Finally, some sun! The gloom of the past week or so has lifed, giving us a nice bright cloudless morning. So I took advantage of it, and took my walk in the Stoddard Hill area of Ledyard, and opted for a shot of Providence & Worcester train NR-2 coming south across Poquetanuck Cove in the bright morning sunlight. But as I got to my predetermined spot along the Thames River, the scanner came alive on the New England Central Railroad frequency. Train #610 was looking for permission to work between MP12 and New London yard. That meant the NECR job would be passing right by me across the river. Cool, two trains! Well, make that three trains – aparently NR-2 and NR-3 both combined for the trip south out of Plainfield this morning. Not a bad way to wrap up the week – and I got a nice long hike in the woods out of it.
A few minutes after arriving at my spot just south of Poquetanuck Cove, I could hear what sounded like a train in the distance to the north. Moments later, my suspicion was confirmed – NECR train 610 came into view under the Mohegan Pequot Bridge to the north. Today, they had a decent sized train – 13 cars and a pair of NECR blue & gold GP-38 locomotives, a contrast to recent trains that have been one or two cars, or even just light engines. I bagged a few shots of them skirting along the river – and surprisingly not all were broadside views. The way the tracks follow the shoreline, there are spots where the train is essentially coming at you. I’ll need longer than a 200mm lens for some of those shots in the future. Hmmm…time to start saving up, I guess. Anyways, here’s the shots of 610 running along the Thames:
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Once the NECR train cleared, the scanner piped up with the voice of NR-2 reporting they were south of MP14. Only a few more miles and they’d be at my location. Minutes later, that familiar distinctive rumbling once again echoed down the Thames River, followed by a trio of lights shining through the trees to the north and a horn as the combined NR-2/NR-3 sounded for the crossings at the former Norwich Hospital in Preston, CT. Another minute or so, and the train was within range of my telephoto.
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Then came the shot I was looking for – the train coming across the inlet to Poquetanuck Cove, with the nose brightly lit, and showing the shadow side (can you tell I like contrast?). Today, though, the train was quite long, with a cut of loaded cars of steel towards the front of the consist, so the locomotives were pulling rather hard. That gave a nice heat plume coming off of the two GEs pulling the train south.
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And as they came off of the bridge, I swapped lenses, replacing the 70-200mm telephoto with the 15mm fisheye to get this shot of the train passing my position.
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NR-2 took a while to roll past my position, so I just sat back & enjoyed the show as car after car rolled past me. Finally, the trailing power of NR-2 and the lead power of NR-3 passed by me, followed by a short cut of cars, and finally NR-3’s northermost locomotive bringing up the tail. Once they cleared, I started heading back to the parking area. While walking back, I was able to get the entire train into one frame.
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Not a bad way to end a nice walk, and three trains.
That’s it, and thanks for reading!
Tom
