Thursday NECR NERWPA

Last night, on my way to my daughter’s gymnastics rehearsal, I came across a monster New England Central Railroad train NERWPA getting ready to head north out of Willimantic. So since the timing and lighting were right, I took a quick 2 minute detour to catch a couple shots of the train pulling out of the yard.

While heading up Route 32, approaching the Frog Bridge in Willimantic, I noticed cars sitting on the NECR main, stretching beyond the Bridge of Flowers. Listening to the scanner, it sounded like the crew was doing a brake test, preparing to leave. The odd thing was that the cars seemed to go not only south out of view, but also well into the yard. Could this be that big of a train heading to Palmer?

I decided to head to Bridge Street to check things out. As I parked in the CERM driveway, I took a peek down the tracks. Not that far into the yard, NECR train NERWPA’s power was sitting there. Yep, this would be a big train! A couple seconds later, the train began to move north. So I hopped in the car, and went a bit down the driveway to get an angle with the courthouse’s clock tower in the background.

A couple moments later, the train came into view, and into some nice light. So I snapped a couple shots of the approaching job.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:7771] [cpg_imagefixthumb:7770]

I lost count, but I estimate there were a good 40-50 cars on the train. Good sized train for down this way!

Thanks for looking!
Tom