Part two of the catching up – I got out of the house early on Saturday March 1st to chase New England Central train 608 out of Willimantic during the snow storm. I was only able to be out a couple hours, but as things worked out, those two hours were quite productive.
I left the house near dawn with about 3″ of snow on the ground, and it was still falling in earnest. At that point I hadn’t decided where I’d go – it was down to either Willimantic to chase NECR train 608 south, or make the trek up to Palmer to catch some CSX action on the B&A. As I was heading down the hill nearing Hosmer Mountain, the scanner woke up on the NECR frequency – 608 was working the Willimantic yard. I guess that iced my decision for the morning’s activities.
My first stop was Bridge Street to see if they were actually in the yard, or working up by Willi Waste. A quick look at the crossing gave me my answer – the flangeways were clear, and a quick look down into the yard showed me a blinking marker on the end of a train. So I headed down Main Street and across the Frog Bridge to try to catch the train pulling under the bridge adorned by a a quartet of copper amphibians, propped on spools of thread.
From the sounds of the scanner chatter, they were wrapping things up in the yard, and preparing to head south. So I parked the truck and made my way up the sidewalk, and into position. A few moments later, 608 began heading south in the heavy snowfall.
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And a going away shot
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OK, now can I get ahead of them without sliding off the barely plowed road? Let’s find out…
I did end up getting ahead of them at the old Rogers Corp factory along Route 32, and I didn’t slide once! Actually, come to think of it, I didn’t even come close to the speed limit…anyways, I ended up shooting a couple shots of the train coming at me, and here’s the keeper of the bunch
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And a going away shot, with a snowy Christmas tree looking shrub…
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Judging by the consist, their next stop was CC Lonsbury just down the road – so that was my next stop.
I got there just as the conductor was getting off at the switch, and preparing to split the train.
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A little bit later, they cut off the rear cars, and the power pulled forward through the mostly snow – rain was starting to mix in.
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One the switch was lined for Lonsbury’s siding, they started to shove back
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Then my stomach reminded me that I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I set my sights on the Dunkin Donuts in Franklin. I figured the train would be working here in South Windham for a while, so I had time.
Once I got my coffee & sandwich, I started back north. But this time I went up Route 87, hoping to catch 608 at the Pound Hill Road crossing, where it should look really pretty with the snow clinging to the trees.
Well, apparently I took about a half a minute too long in Dunkin’ Donuts because as I rounded the bend in the road, and the crossing came into view, I saw 608 blast through a snow bank that the plow had left. Damn!!!! So a quick turnaround was in order so I could get back down to Franklin.
I got to the parking lot south of Cargill just in time to catch 608 rounding the bend with their train
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And as they pulled past me, the way the lead wheel was throwing the snow off of the rail head caught my eye.
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Then I swapped to the wide angle, and got a blur shot of a pair of hoppers going past the switch stand
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And a pair of old timers came by – two covered hoppers still sporting Delaware & Hudson markings!
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Then finally a shot of the 3851 ducking behind the snow covered pine
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As the train shoved back into Cargill, I took a little stroll down the tracks to get a few shots with the Cargill silos in the background. At this point, it was raining at a pretty good rate, with no snow falling.
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Getting somewhat wet, I decided to head back to the truck and scout out other locations to the south. As I got close to the truck, I turned around and something struck my eye – the snow covered brush, with the train in the background. So I went with a shallow depth of field shot, focusing instead on the brush, and leaving the train out of focus.
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Not bad…so I climbed in the truck and headed south, looking for interesting angles along the way.
While scouting around, of course I still had the scanner on. It sounded like 608 was still working around Cargill, and even getting ready to switch out Kofkoff – which they usually don’t do until they’re heading north. So I abandoned my scouting mission and made my way to Murphy Road to check out what’s going on.
As I pulled across the Murphy Road crossing, I saw that now the 3840 now had its ditch lights on – it looked like the engineer switched ends – that meant they were heading back north. I guess they didn’t have any work south of Franklin that day.
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So I hung out at Murphy Road and got a few more shots.
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And here came those D&H hoppers again – apparently they’re headed for Kofkoff
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Finally, I got some shots of the train heading down the Kofkoff lead
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As 608 shoved into Kofkoff, I decided to call it a morning and head home. Not a bad 2 hours on the road…
Thanks for looking!
Tom
