Back home today, from my 2 day trip down to New Jersey for work. This morning I was able to get out for a nice walk. I decided to mix things up and go a bit further north to the Stoddard Cove area, and hopefully catch Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heading south along the Thames River. Well, as things worked out, I managed to get a nice walk in, along with a few pictures of NR-2 skirting the Thames under some brisk winds.
Not wanting to pass up a beautiful, but cold, morning, I headed out at my usual time hoping to take a walk while shooting P&W train NR-2. So I headed for my usual spot – Mill Cove – to see if I could catch them there. Well, the entire trip up, the scanner was silent – I guess they were running late. So I figured I’d push further north and see if I could catch them around Stoddard Cove.
As I was heading up Military Highway towards Route 12, the scanner woke up, but instead of what I expected (perhaps a “south of MP12” call), it was the Worcester dispatcher acknowledging NR-2s passing through the Jewett City detector. OK, I guess they were running late. But that still worked. I figured I had enough time to get a little breakfast in me, and still get to Stoddard Cove, and take my hike.
After I got my bagel sandwich, I headed north on 12 towards Stoddard. About a half mile away, NR-2 reported that they were south of MP14, and about 25 minutes out of the sub base. I figured that gave me just enough time to get to Stoddard Hill, park the truck, and take the long walk north to Poquetanuck Cove. Hey, I haven’t shot there in a while, so it was worth a shot.
After the nearly half mile hike, I got into position and picked my angle near the bridge spanning not only the inlet to the cove, but also the Preston/Ledyard town line. A few minutes later, a chirp came across the scanner, and a few moments later a trio of headlights to the north. Soon after passing under the Route 2A bridge, NR-2 skirted along the Thames River, coming into view.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:8497]After ducking behind some brush, the train again came into view, rounding the bend to the north of the bridge.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:8496]You’ll note that there’s loaded stone cars on the train. I guess stone season is early this year!
Anyways, the train then pulled across the bridge, and into Ledyard
[cpg_imagefixthumb:8495] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8494]Switching to the 20D with the wide angle, I got a blur shot of NR-2 rolling past me.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:8493]Finally are a couple going away shots of NR-2 heading out of view.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:8492] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8491]And that was it for photos. I hiked my way back to the parking lot and the warmth of my truck. From there I headed south, and did end up catching up to NR-2 in Fairview. But they were switching out Spicer Gas, and I couldn’t stick around. So the gear went back into the bag, and I went back to the office for the rest of the day.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
