With today’s crappy weather, I wasn’t planning on going out to get some photos, even though I also had the day off for the President’s Day holiday. But of course, things change, and I managed to catch New England Central train 610 just after they went on duty in Willimantic. I ended up chasing them until the light faded, which ended up being just over the border in Monson, MA. All in all, I think it was a pretty fruitful chase, and I came away with some decent images. Yeah, not ideal conditions by far, and they were a tad dark, but there was enough to work with. And they do pretty much portray what it looked like out there today – dark and gloomy.
On my way home from Manchester, I decided to take the scenic route through Willimantic to see if NECR train 608 was in town yet. So as I was traveling down Route 6 in Andover, CT I switched on the scanner and fired up the NECR frequencies. Not long after the scanner began doing its job, it locked in on the NECR dispatcher frequency. I could barely make out a track warrant being issued, but I couldn’t tell where it was for. Judging by my distance from the NECR main, and my position, I figured it was either 608 coming into town, or 610 picking up the train. OK, maybe I’d get lucky.
As I came through Columbia, now on Route 66, and neared the Willimantic line, I heard the familiar marker chirp on the scanner. OK, a train was in the area. First place to check out is where they tie up – at the old CC Lonsbury site under 66.
Passing over the tracks there showed me nothing at all, but I could still hear the marker chirp. So they were still in the area. The question was now, are they to the south of me working in the yard, or heading north? Thinking for a moment, I gambled on the northbound option. I’d listen to the scanner, and see if I kept picking up the marker. If it faded away by the Mansfield Drive In, it was most likely to the south of me. If the chirp kept coming across the scanner, I was hot on his heels.
As I was heading past the drive in, the chirp kept on coming through – OK, they were northbound. So I continued on north – the first shot I had in mind was possibly around the Plains Road/Depot Road area in Mansfield Depot.
Pulling down Plains Road, 610 got on the radio to report that they were northbound and clear of MP32 – about 6 miles to my south. Cool, here they come! Not liking the angles here, I went down to Depot Road and came to the same conclusion. Then I thought about the old Depot Restaurant sign at the Route 44 grade crossing.
I got there a couple minutes before the train made their appearance, so I scouted the angles and settled on one in particular. A few moments later, I could hear the train blowing for Plains Road, then a few seconds later for Depot Road, and then finally for 44.
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Luckily they were crawling past me, so that gave me a chance to get ahead of them up Route 32. I pulled over at an old corn maze in Merrow and got a shot of the train beginning to accelerate after the slow order.
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Now with the train gaining speed, time was of the essence. Some quick math in my head told me my next best bet was the train crossing a bridge in Willington – so that was my next target.
Well, I pulled in just as the crossing lights activated, but I managed to get a shot of the train coming off of the truss bridge
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With the train moving at a good clip, there weren’t many options for me nearby, so I set my sights on the overpass at milepost 48 near the Willington/Ellington/Stafford Springs town lines.
I got there just before the train came into view, and got a shot of them rounding the curve just to the south of the Route 32 overpass
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Then as the train rolled beneath me, they began to slow down, which gave me a chance to get on the road and beat them up to the old waterfall a bit further to the north.
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With the slow speed, it would be easy to get to the next spot I had in mind – the curve along the river in Stafford Springs.
Getting there with ample time allowed me to settle on two angles – one vertical and one horizontal, both made possible by the slow speed of the northbound train. After a brief wait, the train began blowing for the Route 32 crossing, and eventually made it into my viewfinder for the first shot – the vertical.
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Then the horizontal
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Not bad. So I made my way back to the car, and after the train cleared the crossing, I headed north to my next spot. But what spot would that be? I know if the lighting permitted I wanted to hit Stafford Hollow Road in Monson, MA, but what else was there in between here and there?
Driving north it hit me – the swamp along the State Line siding just south of the CT/MA state line. That would look interesting with the dead trees and the train rolling behind them. So I parked my car off of 32, got out and scouted around while I waited for 610s arrival.
I settled on two angles, but unfortunately they were separated by about 20 yards of real estate. I guess it would depend on the speed of the train whether or not I could get shots at both. So I settled on the one to the south.
As I was waiting for the train, a fog began to rise from the ice covered bog. Nice eerie mood… A few minutes later, I could hear the train starting up the grade to the south of me. And a few moments later, they came into view, rolling along at a slow speed. I could probably make both shots!
The first two I bagged as the power passed in front of me
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Then a quick sprint to the north to bag the second shot
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Cool! Next stop was Stafford Hollow Road just over the border.
I pulled across the narrow bridge spanning the tracks, and I saw something really cool to the north – fog! OK, this will make things interesting once the train gets here…unless the wind decides to move the low clouds before the train’s arrival.
Not long after setting up shop on the bridge, I could hear the EMD GP38s pulling their 20 or so cars up the grade into Massachusetts. Then a yellow glow began to come around the bend to the south of me
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Here comes 610. And once they get into view, I grabbed a quick shot before moving to the north side of the bridge.
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Now for the fun part – there was another fog bank to the north, just into the next curve in the tracks. So I tried to get a shot of the headlights illuminating the fog as the train rolled north.
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Then a second later, I got a black & white shot.
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At that point, the light was really fading fast, and heading any further north was pointless. Plus I had to get back to Willimantic to meet up with my wife & daughters for dinner. So the camera went back into the bag, and I headed south to where I began this expedition.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
