Ah, a good book (preferably delivered on an e-reader), and a comfortable bench in a park setting help make a good train watching spot in Temple, TX even better.
The bench and the park are located at the south end of the Temple Amtrak station, which is housed in part of the former Santa Fe Passenger Station and Division Headquarters. It also houses a pretty decent railway museum.
Yesterday I got there in time to see Amtrak #21, which was on time and heading to San Antonio. Once again Amtrak has changed the position of the cars. Whereas it had been running #21's sleepers behind the locomotive, yesterday it had one sleeper at the front of the train, behind the locomotive, whilst the other sleeper was at the end of the train. Behind the first sleeper were two coaches (one baggage coach), the lounge car, dinning car, another coach, and the sleeper bringing up the rear of the train. I believe yesterdays train was carrying the through cars for points west of San Antonio.
Shortly after the Texas Eagle departed for Taylor, I was entertained by a BNSF train that had more than 100 tank cars. It was headed south toward Houston, I believe, and was probably carrying oil from up there as in North Dakota. Ten minutes later a coal train powered by three Ferromex locomotives on the front end and one on the back rolled past. I presume it was headed to Laredo, TX and on into Mexico. And to top it off for the evening, 20 minutes later a container train being pulled by two freshly painted BNSF locomotives came by.
So if you are in Temple and up for a little train watching, you could do worse than hang out on one of the benches near the gazebo in the park south of the Amtrak station. As the birthdays have ticked by more than once since 70, sitting and watching trains from a park bench is an attractive option.
Sounds like it is fairly active spot. Did you happen to count how many trains you saw during the time you were there?
George
overall Sounds like it is fairly active spot. Did you happen to count how many trains you saw during the time you were there? George
I was there from approximately 4 to 6:15 p.m. Counting Amtrak #21 I saw five trains. All of them were headed south. In addition, when through trains were not passing, I observed several BNSF locomotives moving to and from the service track(s), although two units took off southbound, and I did not see them return.
The BNSF has a service facility in Temple. I am not sure what type of service is performed on the locomotives. Also, approximately 10 to 15 locomotives in Santa Fe blue and yellow are stored on one side of the service area. One of them is a slug.
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