Lunch with NR2 and NR3

Last Monday I had to head out for lunch, and as things worked out I managed to catch a couple Providence & Worcester trains.  Not that the first was really planned out, but the second was caught completely by chance.

During work I sometimes listen to a friend’s radio feed on the iTunes where he has Amtrak, MetroNorth and P&W frequencies piped through a feed.  It’s pretty handy since where he has it set up, it picks up most of the Amtrak Shore Line dispatcher’s territory, as well as the P&W dispatcher through the Plainfield tower.  What was odd that morning while listening is that Shore Line was already talking to P&W NR-2, and it sounded like they were coming back east already.  Very odd.

Fast forward a few hours – I forgot to bring lunch in that day, so I headed out for lunch.  Once I got in the car and fired up the scanner, I heard NR-2 getting permission from the Worcester dispatcher to occupy the main at Fairview in Groton.  I guess they were indeed headed back east!  So I headed north on Route 12 to try and get ahead of them.  But as I passed within radio range of Fairview, I could hear they were switching in the yard, so I had time.

I figured with the cloudy skies, I’d head for Red Top in the Gales Ferry section of Ledyard and get a shot looking south.  Once I got to the spot, and took a few test shots, I waited (while waiting I also heard P&W NR3 hit the Jewett City detector – so they seemed to be out of the picture).  After a little while, the train started north and I could hear horns to the south.  Well just then the clouds broke up, and I was greeted to mostly clear blue skies – just what I DIDN’T want!  Oh, well, I’d make do.  After adjusting the settings, I got some decent into the sun shots of a pretty long NR-2, which had empty stone cars on the head end (both Tilcon and O&G), and a cut of ethanol on the marker.

[cpg_imagefixnormal:114890] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114889] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114888] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114887]

Then a couple going away shots, including one blur of ethanol tanks rolling past.

[cpg_imagefixnormal:114886] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114885]

After that last shot, I noticed something odd – they were slowing down.  Maybe NR-3 still had paper down to this end?  Whatever the situation was, I decided to head north to Stoddard Cove and get them heading north along the Thames.

After leap-frogging NR-2 at Dow, I happened to look to the north along the Thames in one of the gaps in the trees when something caught my eye.  It was a trio of headlights on the P&W side of the river!  Holy crap, NR-3 was actually SOUTHBOUND when they hit Jewett City!  So that explains why NR-2 slowed down – they stopped at MP5 waiting for NR-3.

After doing a quick (and legal) U-turn, I decided to head down to the small tidal pool near MP7 to get a shot  of NR3 coming south.  I got there just as they were coming by Stoddard Cove

[cpg_imagefixnormal:114884]

Then a quick sprint to the other side of the water, to get a pretty nice reflection shot

[cpg_imagefixnormal:114883]

With that in the bag, now it was NR-2s turn again.  This time I went back to my original plan of Stoddard Cove.

I got there just as NR-3 was clearing up, making way for NR-2 to come north.  I got a few shots of NR-2 rolling past, including some backlit shots that I think came out pretty well.

[cpg_imagefixnormal:114882] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114881] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114880] [cpg_imagefixnormal:114879]

With those in the cameras, I hiked back to the car, got a bite to eat, and headed back to the office.  Not a bad lunch hour, eh?

Thanks for looking!
Tom