Veteran’s Day 2008

“The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  Words written by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Smith on November 13, 1787.  Today is the day that we honor those who have served our country, and in some cases, fed Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty.  I did make it a point to shoot some pictures of the Submarine Memorial in Groton on my way into the office.  Oh, yeah, and I managed to catch Providence & Worcester train NR-2 on the way in as well.

On my way into the office, I had my scanner on hoping to catch P&W NR-2 leaving Plainfield so I could figure out where I was going to shoot them.  Just as I was pulling onto Route 2A in Montville, the Worcester dispatcher acknowledged that NR-2 was southbound out of Plainfield.  Just then my cell phone rang – it was Nick Palazini calling me with the same information on the train’s departure, but also added an interesting tidbit – on the head end were a string of loaded Tilcon hoppers.  Usually this time of year, Tilcon has halted operations, so it was a surprise to see that kind of traffic.  While on the phone, we arranged to meet up at Mill Cove down in Ledyard.  He and a friend of his, Jon, were going to shoot NR-2 in Jewett City, then head straight down to Ledyard.  In the meantime I scouted around for new angles and locations.  Finding nothing interesting, I headed down to Mill Cove to wait for Nick & Jon.

About 10 minutes later, the guys showed up and we talked for a while before we headed to the south end of the cove, in advance of NR-2s arrival.

Not much longer after picking our spots, we heard horns to the north – NR-2 was passing through the Dow Chemical plant.  A couple minutes later, NR-2 came into view, and I got a few pretty standard shots.

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After NR-2 rolled out of sight, we tried to get them at the south end of Fairview yard.  Well, if it wasn’t for the traffic light at the main gate of the Sub Base, we would have made it.  So instead we went to the Groton wye to see if NR-2 was bringing those Tilcon cars to Groton, or heading west.  While there, I got a couple detail shots of the Groton tower, which Amtrak is proposing to demolish in the near future.

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Just then, NR-2 requested permission to head west.  Nick & Jon opted to head back north to catch NR-3, and I headed over to the drawbridge to get a few shots of the train roling across the Thames River

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As the train headed west, I headed back east to the Submarine Memorial.  I got a few shots around the memorial, which was dressed up for Veteran’s Day.

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At that point, it was getting close to the time I needed to be at the office, so I packed up my gear and headed into work.

Just to close, thank you to all the veterans out there.  Without your service, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our freedoms today.

Thanks for looking!
Tom