Day 1
April 19th, 2007 dawned a beautiful day. Spring was in the air, but Old Man Winter was still haunting us with a slight chill. With a 6 AM departure from Minot, Maine, Brad and I rolled south on the first leg of a wonderful trip.
First stop was Ayer, MA near the MBTA station. Nothing moving on the Main Line, one moving on the wye, highlight was the Pan Am 505 as the trailing unit on the train on the wye.
We arrived at Ayer at 9 AM, and were gone at about 9:10.
Next stop was at the Charlton Depot site in Charlton, MA where we got one Eastbound coming through the switch, at CP 57.
Interesting car on this train, was a Chessie system (tagged) hopper on the rear:
We arrived at Charlton at 10:30, and were gone about 20 minutes later.
Next up was Lunch at the Steaming Tender at Palmer, MA. Even without the takeout window open, they gladly brought our burgers outside. Since they all have railroad names, I recommend them all :-) No trains were spotted at Palmer, although there was some power in the yard. Nothing visible on NECR or Mass Central. We were gone by 1 PM. (Might have been earlier) Just a quick note, Palmer was the only spot that I had been to prior to this trip, everything else was new territory.
The first highlight of the trip was a visit to Selkirk yard. Now, for some, I'm sure that isn't terribly exciting. However, it is the largest yard I have seen to date! Locomotives of every color of the rainbow, including a bunch of firsts for me. Highlights include:
A Pioneer Valley CF7
CEFX (ex UP) SD-40
GCFX SD-40
A P&W GP-38, a pair of CN 'Draper Tapers', a bunch of older CSX power, GP-15s and Dash 7 GEs, a Metro North F-40 and a LLPX GP-38 lettered for the Shanondoah Valley Railroad.
Another personal first, a yard slug / mother set. Two actually. I've seen the road slugs on the SLR, but never a slug made out of an Alco. We arrived about 3 PM, and left about 4.
Next on the Agenda was SuperSteel in Schenectedy. Brad was holding back on me a bit, not telling me of what he had heard might be there. Well - I nearly fainted when I saw what was sitting in front of me. The new National Railway Equipment Multi-engine locomotives are being constructed at SuperSteel, and three were on hand for our arrival. UPY 2645, 2647 and 2649 were out sunning themselves in the afternoon sun.
We arrived at 5 PM, and left soon after.
About 45 minutes later, we arrived at Guy Park, NY, to witness the "Late For Sure" Limited (officially known as the Lakeshore Limited, but the nickname is more accurate) roar by Eastbound. With bad lighting, we rolled out of Guy Park, in search of a spot to shoot a Westbound we had heard was coming.
With limited time, and a train through a detector to the West, it was determined that we would have limited time to get anywhere, let alone to a perfect spot. I spotted a shot at Lock 12, and we took it, with moments to spare. First through was an Eastbound, back lit due to the evening sun upon us, but second through was a Westbound, with my first leading UP engine on the point! It wound up being the power we had seen earlier in the day at Selkirk, a pair of Widecabs with the CEFX leaser trailing.
By now it was 6:15 PM, and we had been at it for over 12 hours. The Motel was checked into, and dinner eaten. With all we'd seen on Day 1, it seemed somehow unlikely that it could get better. Well, sometimes I like to be proven wrong!
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3