Not much green today for St. Patrick’s Day – the plant life has yet to bloom around here, and, well, the P&W’s colors don’t involve any shade of green. How ’bout blue skies and some track the P&W hasn’t turned a wheel on all that many times in the past few years?
Another late start this morning, and by the time I got on the road, NR2 was already entering Fairview Yard limits in Groton. But something interesting caught my ear on the radio – NR2 was talking to NECR NERWNE about heading over there with 20+ cars. So that was my target for today – NR2 crossing over the trestle at Winthrop Cove (named for Connecticut Governor John Winthrop) in New London, something that used to happen every day a few years ago, but now occurs only under special situations. And with the Willimantic Branch still undergoing repairs, this was one of those special situations.
The only catch with the area is that the parking lot where we used to park and wait for the train is now fenced in. But luckily there’s a small parking area that only requires a short walk to the trestle. And the angles to the south of the trestle are still good – taking advantage of the sun being further south this time of year.
Not long after getting there, NR-2 came across the river, and past the cove on track 2. I got one shot of the power passing by with a seagull in flight
[cpg_imagefixthumb:113128]A few minutes later, they headed back this way, and down the NECR lead off of Amtrak (also known as track 6). Then they came into view, slowly crawling over the trestle.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:113127] [cpg_imagefixthumb:113126]As they made their way into the yard, I got a little creative
[cpg_imagefixthumb:113125]Then a couple as they shoved into the yard
[cpg_imagefixthumb:113124] [cpg_imagefixthumb:113123]As they moved out of sight, I made my way back to the car, and headed over to where the CV roundhouse used to be to check things out there. By the time I got over there, they were wrapping things up, so I got a shot of the power to the north getting back together.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:113122]On my way out, something on the ground caught my eye. Someone wrote a message on the railhead on one of the old yard tracks.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:113121]Just then I was getting a not-so-pleasant whiff in the air – smelled like a skunk. So instead of sticking around to see if it was nearby, I decided to put a nice safe distance between myself and the skunk – like a couple miles, and inside an office building, in my office…
Thanks for looking!
Tom
