My son sent me a photo of this neat trestle in Burnet, TX. I plan to use it as a prototype for one I'm going to scratch build. I'm curious if anyone knows which RR owns and uses it? It's located at 244 S Westfall St, Burnet, TX. I tried to copy/paste from Google Maps, but failed....:tb-sad:
That is the old SP (T&NO) line north out of Austin. The City of Austin owns it but leases it to the Austin Steam Train Group and a Watco short line , the Austin Western Railroad.
I believe I have a picture or two of that trestle taken while riding a steam train backing around the wye. I will try to find them. The line from Austin to Burnet to Llano with spur to Marble Falls was built by Austin and Northwestern, became part of SP/T&NO. The main track of the branch bypasses just to the south of the town of Burnet, and Burnet depot is accessed by the tail of a wye. Find the depot track running north and south in downtown Burnet and follow it south to the wye. You should find the trestle on one leg and/or through track of the wye.
Thanks Russ and Ken. The trestle looks to be in good repair, so I assume the City of Austin is at least breaking even between maintenance costs and lease revenues. It's good to see that the Steam Train runs every weekend and that the Austin Western has ~11,000 carloads a year. I hope this keeps up, and can expand.
YOUR trestle appears to be about a quarter mile east of the Burnet wye east switch, at a location Goggle Earth identifies as 30 degrees 44' 52.75" N; 98 degrees 12' 54.80" W. There is a 360 degree view at that point. I hunted up my pictures, taken in 1993. They show little short trestle overpasses, one on each west end leg of the wye. Apparently I photographed one while traveling in the train over the other, and then when the train reversed directions to back up the wye, I went to the other side of the car and photographed the one on which I had just been. These are at 30 degrees 44' 54.84 N; 98 degrees 13' 22.21W, at a location identified as South Boundary and Valley Street-- with a 360 degree view looking under one underpass to the other.
One last bit of information about Burnet. The pronunciation. I had a friend who lived in that community and he edumacated me about the pronunciation. Some people pronounce it "burr-NET' " My friend said accent should be on the first syllable- "BURN'-it." And here is how he said I had better remember it: "It's BURN-et, durn it! LEARN it!"
