3/16/07 Noreaster part II – the NECR in Franklin

Well, because of the crappy weather today, I was able to leave work early and head home. Down in Groton, the snow was starting to change to sleet, and I really didn’t want to hang around to watch it change to freezing rain. So I got out around 1pm and made my way home. Of course, the scanner was on the entire way back, just in case. As I crawled up I-395 at a whopping 25 MPH, I heard some chatter that sounded like New England Central train 610 working somewhere around Norwich or Franklin. As I got closer to town, it sounded like they were finishing up at Cargill in Franklin.

When I got there, they were working on the runaround south of Cargill, shoving a cut of cars down the runaround out of sight. A couple minutes later they made their way back down the runaround, preparing to tie onto their train.

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Once they cleared the switch, the power paused for the conductor to unlock the switch and line it for the main. In that time, a couple things struck my eye. First, the shovel and broom on the nose of the locomotive.

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And then some melting snow, running down the side of the hood, over the walkway and over the fuel fill cap, leaving some neat looking icicles behind.

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From there, I figured I could head down to the Route 87 crossing well ahead of them to set up a couple more shots. One was of the train crossing the small river just east of the Route 87 crossing. It didn’t turn out exactly how I had envisioned, but is probably worth revisiting in the future.

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And finally a shot from the crossing of the train starting to round the bend to the south

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From there it was back to the car to brave the roads the rest of the way home.

Thanks for looking!
Tom