What month are we in again? Seems like March is hanging on with some gloomy, raw and rainy days this week. Today wasn’t an exception with low clouds, cold damp winds and rain. But the morning did find me trackside to catch Providence & Worcester train NR-2 along the Thames River. This time I bagged ’em in both Ledyard and Groton.
I got out of the office a bit late this morning, so I thought I would only be able to catch NR-2 around the USS Nautilus in Groton if I was lucky. Well, the scanner reported otherwise – as I was passing by the Nautilus, NR-2 had reported that they were south of MP12 and needed to make a stop at Dow Chemical at Allyn’s Point in Ledyard. So some quick calculations in my head told me I could probably make it north of Dow in time to catch the train as they were heading south through Stoddard Hill Park. Well, it seems that the red lights I hit along the way had other plans – as I got to the parking area about a mile south of Stoddard Hill Park, I heard a rumbling, and as I got out of the car, I saw NR-2 rolling past me on the tracks below. So I scurried down the steps to one of the fishing areas along the river and grabbed a shot of the train about to round the bend just north of Allyn’s Point.
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Since they were working at Dow for a while, I decided to head down to Mill Cove and wait for them to finish up and head south again. A little while later, the train was on the move again, heading for my position at MP4. This time I decided to try a new angle and take advantage of the freshly cut brush along the causeway between Mill Cove and the Thames River, getting this shot of the short train rounding the bend at the top of the cove.
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Then a panoramic type shot of the train, the Harvard Boat House, and the AES Thames/Smurfit-Stone complex across the river in Montville all in the frame.
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As the train was rolling south, I noticed a swan swimming along the causeway, so of course I had to get a shot of it and the train together:
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I took a few more shots of the train from this new vantage point, but you’ll never see ’em, because they suck! 😉
So I got back into the car and headed south. But over the radio before the train’s arrival they got permission from a MoW crew working in the area to move into their out of service section of track up to the Nautilus crossing. So with this little tidbit, I could probably beat the train down to the Nautilus overlook! As I pulled into the parking lot, and started walking to my spot, I got my answer – the crossing gates at the USS Nautilus started to drop and the bells could be heard – here comes NR-2. I bagged a shot of the train with the sail of the submarine in the background.
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Back in the car, and back down Military Highway heading south. As I headed for the south end of Fairview Yard, I noticed that the Thames River drawbridge was open – NR-2 wouldn’t be on the corridor for a while. At that point I called it a day and headed back to the office. Not a bad morning…
Thanks for looking!
Tom
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