A visit to McNeil Texas

Diamonds are a great location to watch trains. There’s nothing like the sound of the wheels on the diamond itself, clatter-bang…clatter-bang…clatter-bang. For my money, it magnifies the immensity of the train, especially loads. Diamonds also offer the possibility of more trains than one line can supply. And even if one of the lines is less travelled, a diamond provides a nice contrast to the ‘going somewhere important’ aspect of a well used main line.

McNeil, Texas

McNeil is an example of the latter case. UP’s line from the Mexican border at Laredo Tx. passes through Austin Tx on it’s way north. On the north side of Austin, the city gives way to rolling hills newly built with homes and light industry. The land is still reasonably open here with a pleasant combination of grassland and trees, though not thickly forested. More open country is my preference for train watching. You can see more and further from where you stand. The UP line heads upgrade out of the Colorado River valley near downtown Austin and after about ten miles it crosses a former SP branch at McNeil. The branch is now operated by the Austin Area Terminal Railroad (AUAR).

In the satellite shot below, the UP runs from lower left to upper right and the AUAR runs from lower right to upper left. Adjacent to the crossing is the sprawling mineral plant.

The Austin Area Terminal Railroad

AUAR operates freight service from a connection with UP at Giddings to Llano, TX (154.8 miles), with a branch extending from Fairland to Marble Falls, TX (6.4 miles). Connections are also made with UP at McNeil and Elgin. Traffic includes aggregates, crushed limestone, calcium bicarbonate, lumber, beer, chemicals, plastics and paper. The Austin & Texas Central runs a passenger excursion between Austin and Burnet, TX. (Taken directly from UP’s website)

The Diamond

This is the McNeil diamond. It was a hastily taken flash shot at night with the expectation that I’d get back for a better shot later in the week. No such luck. I’ll get a better one next time I visit.

The crossing is close to 90 degrees so there is a pronounced flange gap that creates the bang sound as the wheels cross. Crossings at a shallower angle make much less sound or even very little at all as the wheel tread can’t fall into the gap below a certain angle. This is also true of most prototype switches but unfortunately not for many commercially available model railroad switches.

Something up with the interlocking

I watched each of the three northbound trains ( I assume westbound by timetable) that I had seen while coming up the Mopac Freeway on the way to McNeil. Each one stopped on the southern end of the interlocking at the signal. A crew member then walked to the diamond and inspected both of the signals protecting the diamond from AUAR movements to make sure they were displaying red. The train was then radioed forward byt he crew member to the grade crossing near the diamond presumably with the permission of the dispatcher. The crew member climbed aboard and the train then accelerated north past the red signal at the north end of the interlocking.

A UP signal maintainer showed up after about two hours to get things sorted out. And eventually the signals at McNeil were set to show green so that northbounds could just power on through. But not while I was there so I ws not able to see the sparks flying as trains crossed the diamond at 40+ mph.

Night Shots

I didn’t have to be anywhere in  particular for dinner so I had a few hours to sit back and watch. I had the foresight to bring some food and drink so I wouldn’t have to leave when I got hungry. When I happen to be trackside at night I usually don’t bother with photos. I don’t want to concern the crews with flashes going off close to the track. They have enough to worry about without being startled by camera flashes. And unless you have a good amount of flash, the pics are often not very good. Armed as I was with my trusty Fujifilm Finepix A340 pocket camera I really wasn’t thinking much about taking pics.

As the UP units of the first train got closer, I remembered the reflective striping and thought it might be fun to see how that comes up in a night picture. I was pleasantly surprised to find that more than just the sills have reflective decals. Here’s what the flash lights up from about 10 feet away. The units were all stopped or crawling when I took the photos.

I like the Z-stripe on this one with the flag.

Give McNeil a look

If you happen to be visiting Austin as I was, McNeil is easy to get to. Take Mopac north, then Parmer Rd west then McNeil Road north about 2 miles. If you cross the AUAR on McNeil road, you’ve gone too far. There is a US Post Office at McNeil so you can google directions pretty easily. Stay clear of the tracks and the roads at the diamond are used by big trucks from the plant nearby so give them plenty of room too.

I’ll be back there in about two months. I hope to get some better pictures then.