With temperatures in the mid 60s, and sunny blue skies, I couldn’t pass up a walk today. So I headed for Erickson Park in Ledyard again, as usual, with full intentions of not only doing my laps around the park, but also shooting Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heading south along Mill Cove. A few minutes after I got there, once again, my plans would change. I’d still get my walk in, but not exactly at Erickson Park.
As I grabbed my gear and headed out of the car, the scanner came alive on the NECR frequency, but something odd was uttered. Something about “Sperry.” Hmmm, that meant there was a Sperry Rail Services inspection vehicle close by. Looking across the Thames River gave me my answer – a bright yellow truck, followed by 3 NECR hyrails were making their way north. So I decided to head over to Red Top and get a little closer view. I got one shot of the truck, with two of the three NECR hyrails trailing behind it, from Red Top.
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As the trucks were rolling north, they were also getting their track warrant revised – aparently NECR train #610 was heading south, so the inspection truck’s warrant would need to be shortened to enable the train to head south to New London – and they would meet at about MP8. OK, that meant I could possibly get the 610 from across the river too, but not from this spot. So I figured I’d head a bit further north and hit the shore somewhere around MP7 on the P&W side (about MP8 on the NECR across the water) hoping to catch the southbound NECR job.
This spot would mean that I’d be giving up my nice leisurely walk around the park in favor of more of a hill climbing expidition. That’s OK – it’s all excersise. So I got out of the car, and headed down the hillside towards the water, and incidentially the P&W main. As I got there, the scanner again came alive – this time on the P&W frequency. NR-2 was just heading through Norwich Yard, which meant they were about 5 miles to the north of me. Pretty good timing so far.
Moments after the scanner went silent, a trio of headlights came around the bend in the tracks across the river in Montville – 610 was coming into view. I grabbed a couple shots across the river as they slowly rolled south.
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The the train started to slow down, until it came to a complete stop almost directly across the river from my position. It was a decent looking shot, so of course I grabbed one with the train sitting there.
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Aparently they were waiting for all the vehicles to the south to clear off of the rails before proceeding south to New London.
While that was happening, a distant horn sounded to the north – P&W NR-2 was headed this way! Since it was low tide, I could get out a bit further away from the tracks to get a long telephoto of the train heading under the Mohegan Pequot Bridge, and towards Poquetanuck Cove.
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Then I switched lenses, ditching the telephoto, and mounting the wide angle zoom, all the while, heading to the other side of the tracks, and along a calm tidal pool to the east of the tracks. I carefully walked out onto a rock about 5 feet from the shore, and crouched down getting below a hanging branch to get this nice reflection shot of the train speeding past me.
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Since it was a longer train, I had time to get back onto dry land, switch back to the telephoto, and get a going away shot of the train heading for Allyn’s Point.
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Happy with my grab for the day, I headed back to the car – which involved a hike back up the hillside. The NECR was still stopped at the same point across the river, so there was nothing doing there for a bit. Time to head back.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
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