Dudleys Diary

they got the majority of it built a few weekends ago. Since then, Dudley's father in law has enclosed the end and installed a door and put on a tin roof. He also sealed and painted the wood. The only thing left to do is put some carpet on the floor. They are going back to East TX this weekend to load it onto a trailer and take it down to the farm and set it up. There was a great baseball game on last night with the Rangers beating the Rays 5 to 1. The Rangers are now going to play the Yankees in the ALCS. Dudley has been a Ranger fan for 39 years. Frank and Jeff drove up to DFW airport this morning and were there at 2:45 AM when the Rangers jet landed. They were there to cheer on the team along with about 2000 other fans. Frank said they watched the owners, managers, coaches and all the players disembark the plane. He got to high five Vlad Guerrero who was one of the heroes of last nights game scoring one of the five runs. He did not get home till almost five this morning and slept a couple of hours and then went to work and is mowing yards all day. Dudley was tempted to go with him and cheer on the team but Dudley is getting too old for those kind of adventures. Better to leave that to the 21 year olds.

for a few hours. Saw three freight trains and an Amtrak passenger train. The freights were all grain trains with two locomotives on the front and a single locomotive on the rear with I would guess over one hundred covered hopper cars in between. Two of the freights were on the BNSF line and the third on the UP line. One of the BNSF freights had a Canadian Pacific locomotive on the front, it was a long way from home. The UP had and old Southern Pacific "Black Widow" paint scheme locomotive which are always neat to see. It was a nice way to spend a few hours. Also went to the A&W Root Beer Stand and got a root beer. It does not get much better than that. The Rangers are playing the Rays tonight in gave five. It is do or die time and with Cliff Lee pitching, the Rangers stand a good chance of winning and moving on to the ALCS against the Yankees. Go Rangers!

for a while. Saw a couple of unusual trains in addition to the usual freight traffic. The first was a BNSF locomotive pulling five or six old stainless steel passenger cars from the glory era of rail travel. You can see part of this train in the first two photos above. I guess they were moving these cars for some reason. I don't think they had any passengers on board but am not absolutely certain of that. I talked to a rail fan that arrived later and told him about the train and he wished he had been there to see it. He said it sounded like passenger cars used for railroad executives to travel on and for special excursion passenger trains. The second interesting train was a BNSF track renewal train. It was just heading in for the evening. There were three workers riding on this train but it looked like they were through working for the day. I saw a video on You Tube of one of these trains in operation. It is a sight to see as it picks up the rail as it moves along and has claw arms that reach down and pull out the old railroad ties and sets them aside and then replaces them with brand new ties and then sets the rails back down. It must drive new spikes in as well to hold the rails in place. Dudley is excited to see the Rangers win the first two games of the series with Tampa Bay. Frank has tickets to the games on Saturday and Sunday if needed. Go Rangers! It looks like the AL Championship series may be the Rangers vs the Yankees. The Yankees have won the first two games against the Twins. I think the Rangers may very well be able to beat the Yankees this time around. If so the Rangers will be in the World Series for the first time. Dudley signed up today for a lottery to have the opportunity to purchase tickets to the World Series if the Rangers make it. For Dudley to be able to attend a World Series game with the Rangers playing would be a dream come true. Dudley and a lot of Ranger fans have been waiting for a very long time.

this afternoon. He went up to Saginaw, TX and parked in the parking lot of the Chamber of Commerce. It is located in an old depot that was moved up here and restored. Dudley saw an Amtrak passenger train first and then a freight train came through. The freight train had six big army tanks on flat cars painted in desert colors. They were probably headed somewhere in the middle east. Dudley tried to take a photo as they rolled by but Dudley's camera locked up and it flashed a message the memory was full. What bad timing, by the time Dudley cleared it, the tanks were out of sight. Oh well, Dudley plans on going back. It is not all that far from where Dudley lives and it is a great place to spend a few hours.

and it sure is nice to have wheels again. The truck looks and drives great. They Rhinolined the whole truck bed and washed and waxed the truck. Dudley went by the bank and the convenience store to by some Lottery tickets. Dudley is home alone today, Dudley's wife and daughter are at a party and Frank went with Jeff to East Texas to build a deer stand down at the farm. Dudley is going to watch the Texas OU football game this afternoon. Dudley is pissed the TCU game is not being televised. Will probably watch the Rangers tonight. They lost a close a close game yesterday.