2/24 – A ride with CSO-3

OK, now that things are settling down a bit, I can catch up on some of this stuff. Back on February 24th I rode with the crew of Connecticut Southern Railroad train CSO-3. It was a long day, but thankfully there was bright blue skies as we switched out the inbound traffic in Hartford yard. A bit later in the day, just before dusk, the train wrapped things up and worked Murphy Road Recycling. Because we were in the yard so long, I got a chance to get off and get some shots of the conductor, Rob, in action. All in all, it was a good day. Hey, sunshine and trains, what more could I ask for? Oh, yeah, and there was a couple displays of good old Yankee ingenuity to keep things rolling along. Keep reading for that part…

I got to East Hartford for the 7am report time and met Allan the engineer in the parking lot. Just then the conductor, Rob, pulled in and introductions went around – Rob was relatively new to the CSO. So into the office we went – I got my gear ready, and Rob began getting the paperwork ready for the day’s work.

A little while later, we headed out to the yard to load our gear onto the locomotive we’d be using today – affectionately called “Barney.” The EMD GP-38 sports the Goderich-Exeter Railway’s purple and silver scheme, lending it the nickname (the GEXR is a part of RailAmerica, parent road to the CSO and NECR, so power is shared amongst them quite often).

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6344] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6343]

Since the unit has an APU installed, she needed to be started. So Allan and Rob went around preparing to fire up the EMD.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6342] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6341]

As they were getting ready to turn the diesel over, I walked in the cab to get a couple interior shots.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6340] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6339]

After getting the unit started, they kept looking inside the hood at the prime mover.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6338]

Apparently the governor kept on popping, preventing the unit from coming out of idle. Oh, well, I guess we won’t be riding Barney today after all. So we gathered our gear and moved to an adjacent unit – one of the CSOs tried and true GE B39-8s.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6337]

This time we walked into a (quite) warm cab, as the GEs don’t have APUs, and need to idle constantly in the winter months.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6336]

As the guys prepared to head out with the one unit, I grabbed a shot of Barney from the rear door of the GE

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6335]

Soon after that we were on our way to Hartford.

As we crossed over the river, I got a pretty cool shot of the Hartford skyline reflected in the icy Connecticut River

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6334]

The first task of the day was to switch out the inbound traffic that was sitting in Hartford yard. Instead of a boring blow by blow here (moved x cars from track x to track y…), here’s a few shots of the action.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6333] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6332] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6331] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6330] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6329] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6328] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6327] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6326] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6325] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6324] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6323] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6322]

But then something was up. One of the hitches they attempted to make, the couplers bypassed, and the cut bar on a flat car was bent. Here comes the Yankee ingenuity part – after doing some more switching, Allan & Rob bent the bar back into position – well, as close as they could get it – so the drawbar could be moved back into position, and the pin could drop, locking the knuckle in place.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6321] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6320] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6318] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6317] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6316] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6315] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6314]

And I had to get one shot while I was on the ground.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6319]

So Allan and I climbed back up on the power, and Rob continued directing the switching moves from the ground.

A little while later, the locomotive, with the “fixed” car coupled to the nose, crossed over the diamond in the yard, where the cut bar apparently was hanging just low enough to catch one of the rails, and bend even further, this time pulling the pin. A quick inspection showed that it would require a bit more work to get right. So the pair decided the best move would be to remove the cut bar so the pin would still engage, and the car could be safely spotted in the yard. Since there wasn’t an abundance of tools on board the locomotive, Yankee ingenuity kicked in again. Rob pulled the knuckle out of the coupler, and proceeded to disassemble the mechanism so the cut bar could be easily removed.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6313] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6312] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6311]

The car in question was noted, and they’d report it at the end of the day.

At that point, I stayed on the ground, well out of the way, and got a series of shots of Rob doing his thing.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6310] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6309][cpg_imagefixthumb:6308] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6307] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6306] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6305] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6304] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6303] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6302] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6301] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6300] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6299] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6298] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6297]

Then it was back up into the cab, where Rob also joined us to confer with Allan about some upcoming moves

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6296] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6295]

After getting on the same page, Rob headed back to the ground, and I stayed in the cab for the remainder of the day.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6294] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6293] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6292] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6291] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6290] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6289]

But then something hit me – why not try to use my monopod to get a different angle while still in the cab? So I stuck the camera on the pole, and dug my long shutter release out of my vest to get some different stuff. All of which were with the 15mm Fisheye lens attached. The first one was looking back down the long hood of the locomotive

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6288]

From there I went out onto the front walkway of the GE, and instead of sticking the camera out from the train, I stuck it down closer to the rail level. First one I got was of the head end car crossing the diamond

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6287]

And a bit into the yard, a shot of the lead truck of the locomotive crossing over a switch, with the Hartford skyline visible in the background

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6286]

Then I just sat back and enjoyed the ride, and the conversation with Allan.

As the sun began to set, we headed over to the market area to service Murphy Road Recycling and 7D Lumber.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6285]

We brought a cut of empty garbage hoppers over, and set them in the yard next to I-91. After cutting the power off of the cars, Rob guided us through the switches and brought us across Maxim Road and into Murphy Road Recycling.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6284] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6283]

At MRR, we grabbed a cut of cars to bring back to the yard. Once coupled on, Allan brought the train back across Maxim Road

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6282]

And the cars were dropped on the track closest to I-91. A quick reverse move, and Rob put us on the other yard track, where we grabbed the cut of Murphy Road empty hoppers, and the one flat car of lumber for 7D.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6281]

After spotting the cars on the appropriate tracks, we headed back to the market yard, and moved to the north side of the train to couple on for the trip back to Hartford yard. While Rob was walking the train, I hopped off to get one shot of the train in the setting sunlight. Note the nose of the CNZR’s ex-NH geep in the background

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6280]

After dropping off the cut of loaded garbage gondolas, we made our way north to move to another track for the trip back to the south end of the yard. As we were running back south, an Amtrak shuttle came rolling past us in the fading daylight.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6279]

With time running out, Rob needed to make a couple quick moves at the south end of the yard before we made our way back to East Hartford to call it a day.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6278] [cpg_imagefixthumb:6277]

As we were crossing the river, the skyline caught my eye. So a quick handheld shot was all I could do.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:6276]

Not too bad, eh?

A little bit later, we rolled into East Hartford, where CSO-5 was waiting for us to clear, so they could head to Hartford and do their work.

Overall, a pretty good day.

Thanks for looking!
Tom