Well, on Wednesday I needed to move money between a couple of my bank accounts. Unfortunatley those two banks are physically seperated, and I can’t electronically move the money between them. So I had to head out, go to the first bank then head over to the 2nd bank. Of course, all the while, the scanner was monitoring the airwaves for anything interesting. As I was heading to bank #2 across town in Groton, the scanner came alive with the sounds of Providence & Worcester train NR-2. They were reporting to the Worcester dispatcher that they were clear of MP5 and would like permission to enter Fairview Yard. As luck had it, I was within a minute of Fairview, so a quick side trip was in order.
I got to the south end of Fairview just as the train was sounding for the crossing at the USS Nautilus, a mile or so north of me. Perfect timing. A couple minutes later, the low rumbling started to get louder, and finally a trio of headlights rounded the bend to the north, and the train entered the Fairview Yard limits.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2816]
As the train approached, it seemed the lead locomotive wanted to smoke it up a bit.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2815]
And they passed by, with a large cut of loaded hoppers for Tilcon in Groton. Actually, the majority of the train was TLTX hoppers – I think there were only 4 or 5 cars of general freight tacked on the rear of the train.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2814]
So I figured I’d catch them coming off of the Groton wye and heading east on track 4 towards Tilcon. After all, it is on the way to bank #2… Just as I got out of the car and headed to the spot, the Amtrak Shore Line dispatcher gave NR-2 permission to pass the stop signal at Groton and proceed east to track 4. This meant that NR-2 would be fouling the two mains, tracks 1 & 2, through Groton. Here’s a shot of the train heading towards Tilcon, and the tail end of the train is still through the crossovers, fouling both mains.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2813]
And the train pulls a half dozen or so car lengths ahead, and the tail is just heading across track 2 in the background.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2812]
One other note on the last two shots – you can see in the background the former New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad’s Groton Interlocking Tower, SS-119. This tower was built in 1919 and controled the switches through Groton Interlocking, and the wye to the now P&W Norwich Branch. The tower is still used by Amtrak, but only by the Communications & Signals department for storage. All switches are now controled by the dispatcher in Boston.
Finally, here’s a shot of the train going away from me, heading for Tilcon, a couple miles to the east of here.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2811]
As the train rolled out of sight, I jumped back in the car, and headed a mile or so up to bank #2 and made my deposit. Then it was back to the office for the rest of the day.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
