For today’s walk, I decided to stay a bit further south, and hit Red Top at about MP4 on the Providence & Worcester’s Norwich Branch. As it turns out, this was a pretty good decision – I not only was able to catch P&W train NR-2 heading south with quite a long train, but also got the New England Central’s train #610 rolling south on the opposite bank of the Thames River, in Montville, also with a good sized southbound train.
As I was driving towards Red Top, the scanner came alive with the Worcester dispatcher asking NR-2 where they were. The crew replied that they were south of MP13 and about 15 minutes from the sub base. Perfect – that’ll give me time to get to Red Top, park the car, and walk out to my spot well in advance of the train’s arrival. A few minutes later, I got to the parking spot, pulled off of the road and grabbed my gear.
A couple minutes later, while scouting for new angles, I heard the familiar chirp of the EOT (End of Train) telemetry of a nearby train. Perhaps NR-2 was closer than they reported? Just as I was thinking that, I got my answer – a hor coming from the opposite bank of the Thames River. NECR train #610 was heading south. Cool, a two-fer!
A minute or so later, 610 rolled through the NRG Montville power plant with a fairly long train (about 25 cars).
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And as soon as I grabbed that shot, I heard another horn in the distance. This time it was NR-2 blowing for the crosings at Dow Chemical a mile or so to the north. So I grabbed one more shot of 610 before I saw the headlights starting to crest the grade to the north of me.
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A moment later, NR-2 was rolling towards me at track speed with what turned out to be a good 35+ car train.
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About mid-train, there was a string of gondola cars – with their low sides, and my somewhat higher vantage point, I got a shot of the train rolling past, with a view of the head end.
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And finally, the trailing power
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Once the train cleared, the NECR job was still heading south, albiet at a slower speed, so I grabbed one long shot of the train heading past a home on the water
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If things were timed a bit better, I may have been able to get both trains in the same frame, but not today. Oh, well, you can’t have ’em all.
As I walked back to the car, I thought that with the long string of Tilcon cars on the head end, they will probably be heading east on track 4 to the Groton Tilcon plant before heading west to the NECR and Old Saybrook. So I fired up the Amtrak frequency on the scanner to listen in. Once the train got into Fairview yard, they contacted the Amtrak Shore Line dispatcher for permission to head down the east leg of the Groton wye, and cross over to track 4. Perfect…well, almost. It seems that I either hit every red light on the way over, or got behind some of the slowest drivers in southeast Connecticut! But I did get close to my spot just as the dispatcher was giving NR-2 permisson to pass the stop signal at the wye, and proceed to track 4. There was a slight delay in getting the permission to head east – there was a track foreman and a flagman with foul time on the wye tracks, and the dispatcher needed to clear the tracks for NR-2s move. That delay gave me enough time to get to my spot.
Just as I got there, the drone of the GE locomotives struggling to get the heavy train rolling could be heard inthe distance, followed by a trio of headlights coming from the trees to the right.
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Notice in the second one above that the lead locomotive is past the Bridge Street overpass, and yet the train is still stretched across tracks 1 and 2, and still continuing up the east leg of the wye! The gondolas that are across 1 & 2 and up the wye are about 10 cars from the end of the train!
As they got closer, I didn’t switch from the telephoto to the wide angle so I could enjoy the show. As the train crawled past me, Rod gave me a nice wave out his window. And as they approached the curve ahead, he peered back out, so I grabbed this shot of him as he and his train headed into the morning sunlight
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Then one final shot of the power pulling the train around the curve
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For the rest of the train, I just enjoyed the show. Once the trailing power, which by the way was pushing most of the time, passed by me, I walked back to the car and headed back to the office. Not a bad walk, and some halfway decent photos.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
