Playing a bit of catchup today, so I’m rolling a quickie from Sunday in with my adventures from today. Sunday was a chance, but curious, sighting of the Connecticut Southern Railroad in Manchester, CT, and today I caught Amtrak and Providence & Worcester on my lunchtime walk, along with a bonus this evening – the New England Central Railroad in South Windham.
Sunday July 29 – CSOR in Manchester
I was in Manchester running some errands, and I happened to glance down the tracks at Oakland Street by the grain co-op and noticed a CSO B39-8 sitting on the co-op siding. So I headed down to check things out. The unit was shut down and nobody was around. Not sure what happened, but of course I snapped a picture while there. Decided a black & white rendition would work best on this cloudy, hazy afternoon.
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My guess is something happened with the track that made it impossible for the unit to return to East Hartford. Heard a rumor of a derailment, but I never got a chance to check it out.
Monday July 30 – Amtrak, P&W and NECR
This morning, some of my meetings got shuffled around, so I couldn’t get out for my normal walk in Ledyard. But because of the shuffle, I had some time over lunch, so I decided to head for the Niantic Bay boardwalk for my walk. I’d at least get an Amtrak or two, as P&W train NR-2 is usually in Old Saybrook by then swapping cars with NH-1.
Not long after I got on the highway and crossed over the Gold Star Bridge, NR-2 contacted the Amtrak Shore Line dispatcher informing them that they were at the signal in Groton ready to head west. Hmmm, I thought to myself that I might be able to beat them to Niantic. A second later the dispatcher gave me a little more information – she would be getting NR-2 out onto the corridor behind 171, who had just tripped the Midway detector a couple miles to the east. Yep, with 171’s station stop in New London, I’d be able to get ahead of both trains at Niantic.
By the time I got to the bridge, it was already closed and ready for rail traffic, so I grabbed my gear and headed for the eastern end of the boardwalk. No sooner than I got to the top of the path did 171 roll by. I got to a spot that gave a nice telephoto view of the train skirting along the boardwalk.
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NR-2 couldn’t be that far behind. But the drawbridge did open for the waiting fishing vessel Mijoy, sos that gave me a bit of time to find my spot ahead of NR-2s arrival. I settled on a spot a little ways down the boardwalk so I could get the walkway as well as the water & beach in the same frame as the train.
A few minutes later, the drawbridge began to close, and once it was locked, NR-2, who was waiting at the eastern approach to the NAN interlocking, got the clear signal to proceed west over the bridge. Moments later, they passed by my position, and I grabbed them with the 15mm fisheye lens.
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I probably should have stuck with the 18-50mm lens instead – a pair of fishermen got into my frame, so I had to adjust my framing a bit at the last second to get their heads out of the frame. Oh, well…you can’t win ’em all.
Next I strapped the telephoto back on and got a couple longer shots. The first of the trailing power rolling past the boardwalk to the west of me.
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And a shot of the entire train passing by the former Morton House (now a Chinese restaurant) with the Stars and Stripes flying proudly above.
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From there, I headed back to the car and back to the office for the rest of the day.
This afternoon I headed out of work early to run an errand in Willimantic. So I headed north on Route 32, of course with the scanner roaming the frequencies. As I got into North Franklin, the NECR frequency came alive – it sounded like 610 was working somewhere nearby, most likely the new CC Lonsbury site near Route 203.
As I got into South Windham, the radio was coming in clearer and it did sound like they were switching Lonsbury. So I headed down their driveway and got my confirmation. NECR train 610, with the CSOR 8530 on the point, was shuffling cars around the new facility. I got a shot of them pulling a cut of cars out of the siding as the remainder of their train sat on the main.
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Finally I wanted a shot looking down the driveway as the train came across the crossing. A couple minutes later I got what I was looking for.
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Just then, fellow fan Jim Van drove up, also on his way into Willimantic. A quick chat, and we were both off to our respective errands.
That’s it. Thanks for looking!
Tom
