Last Monday I had to head out for lunch, and as things worked out I managed to catch a couple Providence & Worcester trains. Not that the first was really planned out, but the second was caught completely by chance.
During work I sometimes listen to a friend’s radio feed on the iTunes where he has Amtrak, MetroNorth and P&W frequencies piped through a feed. It’s pretty handy since where he has it set up, it picks up most of the Amtrak Shore Line dispatcher’s territory, as well as the P&W dispatcher through the Plainfield tower. What was odd that morning while listening is that Shore Line was already talking to P&W NR-2, and it sounded like they were coming back east already. Very odd.
Fast forward a few hours – I forgot to bring lunch in that day, so I headed out for lunch. Once I got in the car and fired up the scanner, I heard NR-2 getting permission from the Worcester dispatcher to occupy the main at Fairview in Groton. I guess they were indeed headed back east! So I headed north on Route 12 to try and get ahead of them. But as I passed within radio range of Fairview, I could hear they were switching in the yard, so I had time.
I figured with the cloudy skies, I’d head for Red Top in the Gales Ferry section of Ledyard and get a shot looking south. Once I got to the spot, and took a few test shots, I waited (while waiting I also heard P&W NR3 hit the Jewett City detector – so they seemed to be out of the picture). After a little while, the train started north and I could hear horns to the south. Well just then the clouds broke up, and I was greeted to mostly clear blue skies – just what I DIDN’T want! Oh, well, I’d make do. After adjusting the settings, I got some decent into the sun shots of a pretty long NR-2, which had empty stone cars on the head end (both Tilcon and O&G), and a cut of ethanol on the marker.
| Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heads north along the Thames River in Ledyard, CT |
| Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heads north along the Thames River in Ledyard, CT |
| Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heads north along the Thames River in Ledyard, CT |
| Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heads north along the Thames River in Ledyard, CT |
Then a couple going away shots, including one blur of ethanol tanks rolling past.
| Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heads north through Red Top in Ledyard, CT |
| Providence & Worcester train NR-2 heads north through Red Top in Ledyard, CT |
After that last shot, I noticed something odd – they were slowing down. Maybe NR-3 still had paper down to this end? Whatever the situation was, I decided to head north to Stoddard Cove and get them heading north along the Thames.
After leap-frogging NR-2 at Dow, I happened to look to the north along the Thames in one of the gaps in the trees when something caught my eye. It was a trio of headlights on the P&W side of the river! Holy crap, NR-3 was actually SOUTHBOUND when they hit Jewett City! So that explains why NR-2 slowed down – they stopped at MP5 waiting for NR-3.
After doing a quick (and legal) U-turn, I decided to head down to the small tidal pool near MP7 to get a shot of NR3 coming south. I got there just as they were coming by Stoddard Cove
| Providence & Worcester train NR-3 heads south along Stoddard Cove and the Thames River in Ledyard, CT |
Then a quick sprint to the other side of the water, to get a pretty nice reflection shot
| PW NR-3 rollling along a tidal pool in Ledyard, CT |
With that in the bag, now it was NR-2s turn again. This time I went back to my original plan of Stoddard Cove.
I got there just as NR-3 was clearing up, making way for NR-2 to come north. I got a few shots of NR-2 rolling past, including some backlit shots that I think came out pretty well.
| PW NR2 appears near Stoddard Cove in Ledyard, CT |
| PW NR-2 crosses the inlet to Stoddard Cove in Ledyard, CT with the entire train in the frame. |
| PW NR-2 rolling north past Stoddard Cove in Ledyard, CT |
| Ethanol tanks on PW NR2 roll north past Stoddard Cove |
With those in the cameras, I hiked back to the car, got a bite to eat, and headed back to the office. Not a bad lunch hour, eh?
Thanks for looking!
Tom
Tom,
These shots are beautiful. I like your approach to original composition, and the position of light.
Don Haskel
Thanks Don – I truly appreciate the kind words!!