some F Market snaps from the other day i’ve really been enjoying portrait orientation lately

i mean

we're talking about Rep. Madeline Dean, correct? www.congress.gov/bill/119th-c...

and that’s that! thanks for following along as i try to convert more oomfs to amtrak riders😂

Crossing into downtown Austin

Downtown Buda

Massive quarry and cement plant in Buda

One of the newest carload freight industries along the Austin Sub, south of Kyle. Pretty hilariously overbuilt trackage for the car volumes they handle but i guess they’re future proofing in a fast-growing area.

Blanco River is dry as a bone

Another formerly rail served industry. I believe this one lost service around 2019.

Some old passenger cars and a caboose at what I believe is an event space in San Marcos

Leaving San Marcos

Jama Yard in San Marcos, which serves as a small staging yard for the local industries. While Austin has lost every single carload freight customer UP once had, there’s still a decent amount of carload freight in the San Marcos area. Mostly lumber and cement (+byproducts/fuel).

Some classic Texas multifamily sprawl south of San Marcos

Surprised to see the spur to the New Braunfels ADM mill that closed in 2023 is still in fairly decent shape. cc @mrbtx.bsky.social

Woke up in San Antonio for our switching move. Slept great.

big rock

pretty wild rock formations out here

Pretty neat bridge over the Rio Grande in El Paso

Passing a train loaded with wind turbine blades on the way out of the yard in Santa Teresa

Not too far out from El Paso now. Currently passing the massive intermodal facility at Santa Teresa, NM.

Hour and a half late into Deming, NM. Looks like the Southwestern Railroad has made itself quite the buffet of clapped out Class I motive power.

Alright, we’re rolling again. They couldn't find anything wrong and they're thinking it was a false positive. We're running at restricted speed (20 MPH) until the next detector (~10 miles) just to be safe.

Looks like they’re still inspecting the train

Stopped somewhere between Lordsburg and Deming. Apparently our train tripped the defect detector 😬

Still so crazy to me that they’ve still got 40’ boxcars out here cc @a320lga.bsky.social @interurbanera.bsky.social

The Arizona Eastern Railroad’s interchange in Lordsburg, New Mexico

More big rocks

More carload freight (and a plant switcher!) cc @interurbanera.bsky.social @mrbtx.bsky.social