Night Train

No, I’m not talking about the Guns ‘N Roses song, nor the cheap-screw-cap wine the song is about.  I’m talking about New England Central train NERWPA under cover of darkness.  Well, darkness followed up by a couple 1/800 of a second flashes of light.

I had to go out this evening to run a couple errands in Willimantic.  So like usual, as I cross over the Bridge Street grade crossing, I look up and down the NECR tracks.  Looking to the right I saw nothing, but looking to the left I saw a blinking light – which had a train connected to it!  Cool, it looks like the NECR was ready to head north!  A quick look at the clock, and I figured I had enough time to get up to Mansfield Depot ahead of them and get a shot, and still have enough time to get my errands done.

I got up there well ahead of the train, so I had time to scout out a few locations – I finally decided on one north of the Route 44 crossing.  So I set up and waited.

Soon after that, the echos of horns pierced the Willimantic River valley, and were followed a few minutes later by NERWPA coming into view at the Route 44 crossing.  I got into position and bagged the first shot.

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Not bad, a blue & gold on the point.  Now what else was in the consist?

Well, next up was a CSO unit, so I passed on shooting that one, but on the tail end of the engine consist was the FEC 722, and I got a shot of that heading across the crossing.

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Pretty sweet catch!  So as the train lumbered past me at about 10MPH, I packed up the gear and made my way back to Willimantic to do what I needed to do…

Thanks for looking!
Tom