22-03-17 PHOTOS: TexRail

For all of its car culture and highway building sprees, the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex has some pretty comprehensive rail transit. Not only does Dallas have the fairly expansive DART light rail system and a pair of streetcar routes, but there is also a traditional commuter line to Fort Worth and two DMU based rail lines that connect Denton to Dallas and Fort Worth to Grapevine/DFW Airport. The latter, known as TexRail, opened in 2019 and in the spring of 2022 I was given an opportunity to ride it. Other topics covered in this photo set ( mirror ) include some general DART and Dallas Union Station stuff as well as TRE and the Fort Worth Intermodal Transportation Center.

Arriving in from Love Field via a DART Orange Line train on LRV #163 seen here at the St. Paul St station. The city was much emptier than pre-COVID and like many other cities transit ridership had collapsed.

The next morning I headed to Union Station to catch the TRE commuter line to Fort Worth. F59PH #121 was hanging out with a typically short TRE consist.

I went to go get some breakfast a diner across the street and when I returned #121 had been replaced by #124 and an eastbound Union Pacific freight was passing through through with ES44AC #5515 leading and AC4400 #6457 behind.

Even in the spring of 2022, in Texas, COVID safety theatre was still a thing with a chain keeping people away from the cab car cab and thus preventing any photos being taken out the front or back.

While passing through Mockingbird yard my TRE train encountered a Dallas, Garland and Northeastern Railroad RP20BD genset.

Although the terminal for TRE and TexRail is at the more downtown Texas and Pacitic Station, I got off at the newer intermodal transportation center as there was simply more there to see and do. TexRail makes use of eight Stadler DMU trainsets with 4 coach sections and one central power unit. Although FRA "complaint", and thus able to run on the same tracks as TRE, TexRail trainsets make use of semi-high platforms and require a separate berthing area as can be seen with #108 here.

Here TRE F59PH #124 and cab car #1006 pull past the TexRail half high platform while proceeding to the T&P Station. Trains en-route to the T&P Station get a flashing yellow Advance Approach signal in advance of a yellow over flashing red signal Approach Restricting. Out of sight around the curve is a flashing red Restricting signal into T&P's two station tracks.



The Fort Worth Central station is adjacent to the BNSF Fort Worth and UP Choctaw Subdivisions and while I was there a northbound BNSF freight led by AC4400 #5710 and ES44AC #5922 rolled by.

Forth Worth is also the terminal for Amtrak's daily Hartland Flyer service to Oklahoma City and therefore hosts a spare P42DC locomotive. That day #37 was the unit on call.

Because of the special platform, TexRail trainsets are limited to using track #1 while TRE uses both tracks 1 and 2. As I waited eastbound signals were displayed on both tracks for a parallel TexRail and TRE departure. Mid-Day TRE ridership was actually pretty robust.

TexRail operates an hourly service with some half-hourly infill during the AM and PM peak periods and a 2 hour gap between 1:30 and 3:30am. I had timed my trip to catch the tail end of the half-hourly service with a second westbound arrival featuring #101 being my reward. Fort Worth Central also sees Amtrak's Texas Eagle, which uses track 2 in the foreground while the Hartland Flyer uses the Auxiliary Track to the right of the photo in order to reach the BNSF Fort Worth Sub.

The inter-modal Central Station sports a sizable bus bay as well as Greyhound service.

It was soon time for me to board #101 after it returned from T&P Station.

The cab ends were of the bulkhead variety making the ride nearly useless from a content perspective. The 27 mile line has 9 stations and a 70mph maximum speed.

The line is completely new with the vast majority using a dedicated right of way that flies over conflicting freight tracks. Here my train passes Union pacific SD40N's #1881 and 1986 at Fort Worth Yard on the Duncan Sub.

The TexRail line also flies above the Fort Worth and Western RR's Hodge Shoppes and yard complex. The FWWR has a fairly sizable roster of GP38's, SD40's and GP50's, many of which were in the yard as I passed.

TexRail also hosts the Grapevine Railroad in addition to FWWR freight service. The Grapevine RR appears to be the Dallas-Fort Worth area's premier tourist railroad and quite a few people were taking TexRail to reach it. The Grapevine RR's go to motive power is a GP7u rebuild.

I was also surprised to find a number of CDoT Budd SPV's on the Grapevine RR's storage track!

The massive DFW Airport has 6 terminals divided into east and west groupings divided by a central access highway. The TexRail station is located at the north end of the western group of 3 terminals. Here we find trainsets #101 and #107 laying over at DFW.

After a brief layover #107 departed westbound en route to Fort Worth.

My plan was to transfer to the DART Orange Line to get back to downtown Dallas. To achieve this the airport had provided a quarter mile covered walkway to reach the light rail station. Along the way UPS MD-11F #N285UP passed by on one of the adjacent taxiways.

DART LRV #180 at the DFW Orange Line terminal. This station opened in 2014. Previously DFW was served by a shuttlebus to the Centerport TRE station. While the one seat ride is nice, the DART line is much slower than TRE, taking ~50 minutes to get downtown.

I made it back in time to head to Union Station to catch the westbound Texas Eagle. While waiting I found TRE Bombardier Coffin Car #1005 and DART LRVs #255 and #111 at Union Station.

I forget how on time the Eagle was, but Amtrak P42DC #63 was leading as seen here in front of the Hyatt Regency Dallas Reunion Hotel.

Walking towards the central business district I caught DART LRV's #180 and #133 passing at West End Station.

Finally here are photos of DART LRV's #242 and #236 at the Pearl Ave Arts District station. The 164 Kinki Sharyo SLRV's used by DART are notable for their retention of physical roll type destination signs and sealed beam headlights, both square and round. The LRV's entered service in 1996 and were rebuilt into the SLRV configuration with new center sections between 2008 and 2010.

Well I hope you enjoyed taking the circle route to Fort Worth and back. in future years I'll be looking to finish up riding the Green Line and finally catch the other DMU service to Denton.