Yesterday it was pouring rain, under gloomy skies. Today sported glorious cloudless blue skies. So I decided to do similar shots to yesterday’s, just to see the difference between the two drastically different weather conditions.
My timing was pretty good today – I got to Erickson Park as NR-2 finished up work in Norwich and was about 15 minutes from me. That gave me enough time to get out and walk around a bit before I had to take up position at the boat launch to replicate yesterday’s shots.
As I was about to leave the car, the P&W frequency lit up again, but this time with a faint non-human voice. It sounded like a detector. But the next closest P&W detector was in Jewett City, a good 17 miles to the north. As soon as the voice finished, I got my confirmation – the P&W Worcester dispatcher got on the frequency to report to NR-3 that they had passed the Jewett City detector with no defects. Following that, I could barely make out the head end acknowledging that fact! Jeez, must be something in the air to get range like that out of my handheld scanner…
Once I finished up the walk, I went back to the car to warm up a bit as NR-2 continued their way south along the Thames River. A minute or so later, horns to the north could be heard – that would be NR-2 coming through Dow Chemical, which put them just over a mile to the north. Time to hit the beach…literally!
I got into position and waited a bit. Not long after that, horns again permeated the wind coming off of the water as NR-2 sounded for the crossing at Red Top. The rumble of the locomotive grew louder, then the train appeared near the milepost 4 sign at the top end of Mill Cove. I started out with a vertical shot as I did yesterday, incorporating some of the shoreline foliage into the side of the frame.
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And again like yesterday, I got a wider shot as the train stretched out on the causeway
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Next the telephoto lens was up. So the wide angle went into my pocket and the 70-200mm hit the front of the camera for a pair of going away shots, but now with the bright morning sunlight, there’s plenty of color to see across the river
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Then as the trailing power came into the frame, a pair of shots of the end of the train heading for the south end of the cove
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Then to the other end of the zoom lens, for a shot of the trailing power slipping into the treeline at the end of the cove
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Not bad. Next up was the car and the brief trip south for a possible shot of the train heading over the Thames River. But like yesterday, the Amtrak Shore Line dispatcher was to hold NR-2 at Groton for a while. At that time there was a train coming through Kingston, RI that he’s send NR-2 out behind. Looking at my watch, I didn’t really have time to wait around. So I got a shot of the east tower of the new drawbridge and called it a morning.
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After that frame, the camera hit the bag and I hit the road for the office.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
