Railfanning in the Southwest

by Dave Freshwater 

Grain in Amarillo 

The model railroad bug hadn’t bitten me again when I was last in Amarillo. So, on this trip, I was surprised, at first, by the number of grain elevators in the town and the surrounding area. I just missed them the last time I was there. Well, all the elevators still surprise me. I know that the area is ranch land. But I didn’t see much grain being grown. I’m still trying to figure out where all the grain comes from.

All the elevators meant that there were a lot more covered hoppers in Amarillo than I expected. That was just perfect with me since I’ve started building a covered hopper train since the N Scale Collectors convention. I have lots of grain and cement hopper prototypes to use for detailing and weathering projects.

I did stop and photograph one last train on the way to the airport. But having been gone from home for two weeks, I wasn’t unhappy about leaving all these trains and heading home. I got by the Chantilly show to get re-model railroad calibrated and headed back out to Albuquerque.