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The battleship USS Texas, nicknamed “The Mighty T”, sits in her berth as a museum ship near Houston.
The bow of the wreck of the SS Selma—a 425-foot-long experimental concrete ship built in 1919 and sunk in 1922—rises from the waters of Texas’ Galveston Bay.
Waves lap against a piece of driftwood washed ashore a beach on the north end of Galveston Island, Texas, as ships transit Bolivar Roads in the background.
The battleship USS Texas, nicknamed “The Mighty T”, sits in her berth as a museum ship near Houston, prior to be towed to nearby Galveston for major repairs in 2022.
Structural detail of the underside of the 135-foot-tall, 152-foot-wide Sidney Sherman Bridge, which carries Interstate 610 over the Houston Ship Channel.
The bulk carrier Skywalker—undoubtedly named by a Star Wars fan—lies docked in the Port of Houston, Texas.
Tankers await their turn to enter the Port of Houston as the sun rises over the Gulf of Mexico just off the shore of Galveston, Texas.
Ships transit Bolivar Roads just off the coast of Galveston, Texas, as the sun rises over the Gulf of Mexico.
The PTRA's Coke Job is a unique move. It shuttles petroleum coke between Lyondell Basell's refinery and Kinder Morgan's Deepwater Terminal export facility, both on the south side of the Houston Ship Channel. Although it once ran in daylight, in mid-2020 this became an overnight turn job.
Here, one of Kinder Morgan's three SD40-2's handles a train of empties all by itself as it rolls west at Pasadena Jct on UP's Strang Sub.
PTRA Job #243 (Lyondell Basell to Kinder Morgan Deer Park & return)
KMTX SD40-2 #3000
Pasadena, TX
May 22nd, 2020
Basking in the last rays of sun, a PTRA yard job pulls up to Manchester Jct to get head room outside of Manchester Yard, which is a little to the east of here.
PTRA Manchester Yard Job
PTRA GP38-2 #2209
GMTX GP38-2 #2300
Houston, TX
January 22nd, 2022
I don't think I've ever seen paint so fresh or so shiny. Heck, there's still shop dust on the trucks, a barcode sticker on the knuckle, and the bell is still wrapped in packing tape!
This 12/2020 built GEVO came to life at GE/Wabtec's Fort Worth plant and will be exported here from the Port of Houston to the Cerrejón Railway, a 100 mile mine-to-port railroad in northeast Colombia.
GECX ES44AC #1025
Houston, TX
February 8th, 2021
With the little yard switcher leading the big GE, a Houston Port Terminal Railroad Association yard job swings around the big curve at North Booth on its way to cross Buffalo Bayou and enter the PTRA's North Yard.
PTRA Job #235
PTRA MK1500D #9602
UP C44AC #6534
Houston, TX
December 24th, 2020
A matched pair of ex-MoPac, non-dynamic GP38's rest for the night on UP's Seabrook Industrial lead, the former SP main to Galveston, in the far eastern reaches of the Port of Houston. While UP 653 is still in its 1977 as-built form, UP 800 was rebuilt and repainted in December 2018 into a GP38N featuring a new control system, rewired electrical system, and a remanufactured engine.
LHU20
UP GP38N #800
UP GP38-2 #653
Bayport, TX
January 27th, 2021
There is nowhere that fueled my childhood love of the Railroad nearly as much as Pasadena, Texas did from about the time I was 6 to when I left Texas for Virginia at 18. The nonstop action, sounds, and hustle & bustle that would ring across Houston's own port city 24/7 was enough for any young railfan to need go nowhere else.
Myself and several other Houston railfans' favorite operation in town was Kinder-Morgan's Coke shuttle over the old SP which prior to 2020 ran in the late afternoon across Pasadena before becoming a very early morning job before finally being cut off altogether last week with the closing of Lyondell-Bassel's Pasadena refinery that sourced K-M's Coke. The familiar low warbling of double 645s pulling across the prefectly flat Buffalo Bayou basin always told that the K-M was somewhere near.
While visiting home back in January, I made 2 outings back to Pasadena to shoot the Coke transfer, operating as PTRA Job 143. In the first of these two outings, 143 is seen from Pasadena Jct. across from PTRA's Pasadena Yard at daybreak crawling west towards the Lyondell Plant with an iconic Pasadena backdrop.
A pair of former MoPac GP38's rest on UP's Seabrook Industrial Lead near Bayport in the eastern reaches of the Port of Houston.
LHU20
UP GP38N #800
UP GP38-2 #653
Bayport, TX
January 27th, 2021
The Battleship TEXAS (BB-35) underway from her former home in La Porte, TX to a dry dock in Galveston, Tx. As part of her escort the Port of Houston joined in with one of their fire boats (FIRE BOAT 3).
The Battleship TEXAS served in both World War 1 and World War 2 and is the last surviving dreadnought.
UP has been holding onto one of the Tier 4 SD70ACe leasers in the port of Houston for the better part of early 2021. Here, that very unit winds through the industrial east side of Houston with a cut of tank cars and plastics on a local that works some of the chemical plants.
LHU27 01
EMDX SD70ACe-T4 #7209
La Porte, TX
February 1st, 2021
The Vanuatu registered bulker, Ace Century makes it's final turn into the Houston Ship Channel as the day's last light fades away.
A duo of Santa Fe painted SD40's hang out in Booth Yard along the Port of Houston. The engineer can be seen taking a nap by the window while waiting for traffic to clear ahead.
BNSF Yard Job
BNSF SD40-2 #1629
BNSF SD40-2 #1617
Houston, TX
March 15th, 2014
Under a big, blue Texas sky, a yard job for the Port Terminal Railroad Authority passes Booth Yard near the western reaches of the Port of Houston. In just another two miles the train will reach its destination of North Yard.
PTRA 9614 was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad as GP7 PRR 8503 in August 1952. It was renumbered to PRR 5883, then later to PC 5853 and CR 5853. Eventually, Conrail traded the locomotive into EMD and it would later be sold to Morrison-Knudsen for rebuild, emerging as PTRA 9614 in September 1996.
PTRA Job #235
PTRA MK1500D #9614
PTRA MK1500D #9615
Houston, TX
April 20th, 2021
100 feet and nearly 70 years separate these locomotives at Greens Port in east Houston. An October 1951 built SW9 for the Atlantic Coast Line pulls a cut of cars in the distance as an December 2020 built ES44AC waits to be shoved by that very SW9 to the docks for export. The GEVO was built in Fort Worth and is being sent via the Port of Houston to the Cerrejón Railway, a mine to port railroad in northeast Colombia.
WAMX SW9 #915
GECX ES44AC #1025
Houston, TX
February 8th, 2021
After waiting for an opposing UP train, BNSF's Houston 283 Job is ready to roll timetable northward on UP's Strang Subdivision in the Port of Houston.
Y HOU2832 18T (Yard Transfer- PTRA Pasadena Yard to Dayton, TX)
BNSF SD70ACe #9127
BNSF SD70ACe #9059
Pasadena, TX
May 18th, 2020
Shortly after leaving their North Yard, a PTRA yard transfer rolls past the old Gulf Coast Portland Cement Co silos at UP's Booth Yard.
The GMTX leasers up front are new to the PTRA, set to supplant the port railroad's fleet of unique Morrison-Knudsen switchers (one of which is 3rd out here).
PTRA Job #335
PTRA GP38-2 #2212
PTRA GP38-2 #2224
PTRA MK1500D #9605
Houston, TX
November 23rd, 2021
Running all by itself, one of Kinder Morgan's SD40's is returning to Lyondell Basell's refinery to load up on petroleum coke to take to Kinder Morgan's facility for export.
PTRA Job #243 (Lyondell Basell to Kinder Morgan Deer Park & return)
KMTX SD40-2 #3000
Pasadena, TX
May 22nd, 2020
After switching out BASF's plastics facility, a mother-slug set of GATX Geeps put their train back together on the PTRA Pasadena District.
PTRA Job #233
GMTX GP38-2 #2339
GMTX Slug (former GP40) #959
Pasadena, TX
May 22nd, 2020
After the dispatcher informed them of an impromptu pick-up at Booth Siding ("You have got to be kidding me"), UP 9091 now has an extra locomotive and 15 cars on the head-end of its train as it crosses Brays Bayou shortly before the waterway joins the Houston Ship Channel.
MEWSRB 24 (Manifest- Englewood Yard [Houston] to Strang Yard [La Porte, TX], Second Train)
UP SD70AH #9091
UP C44ACCTE #5907
Houston, TX
December 24th, 2020
BNSF's Pasadena to Dayton transfer run catches the last rays of sun on the connection between UP's Strang Sub and UP's Harrisburg Sub. This track had its alignment shifted a year or so ago when UP added a second track through Manchester Jct behind me. The track curves back to its original alignment in the distance.
Y HOU2832 18T (Yard Transfer- PTRA Pasadena Yard to Dayton, TX)
BNSF SD70ACe #9127
BNSF SD70ACe #9059
Houston, TX
May 18th, 2020
With a fairly clean AC6000 rebuild up front, the Englewood to Strang Yard manifest (that works at the PTRA's yards along the way) sits just outside Strang Yard with more than 2 miles of train behind him.
MEWPT 29 (Manifest- Englewood Yard to Houston PTRA)
UP C44ACM #7014
UP SD70ACe #8806
La Porte, TX
January 31st, 2021
Right at sunrise, a pair of SD40N's waits to start their duties at the chemical plants of Bayport at the eastern reaches of the Port of Houston.
LHU24 07
UP SD40N #1864
UP SD40N #1804
Bayport, TX
August 8th, 2019
A BNSF yard transfer out of the Port of Houston ducks out of the shadows as it leaves UP's Strang Sub at Manchester Jct.
Y HOU2832 18T (Yard Transfer- PTRA Pasadena Yard to Dayton, TX)
BNSF SD70ACe #9127
BNSF SD70ACe #9059
Houston, TX
May 18th, 2020
With two sharp Morrison Knudsen rebuilds working hard, a North Yard-bound PTRA job swings around the big curve on UP's Strang Sub at Manchester Jct.
In the time waiting for the train to get here, I got to play with some neighborhood dogs that came up and said hi. Cute, and friendly.
PTRA Job #235
PTRA MK1500D #9614
PTRA MK1500D #9615
Houston, TX
April 20th, 2021
BNSF 2544 leads a long string of plastic pellet hoppers through Sinco Jct on UP's Strang Subdivision in the Port of Houston.
YHOU2892 20T (Yard Transfer- PTRA Pasadena Yard to BNSF New South Yard)
BNSF GP39-3 #2544
BNSF GP50 #3177
Pasadena, TX
May 20th, 2020
While trying to fix a brake issue with the second unit, UP 2666 sits in the siding at Booth while the dispatcher lines other trains around it. In the distance are cranes on vessels in the Houston Ship Channel.
MSREW 21 (Manifest- Strang Yard [La Porte, TX] to Englewood Yard [Houston])
UP C45AH #2666
UP C44AC #6846
Houston, TX
December 22nd, 2021
Waiting for an outbound crew to take it back towards the Midwest, BNSF 3927 waits at Pasadena Jct in the Port of Houston.
U DPKADM7 01A (Unit Ethanol Empties- Deer Park, TX to Archer Daniels Midland [Columbus, NE])
BNSF ET44C4 #3927
BNSF ES44C4 #8256
BNSF ET44C4 #3976
Pasadena, TX
April 1st, 2020
On its way to their North Yard, the Port Terminal Railroad Authority's 264 Job rounds the curve at Manchester Jct on UP's Strang Subdivision.
PTRA Job #264
PTRA MK1500D #9624
PTRA MK1500D #9614
Houston, TX
May 20th, 2020
View from the top of San Jacinto Monument near La Porte, Texas. This is the view toward Houston, with the Port of Houston toward the front.