Well, today started out to be a typical gloomy Monday. Slept through my alarm this morning, so I was a touch late into work. The weather was lousy, and my morning meeting went longer than normal. So I ended up getting out of the office for my fresh air walk a bit later than usual. As luck would have it, those delays would be fortunate.I
I got up to Erickson Park along Mill Cove in Ledyard, CT a bit later than usual today, and I wasn’t sure what to make of the complete lack of any radio chatter on the P&W channel the ride up yeilded. Total silence. Was NR-2 early today , and I completely missed them? Hmmm. In the meantime, I grabbed the scanner and walked around the park for a bit. While walking, I was picking up some chatter on the NECR frequency. Looks like the new schedule for train 610, it’s base of operations moved from Montville to Willimantic, CT over the weekend, would bring them into the picture early in the morning. Hmmm, that could make for some interesting shots if things fell into place. From the sounds of it, 610 was finishing up work in New London yard, but as I could only hear one side of the conversation, I wasn’t sure, so with no sign of NR-2, I headed back south abit to see if I could deduce what was going on.
My hunch was right – 610 was finishing up work, and just tying onto a short string of boxcars to bring north. So I headed for the USS Nautilus overlook park, and snagged a shot of NECR 610 passing by a row of beached sailboats in front of Conn College, across the river in in New London.
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As I got back into the car, I heard the tail end of a conversation on the P&W frequency – NR-2 was south of MP12 in Norwich, and about 15 minutes out of the Sub Base. Some quick math in my head told me that it would be close for an across-the-river meet at Mill Cove. So I headed back up there ahead of both trains. The timing was a bit off – 610 got into view a few moments after I arrived, so I bagged ’em passing the big “H” painted rock across the river.
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Not more than a moment after the last boxcar on 610’s train slipped behind the trees, did NR-2 start sounding for the crossings at Dow Chemical a mile or so to the north. Missed a meet by all of a minute and a half! Can’t get much closer than that. Maybe another time the gears will mesh…we’ll see.
Anyways, NR-2 was now in the picture. With the foggy, cloudy weather, I decided to try a few panning shots of the passing train. Put the camera on a monopod, dropped the ISO and shutter speed, and fired off a string of 8 frames of the passing train. I got at least one keeper from the series.
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Then the ISO and shutter speed went back up for the conditions, and I grabbed a few more shots of the passing train – one of which shows a string of 14 P&W ballast hoppers in mid-train. Supposedly these are destined for the Valley Railroad in Essex, CT. If these are the cars for them, they will be dropped north of the valley wye in Old Saybrook, CT where presumably the Valley’s switcher will come and retrieve them. I guess they’re doing a bit of trackwork this spring.
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Once the train cleared, it was time to head back to the car and back to the office to continue my day inside.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
