Wednesday NR-2 and a guest

This past Wednesday I met up with a rail photographer from Cincinnati, Ohio who was visiting the area.  He had contacted me a while back asking about the Providence & Worcester along the Thames River.  So I offered to meet him and show him around.  Wednesday was that day.

So we set up a time & place in Groton to meet up, where we’d then head north to intercept P&W train NR-2.  I figured we should meet a little early – that’ll give us a chance to head as far north as possible, as well as give us time to go over what the P&W does along the Thames.  And in catching NR-2, he may have a chance of catching NR-3 after I left (I only had a limited amount of time).

So at 8:15, I met up with Mike Biehn (check out his stuff on Railpictures.net here) in Groton.  We then headed north towards Stoddard Cove – I figured we should have enough time to get there ahead of NR-2, and get to a good angle on the south end of the cove.

So we got there, and the scanner’s been quiet the entire trip up.  Odd, but not unusual.  So we got our gear together, and made the hike out to the south side of the cove.  Once we got situated there, we started talking about not only P&W operations, but just about everything else under the sun.  Then someone drove up by the boat launch across the cove from us and started setting up a tripod.  Looking through the telephoto, I saw it was Mark Shenking setting up his video rig.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10147]

A few minutes later, he noticed us and we exchanged waves.

Not long after that, we could hear NR-2s whistles to the north of us, as they passed through the old Norwich Hospital site.  So we got into position, and waited for their arrival.  Mike opted for a shot a little closer to the tracks than the angle I chose.  Moments later, NR-2 came into view.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10146] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10145]

Then as the trailing power went by, I got a couple shots of the train and Mike in the frame

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10144] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10143]

Not too bad – a nice reflection and NR-2.  So we made our way back to the cars, and I was thinking of where our next stop was.  I figured with the walk and possible traffic, our only bet was Fairview yard in Groton.

Well, we got pretty lucky with the lights & traffic, because as we drove past the USS Nautilus overlook park, the crossing signals there just activated.  I figured we’d have just enough time to get to my new spot south of the Nautilus.  A quick turn into the right road, and we parked, grabbed our gear, and high-tailed it down to the track level.  From there I rattled off a couple frames, and Mike did the same.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10142] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10141]

Back up the hill, and to the cars.  Next stop I figured was the usual south end of Fairview.  But on our way down there, NR-2 was going a little slower than expected, so I figured we might as well try for the Fairview Ave overpass shot.  Well, we barely got parked and had enough time to get over to the bridge and get a shot of them passing under us.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10140]

From there, we headed down to the overlook south of the Thames River drawbridgde.  While waiting there, Amtrak 171 came across the bridge ahead of NR-2

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10139]

Once he cleared the station, NR-2 came onto the bridge

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10138] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10137] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10136]

With that in the bag, we went a little further south to the Garbo Lobster parking lot and shot NR-2 crossing Shaw’s Cove across the river in New London

[cpg_imagefixthumb:10135] [cpg_imagefixthumb:10134]

At that point, I gave Mike a few more pointers, and we parted ways – he continued his day railfanning, and I headed to the office…

Thanks for looking!
Tom