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As a volunteer at the Galveston Railroad Museum, I have been invited to come along as a passenger on their upcoming special train from Galveston to Bellville, TX (and return) via Rosenberg.
This train is a kind of "dry run" for a possible hurricane evacuation scenario. Hurricane Ike devastated the museum's collection back in 2008, so for the past few years emergency preparations have centered around the idea that in the event another major hurricane threatens the Museum will hook all of its equipment that is capable of running up to its own locomotives and haul it off the island to a safe parking location 25 or 30 miles inland. In order to pull this off the Museum has been doing more than simply putting on fresh paint; for those exhibits that are capable of operating they are greasing axle bearings, testing brakes, and performing the other maintenance that the host railroad requires to run in a "hospital train".
This excursion coming up on September 19th is kind of a dry run for familiarization although they are not running the freight and other exhibits. The rolling stock will be the Museum's two "Warbonnet" engines; actually two ex-SP F7 units which were repainted into the ATSF Warbonnet paint scheme (under license from BNSF). They have been rebuilt with new prime movers and HEP generators to replace the old train-line steam units. Passenger cars will be two Budd-built ex-Pennsylvania/Amtrak coaches and a Budd ex-ATSF/Amtrak diner. All of this equipment is Amtrak certified and will be operated by an Amtrak crew with a BNSF pilot.
While the trip is not open to the public, if anyone out there wants to come down to trackside and snap some photos of the classic equipment, here is the published timetable:
O-GALGAL2-19 208 miles 0900 DP Galveston 1045 AR Rosenberg; board BNSF guests 1100 DP Rosenberg 1215 AR Bellville; change ends 1230 DP Bellville 1345 AR Rosenberg, BNSF guests detrain 1400 DP Rosenberg 1600 AR Galveston
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