So among some of my family’s Christmas traditions is the annual trip down to visit family Brenham. While we go roughly four times each year, the Christmas visit is usually the best because there’s no school and it’s the longest of hour visits to the town known for Blue Bell.
Another reason that the trip to Brenham is fun is for the railfanning we usual do during that time. With the holiday season still going strong in the week after Christmas, the BNSF Galveston Subdivision is usually teaming with action.
This year was no exception.
The first full day we were there, we went downtown for a bit and immediately saw a train, which kind of snuck up on us thanks to the town’s new no train horn ordinance. It was a north-bound coal or rock train powering through town. Despite the fact I was caught out of position.
We got lucky the next day. Me and my brother went downtown for ice cream and then parked alongside the old Santa Fe depot in town and were lucky enough to catch a south-bound green light. Ten minutes or so later, a south-bound rock train rumbled through town. This time I was in the perfect spot for photos, with historic downtown and the depot behind the train. I was able to get a lot of interesting shots, especially long exposure shots to depict the speed of the train.
That was the last of the trains that we saw during our time, but we also made a short trip west to Burton and to their small outdoor railroad museum. There wasn’t a whole lot there, and certainly nothing that I haven’t seen before.
That being said, it’s still a pretty nice place given that it’s a small town and a town that doesn’t have a railroad running through it anymore. And it’s still a pretty neat FREE collection of stuff and definitely worth at least a quick visit.
Overall, this was yet another successful visit down to Brenham, both personally and photographically. Hopefully it’s a trend that continues.
