A sunny day can’t go without pictures (yeah, neither can a cloudy, rainy, foggy or snowy day either, but you get my drift), so I headed out to catch Providence & Worcester train NR-2 this morning at one of my usual spots. So once I left, I fired up my scanner and started my 7 minute trek north. Today’s action would be a little bit different from the norm – for two reasons…
As I was driving up Military Highway towards the USS Nautilus, the scanner came alive. A P&W track car was in the area, and reported that he was south of MP5, and about 15 minutes from the Sub Base. Perfect, by the time I got to Mill Cove, the track car should be in the picture. Hopefully, NR-2 wasn’t far behind either.
I pulled into the parking area of Erickson Park, grabbed my gear, and headed towards the water. The first thing I noticed was the brush along the entire length of the causeway was cut! They must have come through yesterday and cleaned things up (thank you P&W MoW department!). Ahhhh, now this opens up some new possibilities for the future. Well, not more than a few minutes later, the track car made its appearance, rolling along, and stopping every so often to check things out. About midway along the causeway, a pair of swans decided to check out what was going on also.
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Then it was back to the car to listen to the scanner for NR-2s appearance. They soon reported to the Worcester dispatcher that they were finishing up their work at Dow and were about 20 minutes from the Sub Base’s north gate. So I had a nice relaxing rest in the car waiting for them to show up. With a faint horn to the north, it was time to head back down towards the water. As I was waiting, the two swans from before made their way to the shoreline, and were grazing around for food. One decided to pose for me, so I snapped his picture.
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Moments later, NR-2 made their apperance on the newly cut causeway with a pair of GEs elephant-style.
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But as they passed it revealed an extremely overpowered train – one loaded lumber centerbeam flatcar. Well, that made it easier getting the swan in front of me into the frame without changing lenses.
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And I grabbed one long tele shot of the train heading for the south end of the cove, with a house across the Thames River in the background.
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With the train gone, it was time to head back. No shots of them crossing the Thames – they would be waiting to follow a westbound Amtrak since track 2 at Shaw’s Cove is still out of service, and I had been out long enough.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
