Ex MP and Katy tracks in San Antonio, TX ??'s

[RudyRockvilleMD]

I was doing some railfanning north of the center city San Antonio Texas. i noticed one Union Pacific line south on the San Antonio airport, and running along Olmos Park. Was that line formerly owned by Missouri Pacific or the MKT?

[Anonymous]

The N-S line running just east of the airport and Olmos Park is the I&GN (MP) main line to Mexico. It runs almost due S, skirts the W side of downtown into SoSan yard, then past the stockyards and parallel to the ex-SP by Kelly, before the SP peels off to the west and the MP heads S along I35 to Laredo. A branch of the MP breaks off to the SE at SoSan and goes to Corpus Christi/Robstown and the Valley Line. The Katy runs along I35 on the NE side of town, cuts to the SW through Fort Sam Houston just north of BAMC, and crosses I35 just east of Coliseum, where it goes under the ex-SP at the east end of East Yard, loops around the east side south of the Coliseum and SBC Center, and crosses the ex-SP south of downtown. The ex-Kerrville Branch of the SP runs NW out of downtown, roughly parallel to I10 and W of the airport.

Hope this helps.

[dehusman]

The branch to Corpus was the San Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf, affectionaltely known as the "Sausage" (SAUG). It ran from San Antonio to Corpus, Pleasanton to Dabney via Gardendale.

Dave H.

[RudyRockvilleMD]

This helps me a lot. Many thanks. What sparked my curiosity was the two parallel single track lines just north of San Antonio, and what looked like a local freight on a line passing Olmos park when I was driving in from the San Antonio Airport..

How busy are the ex Katy and the Missouri Pacific lines?Both the ex Missouri Pacific and the ex Katy serve Austin, TX. Does the Union Pacific use directional running between those cities where trains run south on one line and north on the other?

[Anonymous]

They "generally" practice directional running and are VERY busy (30+/day). That's the main line from US to Mexico, you know. In SAT area, NB on MKT and SB on MP. This can flip back and forth as you get closer to San Marcos. They say they go south on the MKT Lockhart sub San Marcos-Smithville and MKT Taylor-Smithville, and sometimes they do. But the MP line through AUS (single track) to Taylor still sees lots of bidirectional. They are also doing things involving the ex-SP Flatonia sub.

[dldance]

That confirms what I have been seeing in Austin - lot's more northbound than southbound. I figured the southbounds (except Amtrak) were running through Smithville.

dd

[Anonymous]

And for those of you who haven't been there and might be curious, for a lot of the way between between Ogden and the south side of San Marcos the MP and MKT run about 50-100 yards away from each other (sometimes a little closer), so to a certain extent, it's almost -but not quite-double track. Currently signaled as 2 MT. They cross each other at grade at an interlocking plant and diamond in the middle of New Braunfels. Come back together for good by the TSU stadium on N side of San Marcos. Lockhart branch comes off the MKT east (S) of the junction and allows SB (MKT-MKT) operation only--the other leg of the wye allowing a Lockhart (MKT)-NB (MP) move was pulled a number of years ago and the old ROW now goes through a strip mall.