I caught the BNSF Blue Bell Ice Cream switching move in Brenham, Texas on Tuesday, October 13, 2009, using BN green 3014. They hauled one railcar of sugar to the Blue Bell manufacturing plant just east of downtown Brenham. The tracks they used are former Southern Pacific/T&NO. BN 3014 stays in Brenham for this duty, connecting with the BNSF main line (Galveston Sub) at Peabody Street, next to the Santa Fe Freight House (now a private residence). I also took 3 HD movies of this move. There were 3 crew members on the train: one engineer, and two riding the freight car protecting the crossings. It was cloudy and humid with a downpour right after I took the pictures (rain follows me around the country!!).

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE Or, to view all images in a larger format, click on: http://thundertrain.org/BN3014-brenham-tx-101309-bb.html

LEFT-Heading westbound (toward me)  on the old SP lines, taken from the High Street road crossing, which is west of the BNSF main. Time was 10:14 a.m. October 13. RIGHT-Heading westbound (toward me)  on the old SP/T&NO line, taken from the High Street road crossing, which is west of the BNSF main. Time was 10:14 a.m. October 13.


LEFT-Switching tracks.


LEFT-Crossing High Street. Hopper was CRDX 12546. They will run around the hopper, then head east toward the Blue Bell plant. RIGHT-A BNSF mixed freight heads northbound through Brenham, crossing the former SP/T&NO line, at 10:20 a.m.


BN 3014 had just spotted the hopper on the west side of High Street then ran around it so it could hook onto it again, and pull forward to Blue Bell. To see a movie of this move, click on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aTRSCsZeuk


LEFT-Ready to head east to the Blue Bell plant with the load of sugar. To see a movie (HD) of the train heading east, with lots of loud horn blowing, click on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAy9meWLLuU  RIGHT-On its way to Blue Bell.


LEFT-Here are the tracks that run to the Blue Bell facility, taken from the site of the torn-down Santa Fe Passenger Depot. The tracks cross the busy BNSF main behind me. The street it crosses ahead of me is South Austin Street. RIGHT-Here is an old building of some sort along the former SP/T&NO line on S Baylor Street, which is a few blocks east of the BNSF main.


LEFT-Looking east from S Baylor Street. RIGHT-This 1886 building is for sale or rent. The tracks are to the left.


LEFT-It will dump rain, frogs, dogs and cats on me in a few minutes. RIGHT-The former T&NO freight depot. The tracks are buried in the sand to my right. The signals are on S Market Street. They used to have wig-wag signals, which to me were amazingly easy to spot when a train approached, catching my eye more that the current blinking/alternating signals. It is my understanding that these wig-wag signals are in the possession of the Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS.


LEFT-Backing toward me, to the west. I'm standing near S Baylor Street. The crew will stop the train and manually protect the crossing. For a movie (HD) of this train backing up, click on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKu1TYO3T1M  RIGHT-Just crossed S Baylor Street at 11:21 a.m.


LEFT-Here's the former Santa Fe Freight House in Brenham, now a private residence according to the sign on the door. BNSF's main line is to the left. The road is Peabody Street. My grandfather and I caught various Santa Fe passenger trains here for Houston in the late 1950s and early 1960s, always in the wee hours of the morning, near 5 a.m. We boarded at this Peabody Street crossing. Santa Fe's Passenger Depot was not used anymore, but was still standing I believe. RIGHT-This old lamp, or a similar one, was where we stood when we caught the train.


LEFT-Santa Fe Freight Depot facing S Austin Street.  Up until 1981, Amtrak stopped here and the Amtrak sign was on this building a few years afterward. RIGHT-MP 126 on the BNSF. You can see the former SP/T&NO track crossing.


Santa Fe Cafe.

Some history of this SP/T&NO line from Steve Goen:
   The SP (T&NO) called this the Austin Sub or Austin Division. It ran from Hempstead (where it connected with the Houston-Dallas mainline) west to Brenham, Giddings, Elgin and Austin. It was abandoned piece-meal with the first chuck to go being between Hempstead and Brenham. After the SP bailed out of the Brenham-Giddings segment, the ATSF took over all local switching on the line.

   The freight building you mentioned was the T&NO freight depot. Yes, wig-wags were once everywhere.

   Brenham Union Station was a H&TC (T&NO)/GC&SF struction which looked more H&TC than anything else. They closed it sometime after the T&NO discontinued the Houston-Austin trains and the Santa Fe then moved into the freight depot. The TEXAS CHIEF did not make a stop in Brenham so the train you always caught would have been the eastbound (or southbound)
CALIFORNIA SPECIAL which did stop in Brenham.

   After Amtrak took over they made Brenham a stop on the LONE STAR. So based on this there should have been a small period of time between the discontinuance of the CALIFORNIA SPECIAL in 1968, and the start up of Amtrak in 1971 that Brenham would have NOT been a stop for anything.

   The food at the Santa Fe diner is always good.

   I've also been told that something is amiss with the diamond these days and that the current diamond is straight tracked on the main with no flangeways for the east-west ex-T&NO track. If this is the case, then are cars and engines on the ex-T&NO line being forced to jump up, and ride up over the mainline? Sounds dangerous. Looks like repeated beatings like this would cause the mainline rail to crack or wear improperly, much less damage to wheels sets.

   Photos of many of the T&NO depots on the line are in my T&NO book. (Steve Goen)

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