McAllen or Laredo Texas

Which is a better railfan city, Laredo TX or McAllen TX? Where is there more rail traffic? Do both have border crossings or just Laredo? Which may have hotels by the tracks?

Laredo, absolutely. It's the main gateway on the UP and KCS to/from Mexico. McAllen sees about 4 trains a day, all run by shortlines. It would be good to photograph vintage power though. The driving time from McAllen to Laredo is about 3 hrs, so you could do both in a day. Problem is, there's no guarantee you're going to see anything in McAllen at all.

Only Laredo has a border crossing; the next [and last] one south is Brownsville. Traffic is way down, like everywhere else, though.

Well what I am planning is taking RT59 to RT77 to RT83 from Houston to McAllen. Then RT83 to Laredo. Do you think this could be done in a day with stops only in Corpus Christi, McAllen and Laredo? But I will shoot for Laredo now as the ending point.

Corpus, as we call it, will call for a slight deviation off of US 77 South. From Corpus, go back to US 77 [on I-37] and go down to Harlingen, where you'll pick up US 83 heading to McAllen. BTW, you'll be paralleling the UP's Brownsville Sub for quite a bit of the way on 77. If you have a scanner, monitor 160.74.[You might see one of the Rio Valley Switching Company's green and white units in Harlingen. To check that, exit in Harlingen on US Bus. 77, and follow it south about a mile. It runs right by the Harlingen Yard, and RVSC stuff will be on the north end of it.] Harlingen to McAllen is about 30 minutes, and your exit in McAllen will be Bus. 83, which follows the RVSC line through town. It's pretty dilapidated!

From McAllen to Laredo, it's the shortline Border Pacific RR, which terminates in Rio Grande City. You might catch a unit or two in RGC; they mimic UP's paint scheme. Between Rio Grande City and Laredo--nada! Do the posted 70 MPH where it's allowed, and you'll be up in Laredo in no time!

Your itinerary is ambitious for one day. Leave very early in the morning from Houston to accomplish it all in daylight!

Altamont Press puts out a Texas Timetable. You will find that very helpful.

Rockingham Racer wrote:Your itinerary is ambitious for one day. Leave very early in the morning from Houston to accomplish it all in daylight!

Well our driving is very crazy. made it from Topeka, Kansas to Colorado Springs, CO in 10 hours all in daylight. That was ourt third day of travel from Boston.

On the route up to San Antonio, is the railroad parralleling the road rt 35?

I ended up not going to MCAllen but rather Corpus Christie to Laredo. I saw some KCS trains around Corpus Christie. In Laredo I did not see any trains except for what looked like a black ALCO. If anyone on here knows what this engine was that was sitting on a siding behind a fence, that would be great. Then I took RT 35 but at night. Dramtic watching KCS and UP trains light up the night.