain an hour where ever they pop up.
And last, a few more IC Operation Lifesaver units.
Good photos and thanks for sharing. As a former Houston resident, I am familiar with those kind of clouds and the stupendous amount of rain they can bring on short notice. Years ago when I worked offshore, I remember those still, hazy, humid days when in just minutes the sky would go black and a screamin’ supercell would be upon us. I actually found them to be fascinating…a humbling display of nature’s power.
I recently watched a video called “Rails Around Houston”. It showed some of the PTRA and various Houston area junctions. Brought back memories of going out to Englewood and Strang to watch trains and explore the Houston area. I have a question. Do you guys work certain routes and industries or do you get to go to different areas? I know the ship channel and surrounding area is vast and covered by innumerable industries. It seems you could live there for years and not see all of it. It used to blow me away to go over the ship channel on the Sam Houston bridge at night and see all the refinery flares strecthing out into the distance!
From the PTRA North Yard, on the north side of the channel out to Jacinto Port, and the Cargill grain elevator, and from the center swing bridge over Buffalo Bayou at the turning basin all the way to Barbour’s cut on the south shore…that’s us.
And yeah, it still looks like something out of a science fiction movie, when you cross the ship channel bridge and look east…sorta a Blade Runner scene!
Question: What are the {what look like}, metal plates on the ends of the ties in the IC picture…? Do they keep the ends from splitting…and help preserve them.
Yes, that’s the idea behind the little plates…they are hammered in, similar to the steel plates on joist hangers, they have little saw teeth in them…by the way, the rail those wood ties are holding up was rolled in 1945.
You are looking at where I work, between the near set of rails, which used to be our caboose track, and the next set of tracks, which is my switching lead.
The photo is taken from the shade of our yard control tower.
To the right is the E and F yards, where I take apart inbound train…the IC units are in the D yard on an out bound from us, the PTRA, to Texas Terminals and the Cargill fertilizer plant.
I can see a couple of places where the swamp is coming through, but we have those, too, and that’s even in the higher elevations. Had some joint bars snap on one of our mushy spots Sunday.
Speaking of swamps, it looks like Brian got out of Iowa just in time–we had a two-train wreck near Tama that could well have been caused by a washout (news footage shows an awful lot of water everywhere).
During June, you can count on clouds like this every day…and around 3pm, it starts all over, you can just about set your watch by it…with the gulf breeze bringing in the moisture, it rains somewhere in Houston almost every day.
Carl, funny thing, but the pumping and mushy spots are only where the steel ties are…seems they don’t take to well to our sub road bed.
The wood ties on the other hand don’t move a inch.
Course, the entire yard is built on the dredge from the ship channel turning basin, but after 80 years, it should have settled a little!
