I was hoping I would be able to catch Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heading south today – with the cloudy and foggy weather, I was aiming for a somewhat moody shot up at Mill Cove in Ledyard, CT. Unfortunatley, the fog had lifted, and the clouds started to thin out by the time I, and the train, got to the cove. But I was able to salvage something…
As I pulled to the end of Long Cove Road in Ledyard, the first thing I noticed was how calm the water on Mill Cove was. It wasn’t quite like glass as I’ve seen it before, but it was fairly close. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being like a sheet of glass, it was an easy 8. So I pulled into the parking area for Erickson Park and waited for an update from the scanner. Not more than a minute later NR-2 reported that they were about 15 minutes out of the Sub Base. Perfect – that meant they were about 10-12 minutes from my position. So I went for a little walk around the park, got back in the car and headed down to the south end of the cove.
Once I got there, NR-2 reported to the Worcester dispatcher that they were south of MP5 and they had dropped NR-3 off at Allyn’s Point – aparently they combined trains again today for the trip south. Not more than a minute later NR-2 was sounding for the crossing at Red Top, and slowly coming into view.
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Then a short NR-2 rounded the bend, yeilding a pretty sweet reflection in the calm waters.
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And as the trailing power crossed over the inlet at the south end of the cove, I grabbed a shot of it with a nice reflection.
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After that, I tried to get ahead of them at Fairview in Groton. I did, but there wasn’t a good angle to grab them. They were eventually slowed down by a P&W brush cutter cleaning up the RoW in Fairview yard. Too bad they didn’t hit the causeway over Mill Cove or by the Nautilus. There’s still a ton of scrubby crap growing along the ballast. Oh, well, I guess you can’t win ’em all. Either way, I tried to get a shot of both the brush cutter and NR-2 at the south end of Fairview, but by the time I parked the car and got to the top of the Fairview Ave. bridge, the cutter was already under the bridge and out of range. Oh, well… Since they were tied up behind the MoW guys, I figured it would be a little while before they hit the Shore Line, so I headed back to the office.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
