P&W, Amtrak, cars, boats and geese

After the long Memorial Day weekend (I’ll have photos from the Lebanon, CT Memorial Day Parade sometime in the next few days if you’re interested), and having meetings all last week, I finally got out last Thursday to catch Providence & Worcester train NR-2 somewhere in Ledyard. The weather was perfect, and I not only caught NR-2, I also caught a pair of Amtraks, some sailboats, a power boat, and a young family of geese.

Since it had been a while since I shot NR-2, I figured I’d head to my old standby spot – Mill Cove in Ledyard. I headed out at the usual time, and had the scanner going. As I pulled onto Fairview Ave in Groton, NR-2 reported to the Worcester dispatcher that they were south of MP12 and about 15 minutes from the sub base. Perfect…I should be able to get there a couple minutes ahead of the train.

I pulled into the parking lot, and not long after I shut the engine off on the truck (it’s a diesel so it’s a touch noisy), I heard horns to the north – NR-2 was at Dow Chemical and heading my way.

So a quick start of the truck, and I got into position at the south end of Mill Cove. A couple moments later, NR-2 sounded for the Red Top crossing, and came into view, streaming a tail of dust from a couple of the sand hoppers in the consist.

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I grabbed a couple mediocre shots of the train passing by a couple cars and a boat trailer near the inlet to the cove.

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Then packed up and made my way down to the Thames River drawbridge.

As most of you may know, the bridge is slated to be swapped out the weekend of June 14th (actually the rail outage is the 13th to 16th), so preparations have begun in earnest. When I got there, I grabbed shots of each tower.

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And not long after that, Amtrak train 171 came rumbling across the bridge

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Not bad so far. I figured I had time to swing by the next overlook and see what I could see.

The first thing I saw was a new family of geese out for a little breakfast

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Then three sailboats from the US Coast Guard academy requested a bridge opening, and got it not long after 171 cleared.

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They sailed right past me, heading for the Long Island Sound

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Then the Electric Boat launch headed north past me on their normal run

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A few more of the goose family heading for the water

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From the sounds of the scanner, though, it sounded like NR-2 would be holding for a while. So I caught the norhtbound Acela, 2150, crossing the Thames

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And called it a morning at that point. I had to get back for a meeting, so it was off to the office for the rest of the day.

Thanks for looking!
Tom