CSOR Hartford Shops Grand Opening Ceremony

I had the pleasure of being invited to the Connecticut Southern Railroad’s Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting ceremony for their new offices and locomotive/car shops in Hartford, CT on April 5, 2012 – not only as a guest, but also as a photographer.  And with a lunch from Black Eyed Sally’s included, how could I miss it?  BBQ and trains on a spring day…oh, yeah, well worth burning a vacation day at work.

The Connecticut Southern Railroad has been building a new office and shop building in Hartford, CT, moving their base of operations from across the Connecticut River in East Hartford.  A little while back, after the shops were completed, the new GM of the CSOR contacted me about using some of my photos – along with some from a handful of other area photographers – to decorate the walls of the new offices.  In our conversations about the photos, he sent me an invitation to the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony on April 5th, which also included a catered lunch from Black Eyed Sally’s – a great blues and BBQ restaurant in Hartford.  As usual, the cameras came along for the ride – something the GM was quite grateful for – and as the day progressed, I shot a bunch of photos.  Well, that was in between catching up with a bunch of CSO guys I haven’t seen in some time, and met some new guys as well.

The dignitaries that spoke included the Chief Operations Officer and AVP of Government Relations of RailAmerica – the CSOR’s parent company, ConnDOT Commissioner, CSX’s Manager for Regional and Short Line Development and a Connecticut State Senator.  There were also a number of folks from RailAmerica helping out, representation from the CSOR and NECR – who share some functions like customer service, as well as a number of the CSOR’s customers.  Even got a chance to shoot a photo of the entire group of CSO employees in attendance at the end.  A great way to spend the middle of the day – thank you to everyone at the CSO who made it possible.

OK, enough of that – here’s the photos from the event.

Thanks for looking!
Tom