The weather lately has been a touch on the cold side – more reminiscent of February rather than April. But this has also had a beneficial side effect – the mornings are mostly free of clouds, then it gets progressively cloudier as the day wears on. Today’s cloud cover started from nothing, then to a thin veil of cirrus clouds, moving to white puffy Simpsons-esque cumulus clouds, and finally to a fairly complete overcast. I was able to get out and get some photos in the first few phases of the cloudcover today – catching Providence & Worcester train NR-2 at Mill Cove in Ledyard, CT, then some Amtrak track work in New London, along with a westbound Acela.
As I was taking my normal route to Mill Cove in Ledyard, the scanner came alive with the report that NR-2 was south of MP12 and about 15 minutes from the sub base. A couple minutes later I arrived at the parking area at Erickson Park and my cellphone rang – it was Mom, so I had to get it. While I was talking with her, I noticed across the river New England Central train 610 was heading south to New London, with a pair of blue & gold GP-38s as light power. Once I got off the phone with Mom, NR-2 called into the Worcester dispatcher reporting that they were south of MP5. This time, though, there was no call to a P&W MoW crew nearby – that meant it would be track speed through the base, and no chance of getting them at the USS Nautilus today. Oh, well, all good things must come to an end. Here’s a few shots of NR-2 at Mill Cove – today with a pair of back to back GEs on the point, and no power on the end of the train, and under a mostly clear blue sky, with some light cirrus clouds to the north.
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Then it was back down Military Highway heading back, but listening to the Amtrak frequency, NR-2 was asking for a slot to head west, with a stop in East Lyme before they headed for Old Saybrook. So I figured I could get ahead of them in New London by the Shaw’s Cove swing bridge and get a shot from the waterfront walk.
Once I got over to New London, parked the car, and walked out on the walkway, an eastbound Acela came through Shaw’s Cove. OK, I figured that the dispatcher was holding NR-2 for this movement. Just to be sure, I walked towards the station to get a look at the signals. By the time I got there, track 1 showed a clear signal. OK, probably NR-2 would be next up, so I headed back to my spot. While waiting, I snapped a picture of the guys working on the track 2 side of the Shaw’s Cove swing bridge.
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And this guy sitting there contemplating life – wait, who am I kidding, it’s a seagull, he’s probably contemplating whether or not he’s hungry!
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Not long after that I heard a hollow metallic rumbling in the distance – there was a train crossing over the Thames River drawbridge about a mile to the north of me. OK, here comes NR-2…or so I thought. As the train approached the Governor Winthrop Drive crossing, as usual they blew their horns. But it wasn’t the horn of a GE – it sounded more like one of the Acela trainset horns. A few moments later, I was right and a westbound Acela headed towards Shaw’s Cove, this time under some puffy white clouds, that were progressively getting larger.
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At that point I called it a morning and headed back across the river.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
