Way back on June 8th I was able to get out and shoot a bit in the morning. I intented to duck out and shoot Providence & Worcester train NR-2 along the Thames River. But as things worked out, I ended up catching two P&W jobs in the Groton/New London area – both carrying empty ethanol tanks back to the New England Central Railroad. A nice change of pace.
With a hole in my schedule I headed north out of Groton in search of P&W NR-2. I figured the time I was heading out, I’d be able to set my sights on Stoddard Cove and start my chase there. So up Route 12 I went.
As I pulled into the boat launch parking lot at Stoddard Cove, NR-2 informed the dispatcher that they were south of MP12, putting them a few minutes out. A couple moments later Mark Shenking pulled in to also shoot. But the question would be are they more than light power today? (the previous day, NR-2 was light power southbound). Well, in a few minutes I got my answer – NR-2 was hauling 40 empty ethanol tank cars.
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115802] [cpg_imagefixnormal:115801]Then as the tail end went by, I got a quick grab shot past the calm cove
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115800]After that, I headed south for some run-of-the-Mill Cove shots
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115799] [cpg_imagefixnormal:1157998]Then off to Goss Cove and the USS Nautilus overlook park, where some students were waiting at the crossing
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115797]And a wider shot with the sub
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115796]With that in the bag, the next stop was Fairview, where I got a standard telephoto shot
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115795]And a wider one
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115794]But as the train passed, Rod leaned out the window and threw down a note. The note said “PR3 coming with 40 more.” So there was another P&W train in the picture – but this one was coming down the Shore Line!
First, though, I snapped a shot of a passing chalk drawing
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115793]Then it was over to Shaw’s Cove to hopefully catch NR2 making their way over to the NECR.
While waiting there, a westbound Acela passed through town, and over the Shaw’s Cove swing bridge.
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115792] [cpg_imagefixnormal:115791]And while still waiting, I got a couple shots of the swing bridge in action
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115790] [cpg_imagefixnormal:115789]By that time, I had to start making my way back to the office – it would be some time before anything would move because in addition to Shaw’s being open, Thames was on its way to open for river traffic as well.
After taking care of what I needed to do at the office, I ventured back out over lunch to see if PR-3X had come into the picture yet. Listening to the scanner gave me that information – they were around Mystic, heading west, but the odd thing was NR-2 was still sitting at Groton!
So I headed east to Palmer’s Cove to try and catch PR-3X there. And just as I got to the parking lot,PR-3X appeared over the causeway on Palmer’s Cove
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115788]Couldn’t have timed it any better! With that in the bag, and from the sounds of things the Amtrak New London dispatcher was about to let NR-2 out of Groton and cross the river just ahead of PR-3X. So I headed over to the edge of the Thames to get some across-the-river shots.
By the time I got there, NR-2 was already shoving back into the NECR yard. I decided on doing a long shot – using the 70-200mm with the 1.4x teleconverter. With that I got a shot of NR-2s power crossing the Winthrop Cove trestle as a US Coast Guard rigid hull inflatable passed by
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115787]And not long after that, PR-3X came into view, and I got a few shots of them shoving back into the yard as well – and also managed to fit in the USCG inflatable, along with a US Navy Police boat
[cpg_imagefixnormal:115786] [cpg_imagefixnormal:115785] [cpg_imagefixnormal:115784]And that brought me to the end of my window over lunch, so it was back to the office. Not a bad trip trackside.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
