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By Amtrak to Oklahoma City

by Dale Jacobson

Greetings,

On September 24, 2019, I departed at 4:05 PM on the Capitol Ltd. for Chicago, the first leg on my train trip to Oklahoma City (OKC). The trip to Chicago was uneventful, and we arrived at Chicago Union Station on time. As expected, the dinner and breakfast service were the same as the last time I took this train - a box supper and a continental breakfast. When I reached the Metropolitan Lounge, I took a shower (no waiting) and had some veggies and cheese for lunch. The wine tasting has been scrapped in favor of a bar with beer, wine, and mixed drinks at prices cheaper than on the train. If you really want to get tipsy, you can buy doubles of any spirit on hand for $10.

The Texas Eagle left on time at 1:45 PM, but as is so typical for that train, we hadn't gone very far before we got stabbed by a CSXT freight at the diamonds where the old B&OCT crosses what is now the CN (xGM&O). When the IC took over control of the GM&O and formed the ICG, the new railroad retained the portion of the GM&O between Chicago and somewhere south of Joliet, IL. The rest of the GM&O mainline and freight lines were sold off, much going to the ill-fated Chicago, Missouri & Western. The original passenger line from South Joliet to St. Louis is now owned by UP. This line is being upgraded by the state of Illinois into a 110 mph railroad for passenger trains. UP freights, especially those from Global 4 south of Joliet, are also benefiting from this upgrading. I suspect this is a reason UP is thinking about closing Global 3 in Rochelle. The state is not upgrading the old CNW route west into Iowa and beyond, on which Global 3 sits west of Rochelle, IL.

We lost 30 minutes waiting for that freight to clear. However, miracle of miracles, we experienced no further delays before reaching St. Louis shortly after 7 PM. By then I was having supper in the diner. For now at least the Texas Eagle still had a full diner. However, the menu was still the same as that I recall from last winter. So, once again, I had the Norwegian Salmon. Thanks to having a fresh crew on this train, the meal was well cooked and tasted quite delicious. As it was now dark, once we got south of the metro area I went to my room, read awhile, and called it a night.

By the next morning we were right on time. There's more than enough padding in this train's schedule to ensure staying on schedule if no major disruptions occur. Of course, UP decided to try adding at least a minor disruption. It looked like we'd arrive in Dallas around 11:30 AM, somewhat earlier than scheduled. So, while still some distance east of Dallas, our train stopped to wait for a track inspector to finish his run. Between that and slower running than usual our arrival into Dallas Union Station - Amtrak, DART, and Trinity Rail Express (TRE) - was at 12:10 PM. That meant I couldn't get off the train in Dallas to take any photos as I needed to finish lunch before we reached Ft. Worth. We were scheduled into there at 1:25 PM. It also meant I had to give up any chance at photographing any Dallas, Garland & Northern RR (DNGO) trains or engines while passing by its yard shortly after leaving the Dallas station. Turned out there was nothing happening at the Dallas station. Alas, there was a DNGO freight with some of its low emissions units on it that MIGHT have been photographable before a set of freight cars blocked the view. Oh well. We arrived at the Ft. Worth Transportation Center on time.

When I stepped off the train I was reminded of what much of the summer in the D.C. area had been like - hot and humid [the Gulf of Mexico keeps much of Texas humid throughout the year]. Since I didn't want to be in a furnace for four hours before the Heartland Flyer left for OKC, I went to the Amtrak baggage claim area to see what I could do with my checked piece of luggage and my two other bags I also had with me. Due to being a sleeping car passenger I was allowed to store all my bags for free until time to board the Flyer. Otherwise, it might have cost me $10 per bag to store them for a few hours. That freed me up to go to the Texas Rail ticket counter and find out I could buy an all day pass for $2.50 to ride between the T&P station and Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport on the new DMU trains.

I got to the Texas Rail portion of the track #1 station platform and soon boarded one of its DMU trains that just came in from the former T&P station. I originally thought the line went farther west than that station, but I was mistaken. I was also mistaken in thinking that the Texas Rail used the TRE track east of downtown Ft. Worth. That's not true either. Rather, before the Texas Rail train passes through the tunnel through a building just east of the Ft. Worth station, it goes onto its own track. I don't know if all of this RR's line is new or if some is old upgraded freight trackage.

There are nine stations on Texas Rail including the end points. For a railfan, the two of notice are Northside Station and Grapevine. East of Northside Station the railroad climbs up onto a bridge that looks down at the Fort Worth & Western RR (FW&W) engine terminal and the east end of its yard. The Texas Rail line had started paralleling the FW&W west of Northside Station, but the only shots really available from the train are once you're atop the bridge and coming down the east side. The other station of note is Grapevine. Located here are the Grapevine RR Museum that's spread out over a couple block area and the Grapevine Heritage RR and its train of 5 or so coaches powered by a rebuilt GP.

Texas Rail runs daily using what it calls "FLIRT 3" DMU trains. The bodies were made in Hungary by Swiss based Stadler with final production and assembly in Utah as part of the "Buy American" program. The cars have a rise in the center part of the interior. I didn't realize that this rise is only in the center part and missed the steps going back down. Fortunately, I didn't hurt myself when I fell down the two steps.

During much of the earlier and later parts of the day trains run every 30 minutes. During the noon hours trains run hourly. Being a senior citizen (definition varies from RR to RR) I bought an all-day pass for $2.50. Not that one needs all day to ride this RR. A trip from end to end takes roughly 45 minutes. However, the all day pass means you can get off wherever you want for as long as you want the day that pass is valid. Being that these trains are nicely air conditioned it was a pleasant way to spend some time before boarding the Heartland Flyer for Oklahoma City.

The Heartland Flyer is a 'happy and friendly train.' The crew is attentive without being intrusive. The train consisted of a P42, two Superliner coaches, and a rebuilt F40PH control/cab car. A food and beverage service gets set up in forward section on the lower level of the lead coach. The food selections are more varied than on a regular Amtrak cafe car or in the lounge area on a Superliner obeys/lounge car. Drink prices are somewhat less expensive as well. I had a Marguerita and specialty sandwich with meats made from turkey for $9. While passing the Equity grain elevator in Saginaw I spotted two Rail Power gen-sets to be the power now serving that site. BNSF freight traffic was heavy all the way to Ardmore, OK. We met or passed a freight every 10 to 15 minutes. After Ardmore, the smoke stop, it was dark, and I couldn't tell how many more trains we passed, if any. We arrived in OKC about 15 minutes late in spite of all that freight traffic. My friend Paul Walters was there to pick me up, and off we went.

= = = = =

As soon as Paul and I departed from the Oklahoma City (OKC) Amtrak station, a strange aberration appeared before me. "What's that?" I asked Paul. He replied it was one of the OKC streetcars. Since my last visit two years ago, a streetcar system has started operating in the downtown and Bricktown areas of the city. The streetcars were built by Brookville and are of its "Liberty" low floor design. There are currently 6 or 7 such cars in service each wearing one of three paint schemes - blue, violet, or lime green.

There are two routes - one that serves the downtown area as well as points farther north up to 13th street and another loop that provides additional service to the Bricktown area of downtown. While the Bricktown loop is part of the larger 4.8 mile streetcar route, it is treated as a separate service with its own schedule and start times on Fridays and Saturdays. There are 22 stops along the entire route. One can use an app on a smartphone to find out when the next streetcar is due at any particular stop. As I don't own a smartphone I had to figure out for myself when the next car might show up. Generally speaking the streetcars seem to run on about 20 minute intervals. Fares run between $1 for a one-way trip to $3 for a 24 hour pass. Anyone over 65 can ride for half the fare. One unique aspect to this streetcar line is that only part of it has overhead wire. The streetcars run on battery power on those portions of the route where wire has not been hung.

Thus, the morning of my first full day in town the first thing we did was head into downtown OKC and scout out the streetcar route. I think this was the first time Paul had ever photographed streetcars. If you look at Paul's blog site - waltersrail.com - you'll quickly realize he likes western RR-ing away from urban areas. Paul is like a fish out of water in a city environment, even in OKC. Although he once worked in downtown St. Louis as well as in OKC, he now works out of his home in a part of Edmond, OK, that is not near the downtown. So, Paul was driving around OKC very, very carefully and not being sure where he could or should park whenever we either saw a streetcar coming or wished to wait for one. Even so, he did okay, and we got plenty of streetcar photos of the blue and violet cars. Alas, the one green car we saw soon disappeared, likely due to the rush hour period being over.

Currently the very south end of the streetcar route is seeing lots of construction activity especially around the new Scissorstail Park. We did get a few shots near the new park [opening that weekend], but we spent most of our time on the downtown route's north end. Our first shots were at the stop next to the OK School of Law which used to be owned by Southern Bell Corp., for which Paul works. At one time Paul had an office in that building, which is why it was a "must shoot." Streetcar tracks cross by the Murrah Federal Center Memorial area with two stops either at or close to the memorial site. When a car passes by going east on the south side of the memorial area, you'll next see it coming south on the east side of the memorial grounds. I didn't notice any obvious signals for controlling movements across the diamond, but there must be a way the streetcars keep from crashing into one another as usually one streetcar is coming east close to or at the same time another one is heading south back to downtown and the Bricktown loop.

After a couple hours of shooting streetcars we figured we had enough good shots of the cars then running taken at some of the more interesting locations. As it was now early afternoon, it was time to move on.

= = = = =

Sunday morning, Oct. 8, required a fairly early wake-up to be at the former ATSF passenger station in Oklahoma City to catch Amtrak's Heartland Flyer to Ft. Worth. The station reminds me of a mausoleum as it's basically empty and silent except when passengers start showing up for the train. The doors to the platform on the upper level are opened, almost as if my magic, at 8 AM for the train's 8:25 AM departure. An employee seems to appear from nowhere to open the doors. This also reminds me of Dracula's castle although the station is nowhere near that big. There are no escalators so if one has lots of bags, and many of the people who use this train do, the only elevator is the only option to get your stuff trackside. As a result I carried my suitcase upstairs. I stored it in the baggage space available and took my other two carry-ons upstairs to my coach seat. This time the car attendant stored the bags, so it wasn't as chaotic as on the trip to Oklahoma City (OKC).

We left on time. Instead of backing out of the station track, which I had previously experienced, we went forward and soon were across the Oklahoma River and passing by the BNSF yard on the far south side of OKC. As we passed through Norman it appeared that the apartment complex my wife and I lived in while she went to OU for a Masters Degree (back in 1972-1973) is now gone. Indeed, there used to be distinct rural areas between OKC and the next town south called Moore and then another rural area before reaching Norman. Most of that rural area is now gone, and the towns tend to blend together. There's a bit more rural area left before reaching the next town of Noble, but it's going fast. It's only south of Noble that the Oklahoma rural countryside I was used to back in the 70's is still mostly in existence. Perhaps that in itself is somewhat of a miracle. The old division point of Purcell looks unchanged, but that could be due to the station being down in the bottom lands. There isn't any real view of Purcell itself, if there's anything to see.

Freight traffic wasn't anywhere near as heavy as it had been on the northbound trip, and thus we kept on time and arrived 10 minutes early into the Ft. Worth Transportation Center. Overall the trip was pleasant as I recalled my times along various parts of that route when I lived in OK. The Big Canyon area north of Ardmore still looks like it did back in the 70's although I'm not sure how I'd get into now. I'd likely walk in from the north end. Back in the 70's we used to drive through this pond, turning in the middle of it to reach a dirt road before accessing the tracks south of the Big Canyon. I saw no signs of either the pond or the former access road.

Rather than eat on the train I had my brunch at the Subway inside the combined RR/Greyhound bus station in the Ft Worth Transportation Center. There are some seats in there that give you a partial view of the tracks so I could watch any train that passed as I ate. I was surprised to find Trinity Rail Express (TRE) trains running. In the past they've run on Sundays only when there was some special event going on. I didn't hear about any such event this time. Is TRE now running seven days per week? The Texas Rail DMU's run daily so maybe TRE expanded its service to match that. One of the three TRE trainsets being used was being powered by one of TRE's "new" LTEX lettered F40PH's. The other two sets were pulled by the two types of F59's on the RR's roster.

The northbound Texas Eagle was originally posted as arriving 45 minutes late at 2:38 PM. The updates kept pushing back that arrival time. It finally showed up at 3:15 PM. After a 28 minute service stop we were on our way. As we neared Dallas we passed the Dallas, Garland & Northeastern (DINGO) yard. At least 5 NRE gensets were there, all painted in Genesee Wyoming Industries colors. As I was in the sleeper car that had come from LA, my car was at the end of the train. While that meant having to go through all the coaches to reach the obsy/lounge and diner, it gave me the chance to look out the rear for the first time in some years. I did that for the trip from Dallas to Mineola before I tired of it. During that time the only UP freight we passed was a local in a small yard just west of Mineola. I also spotted a DART Liberty car similar to those being run in OKC, but didn't realize it wasn't a bus due to it being on a bridge without wires. On we went into the darkness after the Longview stop. Before going to sleep later that night I watched the lightning spread across the sky. There were storms somewhere in the area.

Next morning I awoke to find we were two hours late due to signal problems caused by the previous night's thunderstorms as well as to freight traffic congestion. Being late into St. Louis is something I always hope will happen as just south of that city the train passes along the Mississippi River for some distance before turning inland into the city and maybe 20 minutes later reaching the St. Louis passenger station. By then we had made up some of the lost time, enough so that the train to Kansas City was still there, likely awaiting our arrival before departing. Alas, at St. Louis another coach was added to the train behind my sleeper. No more rear view. Yes, I could have walked to the rear of the coach, but I don't like to spend lots of time in a car where I don't have a seat. After the usual interesting railfan ride to Alton, the trip becomes boring as we pass through some of the flattest parts of Illinois on our way to Chicago. The final portion of the ride again becomes interesting between Joliet and Chicago Union Station as we pass under CN's EJ&E mainline, go by numerous refineries, pass by CN's (xGM&O) Glenn Yard, and cross 4 diamonds with multiple tracks in all directions. Amazingly, this time we weren't stopped by any freights already crossing ahead of us. We arrived in Chicago Union Station at about 3:30 PM, still almost 90 minutes late.

I didn't mind our being late as I still had enough time to take a shower and have a couple beers while watching a St. Louis/Atlanta playoff game. Then it was time to board the Capitol Ltd. and head east to Washington, D.C. and home. The box meal menu had changed since my ride west as it was now October. The threatened new menu was in effect. There were still only 4 options, but this time one was a shrimp dish. Alas, it also came with some sausage, but what the hell, I decided to try it. It wasn't bad. I ate only a couple pieces of the sausage, but that night I awoke with a minor itching problem. Despite having taken two 25 mg antihistamine tablets I had a minor case of the hives. Fortunately, it was quite minor, but it did tell me that even a LITTLE BIT of red meat or pork can cause me trouble. Thanks, ticks. The continental breakfast is at least as good, if not better than, that had on the former full diner. Not that the food is as good; it's not. However, the food is acceptable as it consists mainly of cereals, oatmeals, yogurts, fruit cups, snack bars, and a breakfast sandwich along with all the free beverages (except alcoholic ones) that you want. What makes this so good is that you can continue munching all morning until the attendant takes the food away. That's usually not before 11 AM. We were running late enough by 11 AM, that the attendant offered us free box meals not eaten the previous evening. I didn't opt for one, but many did.

Once again my hopes for a late arrival into Pittsburgh were realized as Norfolk Southern (NSC) freight traffic delayed us. Then CSXT made sure we lost some more time as we dodged around some work areas between Connellsville and Cumberland. Thus we got to see all the good scenery that is found south and east of Pittsburgh. We arrived in D.C. somewhere around 2:30 PM, now only 90 minutes late due to the padding added between Rockville and D.C. It took awhile before the baggage off the train arrived at the baggage area, but at least my bag hadn't been lost. I still made it to Metro before the rush hour fare rates went into effect and was back in Greenbelt by 3:30 PM. My neighbor picked me up, and soon I was home. So ended this trip.

Regards,

-Dale-