Texas Traction???

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1

While driving from Austin, TX to Shreveport, LA earlier this week, we passed under a railroad overpass that had light overhead wire. I think this overpass was above Texas 43 just north of Henderson but it could have been further south (somewhere along US 79).

I’m not aware of any electrically operated railroad in that area. Can anyone enlighten me?

Thanks,
Chuck

2

My Texas geography is a little sketchy, but the Houston area has a light-rail system using Siemens’ super-cool S70 LRV…I saw a Houston LRV getting repaired at their plant in Sacramento–a UP utility truck decided to ignore a grade-crossing signal and got T-boned by this LRV. They had to replace the fiberglass front and there was some minor denting, the UP utility truck was absolutely creamed…

3

jetrock:

Thanks for trying to reply. I didn’t know about Houston’s LRVs; I’m more familiar with DART’s light rail. (Isn’t DART - Dallas Area Rapid Transit - a cool name for a public transportation system?)

You might want to check out DART’s web site @ www.dart.org but have your computer’s sound turned up a bit when you go there.[8D]

But what I saw was well north of the Houston area. And when I say “light”, I mean very light as in trolley or light industrial overhead wire. I’m sure it’s no heavier than I remember seeing on the streets of Pittsburgh, PA when PCC cars roamed that city’s streets. DART’s LRVs would turn up their noses at this overhead (or burn it out on contact?).

Chuck

4

I remember an old Joe Bob Briggs column that insisted the Forney area needed a light rail system too, using similar sets of initials…

5

I saw the same thing when I was a kid every time we’d drive out to east Texas to visit family. I remember my dad telling me once that it is for TXU’s power plant or something along that line. I remember seeing a very big unit coal train on the bridge once, but I didn’t get a look at the motive power.

6

The line you guys are talking about, if it’s the one that crosses I30, is a dedicated mine-mouth-to-power-plant TXU line that hauls lignite to the Monticello power plant. The trains are semiautomatic and have remote control (and have since well before it became popular on the Class Is), with one-man operation. Movement while loading is controlled by the tipple operator.

7

There was an article about it. The article is “Tracking Wyoming Coal: A Trip to a Texas Power Plant” by Mike Harbour in the February 1997 issue of RailNews. Although the title only mentions the Wyoming coal, it does discuss the lignite operations.

8

drephpe:
ericsp:

The line I saw wouldn’t be crossing I30. The overpass I saw is well to the east of Dallas and a bit south. I30 comes into Dallas from the northeast and ends there.

9

cefinkjr–

Then it’s another TXU plant, and I think it’s probably Martin Lake.