Yep, the weather did a 180 today. Started out crappy with heavy overcast, and by the time I got out of work and headed for the airport, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The schedule worked out so I could get a few shots in both before and after work…and on the way home from the airport. Yep, I got a trio of New Jersey Transit trains, along with the New England Central back home in Connecticut.
I got up early this morning, got some breakfast and checked out of the hotel. With that done, and a good hour before I had to be at the office, I headed for Bound Brook station to see what I could catch, despite the heavy overcast skies.
The first train I caught was an express that doesn’t stop at Bound Brook – NJT train 5718.
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After that train cleared, I waited around for the next one. While waiting, passengers began to slowly filter into the station, waiting for train 5422 to take them to Newark Penn Station.
A few minutes later, the train pulled into the station, and everyone but me got on board. Once everyone was aboard, the train began to pull out. I got a shot of the side of the locomotive cab as it passed by me
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Then a couple shots as the train rolled off into the distance
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By that time, I had to make my way north to the office, so I called it a morning.
Fast forward to this afternoon. I had a bit of time before I had to get to the airport to catch my flight home, so I stopped off at the Peapack NJT station. I got there a minute before train 423 was scheduled to arrive. After waiting about 10 minutes, still no train. Did I miss them?
A couple minutes later, an announcement came over the PA – the train was running 35 minutes late. OK, I guess I wouldn’t catch them here. So I headed towards the airport – I guess I wouldn’t catch anything on the way.
But I remembered I needed top off the tank on the rental car, so I went through Bernardsville. After filling up, I pulled into the NJT station in town to see things. A quick look to the west, I saw the signals were activated, and one was showing a green. OK, someone was coming. So I grabbed my camera gear and went trackside.
A couple seconds later, train 423 pulled around the bend
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And into the station
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Once the passengers got off and boarded, the train pulled out of the station
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And past the signal bungalow in front of me
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As they passed by me, I got a going away shot just before the train knocked down the signal
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And one a bit further along, just before the train headed around the curve, and out of sight
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Perfect timing – I got to the airport with 10 minutes to spare.
Once again, fast forward a couple hours. Now back home, I had the scanner going when I was riding back from the Groton-New London airport. As I approached Norwich, I could hear New England Central train 610 working what sounded like the Phelps-Dodge facility.
I decided to take a quick detour and check it out. Yep, NECR 610 was working the copper plant, but I was only able to get one shot of the lead power through the trees.
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Not the greatest, but hey, I caught two railroads separated by a couple hundred miles.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
