{"id":303,"date":"2007-12-11T23:15:56","date_gmt":"2007-12-12T03:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nanosphoto.com\/blog\/?p=303"},"modified":"2007-12-11T23:15:56","modified_gmt":"2007-12-12T03:15:56","slug":"early-nr-2-and-a-chopper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/early-nr-2-and-a-chopper\/","title":{"rendered":"Early NR-2 and a chopper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, a morning meeting of mine was postponed, so it allowed me to get out for a quick run north. With the recent changes to operations in the area – the P&W\/NECR interchange was moved from New London to Willimantic – NR-2s times have been in a state of flux. I got out around the normal time, which would normally give me enough time to get to at least Mill Cove to the north of the Sub Base, but today I wouldn’t get that far. In fact, I wouldn’t get that far up Military Highway in Groton.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On my way north on Thames Street, the scanner locked onto the P&W frequency. It kinda sounded like the usual NR-2 guys talking. Jeez, that meant they were quite close – possibly at Fairview. The closer I got to Fairview, the clearer the transmissions became – not only on the scanner, but also the situation. NR-2 was definitely in Fairview. Oh, well, if I get there soon enough, I can probably catch them crossing the Thames River.<\/p>\n

Pulling into the parking spot at the south end of Fairview, the conversations continued on the scanner. Since I didn’t see the train at the signal, and they were still talking on the P&W frequency, they weren’t heading for Amtrak yet. Grabbing my gear, I headed up to track level to see what’s going on.<\/p>\n

Before I got up there, a sound to the south caught my attention. A US Coast Guard HH60J Jayhawk helicopter was flying north at a pretty low altitude. I got a trio of shots to begin with<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5615] [cpg_imagefixthumb:5614] [cpg_imagefixthumb:5613]\n

Then a vertical of the chopper heading up the river out of sight<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5612]\n

At that point something else caught my eye – the beginnings of a truss across the river. It looks like they’re starting to put together the new Thames River drawbridge moveable span.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5611]\n

Pretty neat. But now to check out what’s going on with the train. A look to the north kinda gave me an idea – the locomotive on the tail end of the train was separated and a pair of the crew members were off looking at something.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5610]\n

And a little different angle with the switch stand<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5609]\n

But with this one, something caught my eye. Notice the little white thing above the tree line<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5608]\n

The Jayhawk was heading back south. I waited a few seconds and got a shot of the chopper flying past the Coast Guard Academy across the river in New London<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5607]\n

Just after that, the head end of NR-2 began rolling south.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5606]\n

As they passed by me, the light at the south end of the yard struck me as a natural black & white shot.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5605]\n

As the trio slipped behind the trees, the EMD that was originally left to the north began slowly rolling south, apparently somewhat injured.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5604]\n

While it was still rolling south, I swapped lenses, and took advantage of the blue sky with the wide angle.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5603]\n

And back to the telephoto for a couple shots into the haze. The first in color<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5602]\n

And a black & white a bit further along<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5601]\n

It sounded like they were leaving the EMD in Fairview, and taking the solo GE with the pair of boxcars west on the Shore Line. So I headed for the Thames River drawbridge next. I got a trio of shots of the bridge and a reflection of it in the calm river.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5600] [cpg_imagefixthumb:5599] [cpg_imagefixthumb:5598]\n

The radio was still silent on the Amtrak frequency, so I broke things off – I had to drop my suit off at the cleaners in town (we’ve got a pair of Christmas parties for work this weekend, and I figured a clean suit would be a good idea).<\/p>\n

On my way back to work from the cleaners, I heard a marker chirp. Hmmm, was the Shore Line dispatcher still holding the train at the Groton wye? So I took the scenic route into work. As I approached Thames Street, I heard a flagman on the Thames River drawbridge call “westbound hot rail on 1” – that might be NR-2. So I headed for the overlook across the river from the New London Amtrak station. Just as I got there, NR-2, with the lone GE and pair of boxcars, was heading for the Shaw’s Cove swing bridge.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5597]\n

And as shot of the train heading off of the Shaw’s Cove swing bridge<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5596]\n

Then to wrap things up, a pair of shots with a channel marker in the foreground, as the short train was heading for shore.<\/p>\n

[cpg_imagefixthumb:5595] [cpg_imagefixthumb:5594]\n

At that point, the camera hit the bag, and I hit the road for the office – I still had one meeting left on the calendar, and I’d have just enough time to get back for it. Let’s see if the calendar cooperates tomorrow too.<\/p>\n

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

Well, a morning meeting of mine was postponed, so it allowed me to get out for a quick run north. With the recent changes to operations in the area – the P&W\/NECR interchange was moved from New London to Willimantic – NR-2s times have been in a state of flux. I got out around the […]<\/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":[132,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-aviation-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\/303","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=303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanosphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}