National Train Day 2008

I got word early this morning that an Amtrak passenger extra was heading up the New England Central Railroad’s Palmer Subdivision. Amtrak on the NECR may not sound unusual, since part of the Vermonter’s route is on the NECR. But the unusual part is that Amtrak hasn’t been south of Palmer, MA, if my memory serves correct, since Amtrak canceled the Montrealer back in the 1980s. So I had to head out to catch this one. Since my oldest daughter was up, I asked her if she’d like to go with me. A big smile grew across her face, and with a jump, she blurted out an enthusiastic “yes!” So it was a little daddy-daughter bonding this morning. Nothing wrong with that – Celebrating Amtrak’s National Train Day photographing an Amtrak train with my oldest.

We hit the road soon after getting dressed – according to the tip, the train would be entering the NECR at New London at about 6:45 AM. It was now well after 8. So I figured our best bet would be to head south on Route 32, since it parallels the NECR main most of the way south.

We made it as far south as Franklin, and it looked like nothing had come across the rails recently. They had to be south of us, but I wasn’t entirely sure. So we headed back north to check things out. I figured we could check in at the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum in Willimantic to see if anyone had seen it yet.

We got there a little while later, and asked around – no Amtrak had gone past the museum yet. So they were definitely south of us. Just then we realized that we didn’t eat breakfast yet. So we headed over to Dunkin’ Donuts on Main Street for a quick bagel.

While waiting in line, I checked my email. Jim Van down in Norwich just posted to the NECR Yahoogroup that the extra was northbound past his house at MP14. OK, cool, won’t be long now. Bagels in hand, we headed out. I figured our best bet would be to sit & wait for it to come to us, but where?

The where was at the curve by the old American Thread mills, and just south of the Frog Bridge in Willimantic. That gave me three quick angles – one of the the train coming at us down the straightaway, one wide shot with the mills in the background, and a telephoto of the train heading for the Frog Bridge. Supposedly this train was towing an observation car on the end, so that would make a nice going away shot.

Not much longer, I saw a trio of headlights in the distance. So I got into position, and got a shot of the train heading over the Bridge of Flowers walkway

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That’s one.

Switch to the wide angle, and I got a shot of them rounding the bend, with the mills in the background (or what you can see between the trees)

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That’s angle #2.

And finally the telephoto going away shot, with the Frog Bridge in the background.

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Pretty cool! Now could we beat them down to Bridge Street? It’s worth a try.

We got down to Bridge Street, despite a red light at the Frog Bridge, ahead of the train. A small crowd of fans had gathered at the crossing, so I opted for the angle further down the museum driveway, with the old Windham court house clock tower in the background.

We got there just as the train was blowing for the Bridge Street crossing.

The first shot I got was of the train rolling past the old platform used by the Montrealer

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Then the shot I wanted (well one of them – the other is out at a magazine), with the clock tower in the background.

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And one final shot, as the train throttled up

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A quick look at the clock and I figured we couldn’t chase it any further. The girls had gymnastics in about an hour, so that would barely give us enough time to get home, get ready and get back to Willimantic. So we bid the train farewell and headed for home. Hey, we got what we came for – some time together, and some train shots.

Thanks for looking!
Tom