{"id":299,"date":"2007-12-05T23:00:14","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T03:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nanosphoto.com\/blog\/?p=299"},"modified":"2007-12-05T23:00:14","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T03:00:14","slug":"two-trains-a-steel-worker-a-cutter-some-swans-and-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/two-trains-a-steel-worker-a-cutter-some-swans-and-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"Two trains, a steel worker, a cutter, some swans and Bob"},"content":{"rendered":"

Got out again this morning to take advantage of the sunlight, even though it was quite chilly. At least it wasn’t as windy as it was yesterday<\/a>. But I did end up getting out a bit later than normal, which changed things a bit at the last minute. But that’s fine – I bagged two trains, more steel on the bridge, some birds, a US Coast Guard cutter, and ran into a guy named Bob.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Like I mentioned, I got out a bit later than normal this morning. As I was heading north, the radio was silent until I turned onto Route 12 at the Sub Base – NR-2 reported that they were south of MP5. Crap! A quick turnaround in a parking lot, and I was headed back south. I figured the best spot would be the Nautilus – if the traffic lights cooperated.<\/p>\n

While I was sitting at the red light at the corner of Crystal Lake Ave and Military Highway, I could just picture NR-2 passing the Nautilus in front of me while I waited at the light. A moment later, the light changed to green, and I headed towards the Nautilus with no sign of NR-2. Phew!<\/p>\n

I got into position just as the gates at the Nautilus dropped. The first shot I bagged was the lead power coming across the grade crossing at the Submarine Force Museum, with a Tomahawk cruise missile visible in the window of the museum<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5565]\n

Next up a horizontal shot of the train, and a nice reflection approaching the USS Nautilus<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5564]\n

Swiveling around to the south, a shot of the train passing behind the bare trees<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5563]\n

And back north, a shot of the trailing power passing the Nautilus<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5562]\n

Then it was back into the car, and heading south. Next stop was at the Thames River drawbridge to check on the progress. I got to the parking lot next to the drawbridge, and there was a steel worker sitting on the top of the west tower.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5561]\n

And a wider view of the west tower<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5560]\n

And I caught the worker apparently enjoying the view from his high perch<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5558]\n

I figured I’d try to catch NR-2 from further south, so I got back into the car. But as I moved back to the car, something in New London caught my eye. A large US Coast Guard cutter was moored in New London.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5559]\n

Turns out it’s the cutter Tahoma<\/em>. Not sure why she’s here, but hey, it’s something different than the usual smaller cutters that frequent the Thames. After getting that shot, I got into the car, and made the 1\/2 mile trek south to the next spot.<\/p>\n

As I pulled into the parking lot, there was a familiar looking car parked down by the water. As I pulled closer, I saw the owner of the car – good friend and fellow rail photographer Bob LaMay. So we BS’d for a bit while waiting for Amtrak train 171 and NR-2 to follow them west.<\/p>\n

A bit later, 171 came rolling across the drawbridge. I got a shot of them passing the west tower, with a pair of swans in the foreground<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5557]\n

And the swans continued towards us probably thinking we had some food.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5556]\n

Then another pair appeared from the south<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5555]\n

Then Bob & I went back to the BS session waiting for NR-2 to come down the east leg of the Groton wye. A couple minutes later, we heard horns to the north – NR-2 was heading onto the Shore Line.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5554]\n

Then a shot of the shortish train stretched out across the drawbridge<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5553]\n

And the trailing power passing the west tower<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5552]\n

As part of our BS session between trains, Bob had asked if there was another shot to the south of where we were. Yep, there is, and we headed there next.<\/p>\n

As we pulled into the parking lot, NR-2 was approaching the New London Amtrak station. First shot was the lead power passing by the Tahoma<\/em><\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5551]\n

Then a wider shot of NR-2s trailing power, the Tahoma <\/em>and the station<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5550]\n

And a couple standard across the river shots of the train crossing Shaw’s Cove<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5549] [cpg_imagefixthumb:5548]\n

Then as the train was continuing west something caught my eye – a pair of swans were flying south over the water. So the natural shot was the swans with NR-2 in the background<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5547]\n

Not a bad way to finish up the morning. Bob & I talked a bit more, then bid farewell – he was going to wait to try to catch a couple more trains, and I headed back to the office.<\/p>\n

Thanks for looking!
\nTom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Got out again this morning to take advantage of the sunlight, even though it was quite chilly. At least it wasn’t as windy as it was yesterday. But I did end up getting out a bit later than normal, which changed things a bit at the last minute. But that’s fine – I bagged two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nautical-photography","7":"category-rail_photography","8":"czr-hentry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}