Happy birthday to me, three trains I did see

I decided to take the week of  Labor Day off from work, and that week coincidentally also contained my birthday (it was the 20th anniversary of my 21st birthday – doesn’t make me feel as old saying it that way).  And on that day, after Jill & I put the kids on the bus, we went for a ride to see what trains we could find.  At the very least I was hoping for New England Central train NERWNE (AKA 608), which had a Florida East Coast Railway GP40 for power.  We managed to find them, and also bagged a couple more for good measure.

With the kids safely on the bus, we headed south on a mission to find NECR NERWNE/608 somewhere south of Norwich.  Of course, as we approched Norwich Harbor, I could see 608 heading north – guess we missed that shot.  But as luck had it, they had to switch out the PostScript warehouse.  So we made our way to Indian Leap park, where I bagged a shot of them heading north through the cut near the falls.

After that, we headed to New London to shoot a loaded ethanol train that was about to pull into the yard, dropping 40 cars for the P&W.  This is where I made a pretty boneheaded move, and proved that waterproof boots aren’t waterproof if you go into the water to your knees.  Yep, I slipped off of a rock, and went for a little wade into Winthrop Cove in New London.  But all is well – the boots are dry, and the cameras never touched the water.

Then on the way home, we heard NR2 on the scanner, so I got a couple shots of them at Mill Cove for good measure.  And while there waiting for them, the ethanol power was heading north light, so I got a shot of them across the river, only missing the cross-Thames meet by about a minute.

That’s the short version – here’s the photos.

Thanks for looking!
Tom