Sunday, March 11
Mar. 23rd, 2007 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariThis was a day we'd planned on since we hit Fredericksburg so late the other week. We were going to run down the old abandonned Fredericksburg and Northern Line.
I'm a huge Old Roads Fan, and one of the trips I took was following the old Alignment of Texas Highway #9, which eventually became US 385, which became US 87, which became Interstate 10. On this line was a railroad tunnel. My dad, being a railfan, wanted to go see it - and so began my fascination with the F&N.
Seeing as Emily is also a rail fan, I decided it was time to take her to see the line...
...problem is, the skies all day were REALLY REALLY REALLY ominous.
No matter - we made a beeline for Fredericksburg, getting there rather early in the afternoon. We got a much better look at the depot area (Although we forgot our depot maps), and began following the old railtoad track as much as we could. Not so much tracks, as it was cleared and landscaped areas.
Our mission? To hit every crossing of the F&N possible.
We didn't have an auspicious beginning...we learned well after the fact that once we left the depot area, we lost the trackage almost immediately, made a wrong turn, and saw a cleared drainage ditch as part of the track, which was actually to the east of us (I so need a portable version of Google Earth). We also skipped a crossing right off the bat (We were using 1940s maps to trace the track and never through that maybe there was, I dunno, URBAN GROWTH to take into account.
But once we left Fredericksburg, and made our way down the old highway, the crossings becma much clearer and easier to follow using the old maps, and the weather, while looking incredibly horrifyingly bad, never really got nasty on us.
We drove through the sleepy ghost towns of Cain City [MAP][INFO], Grapetown [MAP][INFO], Bankersmith [MAP][INFO], and Mount Alamo [MAP].
We got out at Mount Alamo to see the old Railroad Tunnel, now a sanctuary for Mexican Freetail Bats, none of whom were there at the time. The Railroad Tunnel was the one thing my father wanted to see on the trip up the old highway, and when we went in the mid 80s, there was no Wildlife Area, and no Parking. Just the tunnel, and we walked right up to it. It's been used for the cave area that Andrea walks into when she dies, with only minor photoshopping.
Since then, it's been turned into a Wildlife area, with a nice wooden overlook of the Block Creek Canyon that the tunnel is part of, an Immediately Behind the Tunnel area where researchers sit, and an amphitheater for watching the bats...which we found out you have to pay to watch. BOO. HISS. You have a donation box, use the donations.
Anyways, we continued down towards the tunnel and wildlife trail which is build on the railroad fill, where Emily educated me on all the cuts and fills that were done to maintain a smooth even grade for the railroad, including a washed out area that was made into a footbridge. At the end of the walkable track, the trail went off into the woods looping back to the tracks. It was a really enjoyable olittle side trip, and someplace I plan to defiantely go back (I'd never walked the trails before).
We got back in the truck, and continued to drive down the crossings, noticing that for it being so early in the day, the light was getting darker and darker, even with Daylight Savings Time in effect. When we hit Fredericksburg Junction [MAP] and Brownsboro, the skies were dark enough, despite the time, to make picture taking troublesome. We crossed under a still-existing railroad trestle which you can see in the map on the right.
At Brownsboro [MAP][INFO], it became very dark, and hard to see, and we heard our first peal of thunder. A big storm was coming in. I checked the radar on my Sidekick (I love Internet Anywhere) and sure enough, a cell was coming over us dead center. We got into Waring [MAP][INFO] and just after seeing the Waring Depot, the skies opened up and Emily got her first taste of a Texas Thunderstorm. Wouldn't be the last. Not even the last of the evening!
We did end up hitting Welfare [MAP][INFO] (Where we did see some old railroad trestling still...one picture, nearly totally black as the cell was right overhead)), Spanish Pass [MAP] and Boerne [MAP][INFO], but seriously, the rain was coming down so hard they weren't more than a blur of rain.
We decided to have dinner in Boerne, just a quick side trip to a Sonic, really. While we were there, though - KABOOM, yet ANTOHER stormcell flew overhead. We decided that with this weather, we'd just go home. We finished our dinners, waitied for the stormcell to pass and took off down TX 46 to head back home...
...where we overtook the storm we just let pass and dived right in, through, and beyond it AGAIN. We even got to drive into a flooded overpass that never floods. This was a monster storm, although we wouldn't know it until we got back to San Marcos. Flying around TX 46, we managed to outrace the storm, and get back into San Marcos.
Once we got back into the house, though...the storm we'd let pass, then passed up, came back and smacked us down HARD, dropping over SEVEN INCHES OF RAIN in a few hours over the city. Our creeks here flood when there's drizzle...the aftermath we saw days later included roads ripped up, railroad rails under repair and tons and tons and tons of closed roads everywhere.
The next day, the last of my vacation, was a planned to be a domestic day. Get groceries, prepare up for the next week of work, and re-educate Emily how to drive a stickshift....
I'm a huge Old Roads Fan, and one of the trips I took was following the old Alignment of Texas Highway #9, which eventually became US 385, which became US 87, which became Interstate 10. On this line was a railroad tunnel. My dad, being a railfan, wanted to go see it - and so began my fascination with the F&N.
Seeing as Emily is also a rail fan, I decided it was time to take her to see the line...
...problem is, the skies all day were REALLY REALLY REALLY ominous.
No matter - we made a beeline for Fredericksburg, getting there rather early in the afternoon. We got a much better look at the depot area (Although we forgot our depot maps), and began following the old railtoad track as much as we could. Not so much tracks, as it was cleared and landscaped areas.
Our mission? To hit every crossing of the F&N possible.
We didn't have an auspicious beginning...we learned well after the fact that once we left the depot area, we lost the trackage almost immediately, made a wrong turn, and saw a cleared drainage ditch as part of the track, which was actually to the east of us (I so need a portable version of Google Earth). We also skipped a crossing right off the bat (We were using 1940s maps to trace the track and never through that maybe there was, I dunno, URBAN GROWTH to take into account.
But once we left Fredericksburg, and made our way down the old highway, the crossings becma much clearer and easier to follow using the old maps, and the weather, while looking incredibly horrifyingly bad, never really got nasty on us.
We drove through the sleepy ghost towns of Cain City [MAP][INFO], Grapetown [MAP][INFO], Bankersmith [MAP][INFO], and Mount Alamo [MAP].
We got out at Mount Alamo to see the old Railroad Tunnel, now a sanctuary for Mexican Freetail Bats, none of whom were there at the time. The Railroad Tunnel was the one thing my father wanted to see on the trip up the old highway, and when we went in the mid 80s, there was no Wildlife Area, and no Parking. Just the tunnel, and we walked right up to it. It's been used for the cave area that Andrea walks into when she dies, with only minor photoshopping.
Since then, it's been turned into a Wildlife area, with a nice wooden overlook of the Block Creek Canyon that the tunnel is part of, an Immediately Behind the Tunnel area where researchers sit, and an amphitheater for watching the bats...which we found out you have to pay to watch. BOO. HISS. You have a donation box, use the donations.
Anyways, we continued down towards the tunnel and wildlife trail which is build on the railroad fill, where Emily educated me on all the cuts and fills that were done to maintain a smooth even grade for the railroad, including a washed out area that was made into a footbridge. At the end of the walkable track, the trail went off into the woods looping back to the tracks. It was a really enjoyable olittle side trip, and someplace I plan to defiantely go back (I'd never walked the trails before).
We got back in the truck, and continued to drive down the crossings, noticing that for it being so early in the day, the light was getting darker and darker, even with Daylight Savings Time in effect. When we hit Fredericksburg Junction [MAP] and Brownsboro, the skies were dark enough, despite the time, to make picture taking troublesome. We crossed under a still-existing railroad trestle which you can see in the map on the right.
At Brownsboro [MAP][INFO], it became very dark, and hard to see, and we heard our first peal of thunder. A big storm was coming in. I checked the radar on my Sidekick (I love Internet Anywhere) and sure enough, a cell was coming over us dead center. We got into Waring [MAP][INFO] and just after seeing the Waring Depot, the skies opened up and Emily got her first taste of a Texas Thunderstorm. Wouldn't be the last. Not even the last of the evening!
We did end up hitting Welfare [MAP][INFO] (Where we did see some old railroad trestling still...one picture, nearly totally black as the cell was right overhead)), Spanish Pass [MAP] and Boerne [MAP][INFO], but seriously, the rain was coming down so hard they weren't more than a blur of rain.
We decided to have dinner in Boerne, just a quick side trip to a Sonic, really. While we were there, though - KABOOM, yet ANTOHER stormcell flew overhead. We decided that with this weather, we'd just go home. We finished our dinners, waitied for the stormcell to pass and took off down TX 46 to head back home...
...where we overtook the storm we just let pass and dived right in, through, and beyond it AGAIN. We even got to drive into a flooded overpass that never floods. This was a monster storm, although we wouldn't know it until we got back to San Marcos. Flying around TX 46, we managed to outrace the storm, and get back into San Marcos.
Once we got back into the house, though...the storm we'd let pass, then passed up, came back and smacked us down HARD, dropping over SEVEN INCHES OF RAIN in a few hours over the city. Our creeks here flood when there's drizzle...the aftermath we saw days later included roads ripped up, railroad rails under repair and tons and tons and tons of closed roads everywhere.
The next day, the last of my vacation, was a planned to be a domestic day. Get groceries, prepare up for the next week of work, and re-educate Emily how to drive a stickshift....
