The best commute in America: Mopac Fwy, Austin Texas?
Monday, February 12, 2007 at 11:51PM I’m in Austin Texas this week for work. I arrived late afternoon today and my first meeting is tomorrow so not to waste any time while I’m here, I decided to check out UP’s Laredo gateway line which runs north-south through Austin. You can see it marked in a thin black line in the Google Earth view below.
The line swings west after it crosses the Colorado River. It then swings roughly north again on a broad right hand curve. Notice though, the line is very close to the Mopac Freeway.
Take a freeway and put the tracks right down the middle!
In fact, the line runs down the middle of the freeway, for what seemed like ten miles or so!! You can see the tracks here on the median. The grade looks kind of stiff in parts too, I’d love to know what the actual grade is here. Drop me a line if you know.
Traffic was crawling in both directions, which really helped since I was juggling my camera. After the first shot, I got the ‘Card Full’ message because Natalie had filled the card yesterday at Tilden Park. I was trying to get to a junction further north on the line while there was some daylight so I deleted as many shots as I could while driving slowly up the freeway keeping a close eye on the track. As you well know, the most likely time to see any train is when you are least prepared to take a photo! I sincerely hoped that the full card wouldn’t lead to the only train of the session careening by. It didn’t.
A little further up the road
Within a mile, I caught the first of three northbound trains, a long autorack standing on the main. You can see the tail end in the next photo. There is a siding further up the line and I thought perhaps I, along with my fellow Austinite commuters, would be watching a meet, well… at least I would be.
No meet though. You can see bleow the two units of the autorack train were stopped facing a red block caused by a stack train ahead.
Whose train is this?
A half mile up the road, I caught up to the stack train which was also standing still on the main. The northbound freeway lanes cross over the track here and the line continues north closely parallel to Mopac. When I saw the blue Hanjin containers, mixed in with the other red and silver asian containers, I immediately thought BNSF. This is a very typical mixture of boxes hauled by BNSF out of Oakland, CA not far from where I live. But no, this is a Union Pacific train, originating at a port in Mexico I am guessing. No trackage rights for BNSF here that I’m aware of.
Running out of light
The stack train was waiting for a northbound manifest in the next block, again standing still. Sorry about the pic. Traffic was moving by now and this was what I got by grabbing, pointing and shooting without actually sizing up the shot since traffic was now flowing. You’ll see a little more of this guy in the next post. That’s an SD70ACe leading the manifest. Here’s a hand held video of the unit I found on YouTube. An impressive brute, don’t you think?
I was in a hurry to get to the junction at McNeill where the Austin Area Terminal Railroad crosses the UP rails. It’s a neat spot with interchange tracks and a quaint post office. I spent a pleasant two hours there having some dinner and watching these guys stroll through.
Commuting Austin-style
Anyway, by now, I’m thinking this urban freeway with trains to keep you occupied is great! It reminds me of Hwy 99 in the California San Joaquin Valley where the ex SP valley line runs right beside the highway for a couple of hundred miles. I have a long commute back in the Bay Area and I would love to trade one of my freeways for Mopac! Commuting would be so much more enjoyable. Mopac has a nice combination of a busy class 1 line as close to a freeway as you can get. As they like to say here, ‘Keep Austin weird!’. I agree.
I hope to get a little more time shooting this line while I’m here this week if my schedule allows. And, if you know of neat freeway/track combinations out there, let me know!
Reader Comments (3)
Excellent pictures. Too bad you couldn't just stop and route the traffic around you to allow you to fully enjoy the view.
We were only making 10mph on the freeway. If the trains had not been stopped, I'd never have caught up to any of them. Interesting thought though, I'll bring some traffic cones next time!
I use to live in Austin and took the Mopac (as the highway is known) to work everyday. Back when I lived there, 1979-1988, there was never a traffic jam, so spotting of trains were kinda rare. Cool pictures.
Daryl Kruse
www.rochellesub.com
www.stpaulrochelle.org/blog