Well, I was out on my usual outing - after dropping the kids off at school, I decided to swing by Jacksonville Amtrak Station to see if anything was lined up. I got out the car and looked up toward the signal where I see a red, dang.. I just missed a train. As I walked by to my car, I noticed a tour bus pulling up to the station, I thought to myself "well, must not know when Amtrak comes along these parts" I chuckled to myself, then heard the scanner come alive and hear.. "Amtrak 306, Approach into Jacksonville Out" Well, needless to say, I get in my car and drove up the road, thinking to myself..what the heck is an F40PH doing way out here?! To my surprise and SHOCK, it was the Talgo test train on it's North America tour.
I jumped out of my car, fired off a couple shots, not knowing if they came out or not and raced back to the Amtrak station, getting out of my car and noticing a few of the people from the tour bus looking over at my direction, probably wondering what the heck is this guy doing. It looked quite strange snaking into the passenger tracks
Meanwhile - over my own excitement, I thought about what I heard from previous statements about the Cascades Talgo set and how fast they accelrate.. me being gullible me, I decided for one last picture and go a couple miles ahead and get an overpass shot of the train. Of course, about the time I got to the head end of the train... I heard to short blasts of the horn, followed by the locomotives QUICKLY accelrating... traction motors humming right along.
Needless to say... I lost the train, but I still heard him tripping the detectors ahead of me, I wouldn't have guessed it, but I am sure the train was doing 79mph at the first crossing out of Jacksonville. An hour later, I finally caught up to him, after he was held for a freight local and a couple test stops. After that, he was gone...
When the train accelerated by me, I never seen anything short of a light power move move so quickly, but I was a happy foamer after that, hope we get the trainset here!
Brian E. Bundridge
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