Well, I took advantage of two things this morning – a hole in my schedule, and a short bout of sunny weather, sporting blue skies and Simpsons-esque puffy white clouds. The target this morning was Stoddard Cove at Stoddard Hill State Park in Ledyard, CT.
As I was driving up Route 12, the scanner came alive with the Worcester dispatcher amending NR-2’s Form D, giving them permission to head south on the Norwich Branch between MP12 and MP5, and that the railroad between MP5 and Fairview was out of service, and in charge of a track foreman. So that meant the train was, at the worst case, around MP12, which only put 3 or 4 miles between Stoddard Cove and the train. And since I was only a couple miles from the park, that shouldn’t be a problem.
I got to the parking area, grabbed my camera and a couple lenses beyond the 70-200mm telephoto (if you’re curious, I took the 18-50mm and 15mm fisheye), my scanner and headed out to a spot I had picked out just south of Stoddard Cove. But as I walked towards the tracks, I noticed one thing – the brushcutters had been through this area as well, opening up many new possible angles! So a minor change of plans was in order – and with this change in plans, it was a good thing I grabbed my two wide angle lenses…
So instead of the spot I had envisoned, I decided to explore a bit further – I figured I had a good 5-7 minutes before the train came into the range of my viewfinder. Well, I found a spot by the water on the south side of Stoddard Cove that gave a nice view of the causeway, as well as the blue sky peppered with white puffy clouds. This was the spot, but which lens to use? I put the 18-50mm zoom on, and it looked pretty good at the 18mm end. So I figured, what the hell, let’s see what the ol’ fisheye looks like. Well, that’s the winner! I got a nice view of the water, sky, clouds and causeway. A couple minutes later I saw a headlight to the north of the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge, about two miles to the north, heading this way, shortly followed by the sound of horns blowing for the crossings at the old Norwich Hospital in Preston.
As the rumbling of the approaching train grew louder, the clouds were playing with the light on the causeway – alternating dark & light spots about 20 seconds apart. Luckily the timing was on this morning, and NR-2 headed across the causeway during one of the sunny spells.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2768]
With the shot I came for in the camera, I headed back to the car (if you look carefully in the above photo, you can see my car to the right of the frame). On the way, these two guys were swimming along in the cove, so of course, I snapped their picture…
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2767]
By the time I got back to the car, the train was already at Dow and beginning their switching duties. So I figured a quick stop by the other cove, Mill Cove, would be in order – hey it’s on the way back, it’s not like I’m going out of my way to check things out. Well, as I pulled in, and walked around for a couple minutes, I heard NR-2 report to the Worcester dispatcher that they were about done working at Dow, and were about 10 minutes from the north gate of the Sub Base. OK, cool, I’ll get ’em twice today. I decided to try out the new angle I shot here yesterday, since there was a bit more light to work with. A couple minutes later the train started sounding it’s horn for the crossing at Red Top and came into range of the 70-200mm telephoto lens.
[cpg_imagefixthumb:2766] [cpg_imagefixthumb:2765] [cpg_imagefixthumb:2764]
As the train cleared the cove area, I went back to the car and started the drive back. I did come across the train one more time – as it was passing the USS Nautilus, but I didn’t have time to get out and get a shot there. Next time…
Thanks for looking!
Tom
