We pulled into the station in Alpine a few minutes early and pulled up short letting the smokers hop out the back while some in the front offloaded. I waited until we pulled up further, but we were still a ways short of the small platform. The last time I talked to (my ride) David … Read more
By 8:30 my breakfast was over and we were passing Laughlin Air Force Base. We had a very brief stop in Del Rio, the “Queen City of the Rio Grande”. The cigarette fiends didn’t even get to finish them. The train comes fairly close to the Rio Grande here. Ciudad Acuna is just across … Read more
Close to 2:00 in the morning we were approaching San Antonio. We went through a large exchange yard on the outskirts, and then came to a stop in the station along several sets of parallel tracks where we jockeyed to add two cars to the train. We sat idle for a while alongside another train … Read more
Along the route today we saw the small Rio Grande (granted, it was below the Amistad Reservoir), and then passed the impressive Pecos river. To make the Pecos even more impressive, the bridge we went over on was for many years the highest span in the United States. The Pecos High Bridge: video of the … Read more
As I sit in the waiting area of the Houston Amtrak station just after 9pm, a wide variety of life is dribbling through the front door. Young, old; couples, singles; white, black, brown. A few families with kids are in the mix. The TV blerts out programming, and overwhelms the meek voice that comes from … Read more
One of my volunteer sidelines is producing the sound for the Houston Roller Derby. It’s a lot of work, but usually only one day a month for about half the year. I have the microphones coded with colors and try to give the same ones to the regular announcers just so I don’t have to … Read more