Today things calmed down a bit, and I was able to head out for a nice walk, and of course I took advantage of the sunny skies and killed some pixels along the way. The way things worked out, I was able to catch New England Central train NERWNE heading north through Montville, as well as Providence & Worcester train NR-2 in Ledyard, and again in New London. And all three shots were from two different coves along the Thames River – Stoddard Cove and Shaw’s Cove.
The morning started out with a little uncertainty – I didn’t know where I wanted to go. But my mind was made up for me by the scanner – as I was heading out, the P&W Worcester dispatcher was acknowledging NR2 hitting the Jewett City defect detector. OK, that meant I could get up to Stoddard Hill ahead of NR2.
On the way up, I was catching bits & pieces of NECR train NERWNE working – it sounded like they were working in Montville. OK, that would add a little bonus if the timing worked out.
As I got closer to Stoddard, I looked through the bare trees and across the Thames River – and there I saw NERWNE rolling north! With the new track work on the NECR side, everything is running at 25MPH, so I wouldn’t have much time to get down to the river at Stoddard Cove.
Once I parked the car, I grabbed my gear and ran out to the edge of the Thames. Just as I got there, NERWNE came into view, and I got a series of shots as they headed north
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10834] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10833] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10832] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10831] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10830] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10829] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10828] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10827]Not more than a few minutes after NERWNE disappeared to the north, NR-2 came into view under the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge in Preston
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10826] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10825] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10824]And the cars just kept coming – looks like NR-2 was a monster today!
Taking advantage of that, I got a shot of the head end of NR-2 approaching Stoddard Cove, and the trailing engine still on the north side of Poquetanuck Cove in Preston
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10823]Then a trio of standard shots passing by the cove
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10822] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10821] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10820]And one going away shot that just struck me as a black & white
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10819]With the speed restriction going over the new bridge – and the length of the train (I’m guessing around 50 cars), I had time to reposition myself to get the trailing power.
As the cars passed, I got a couple shots of some of the chalk drawings on the sides of the cars
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10818] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10817]Then finally the tail end came into view.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10816] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10815]And one final shot as the train slowly rolled past me, with some remnants of fall in the water
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10814]With that in the bag, and NR-2 slowly proceeding south, I made my hike back to the car.
But I wasn’t done yet. I figured it was worth a shot to head across the river into New London and bag them at Shaw’s Cove.
I got there just as the train was crossing the Thames River. By the time I got into position, the tail end was starting to cross the river, and I got a shot of it way off in the distance.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10813]Then a shot of them passing by the station
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10812]And the waterfront park
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10811]With that in the bag, I made a quick sprint to the west to get closer to the bridge, and got a tele shot of the train pulling out of the Shaw’s Cove swing span
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10810]Then a pair of wider shots as they come across the bridge
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10809] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10808]A minute or so later, the tail end made its way across the bridge
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10807]And a quick shot as they came off of the bridge
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10806]Just then Don gave a hearty wave from the rear unit, which of course was returned in kind. Then another sprint was in order to get this shot
[cpg_imagefixthumb:10805]Not too bad – a monster NR-2, and a couple nice locations to shoot them at… After that it was back to the office for the rest of the day.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
