An off-day in South Central Texas
April 22, 2015

by David Ingles

My travel companion and neighbor (3 miles between our homes) Otto Dobnick, with Chuck Weinstock of Pittsburgh, had set up a rental car, ultimately in Otto’s name, for our two days in San Antonio, as none of us planned to attend any AAPRCO meetings at the Staybridge Suites. Chuck, after several itinerary changes (family-related), wound up booking a Wednesday afternoon flight out of Austin. Chuck also set up a “BBQ tour” this day, which turned out to be one restaurant, account time limitations. En route north, then, on Wednesday the 22nd, the first cloudy day of the entire trip, our first stop was New Braunfels, to if nothing else, photograph the preserved MoPac depot we’d passed the day before. Before we shot the depot, we photographed parked sleeper “Eagle View” and a three-unit set of UP GE units, then went to the depot, which was part of a small museum with a small steam engine and some passenger cars under a canopy. The street view is typical of small cities in the region; Otto had his eye on photographing the theater, of course.

Next was to meet John Arbuckle and his brother Tom, for lunch, set up for 11:15 a.m. in the town of Lockhart, east of I-35 by one county. The establishment was Black’s, on a side street off the square. The photos of us were taken by an employee after we finished the meal. From left we are myself, Chuck, John, Otto, and John’s eldest brother (of two) Tom, who had picked up John off our train in Temple two days previous. I can attest that the brisket at Black’s was the best I’ve ever had! We also lucked out in our timing. We parked right in front of the place about 11:10 and the Arbuckles soon showed up. It’s a typical Texas (and other states) BBQ place — you enter into a single queue and order cafeteria-style, help yourself to side dishes, choose your meat, watch it sliced and served, pay, get your drink cup, and pour your own soft drink (or iced tea). Tables were the usual 8 or more in lines. In honor of being in its home state, I, who usually drink sugar-free or diet pop, chose a real Dr Pepper (it has a museum in Waco, actually devoted to many soda-pop brands; we visited in 1998). About halfway thru our meal, with many locals already filling our dining area, two busloads of 7th-graders from a Christian school in McKinney, a north Dallas suburb, came in and lined up. They had a reserved seating area in back, and undoubtedly were served, institution-style, the same meal, but each had to do his/her own soda-pop, so the queue for that got quite long, and very noisy as only 12- and 13-year-olds can chatter. Being from a Christian school, tho, they were well-behaved. Chaperones and bus drivers were last. So we quickly finished eating and went outside to conclude our visit and get the photos taken. Afterward, John rode with us, while Tom drove himself back to Austin, where he was visiting (he lives near John in Kansas).

After photographing Lockhart’s classic courthouse on the square, we used Chuck’s GPS to take a zig-zag series of Farm to Market and/or Ranch Roads (as Texas designates what we’d call county highways) back to I-35 at Kyle, north of New Braunfels. (I collect “classic courthouse” slides, and own two books with photos of all Texas courthouses – all 254 counties! – and I may create a separate small courthouse photo file from this trip, should anyone care, in which case alert me) Kyle, on the ex-MoPac main and Eagle route, was Stop No. 2 on our “Weinstock Gourmet Glutton Tour,” aka Burp-Fest, a little place on Kyle’s main drag called the Texas Pie Company. After photographing a stopped UP freight, the depot, and the displayed caboose, we adjourned for pie, missing as we expected (and not caring) the southbound UP freight that UP 5897 North, an empty trilevel train, was awaiting (we heard it whistling from down the street). At the Texas Pie Co. (which will ship J, we each had $3 individual pies; Chuck treated, it being his idea. I chose lemon, but did not know to order it unheated. It was just a bit warm, not hot, and still tasty, but would’ve been better cold. Otto chose pecan, and the other two had strawberry rhubarb, to give you the full report.

From Kyle we toughed it out on I-35 through Austin to the north side to drop off John Arbuckle at his motel; he planned to continue his visit with relatives there at least one more day before riding the northbound Texas Eagle and Heartland Flyer to Oklahoma City to retrieve his auto and drive home to Hutchinson, Kans. From the motel, Otto, Chuck and I drove around an east belt line and south to the Austin airport to drop off Chuck for his flight to Pennsylvania. Then we continued on south and east, avoiding I-35, and wound up in Luling, Texas, on I-10, U.S. 90 (the old road), and the ex-SP Sunset Route east of San Antonio. The day remained cloudy, with a few showers. We were not far west of Luling when we spotted UP units 5800/4064, a two-unit DPU on an eastbound sand train, waiting for a westbound. The latter soon appeared, in a drizzle (first shot through our car windshield, on the shoulder of US 90), turning out to be the 8022/4313 West, a trilevel auto-rack train, which met the sand train at 4:20 p.m.

Taking advantage of our intent when we chose to leave Luling on US 90 instead of I-10, we gave chase to the sand train, which had units 7861/7812/7029 up front. We concluded the chase at 4:58 with one broadside against a brightening sky after our best ¾-angle shot, at the first grade crossing we found off 90 to the track.

After checking out, for Otto, a new roller coaster under construction at a park in Seguin (the reason for our routing), we drove on in to San Antonio, then, noting on old US 90 as we passed under the former Katy main line in the city’s east side, the street overpass still was labeled in white: “M-K-T Lines.” Auto traffic and lack of light obliged us to skip turning around to try a photo, however. On Friday morning we’d pass over this bridge on the northbound Texas Eagle. The next day, Thursday, was a non-train day, as Otto and I did laundry at the hotel, then left midday for an auto tour of the Hill Country to the west and northwest, on which I made a total of four photos (slides and digital), all courthouses. At the end of the day, Otto dropped me and our luggage off at the train, on which we’d sleep, and turned in the rental car. For two hours I sat and visited in the Caritas’s lounge, and UP did not run a single freight by on the adjacent Sunset Route main line until it was almost too dark for even digitals, when the six-unit westbound pictured below sauntered past at 7:35 p.m. behind units 6169 (SP “patch”) /8489/5600/7064/8935/7827.

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