My survey work on the Chicopee River near Springfield ended early on the Friday of Columbus Day weekend, so on my
way home I spent an hour having a late lunch trackside at Palmer, to take pot
luck on rail traffic. In one hour, I was able to catch movements on all running
tracks!
Shortly after I arrived a westbound ballast extra rolled up to the west end
of the siding, and dimmed its headlight. I suspected a meet was in progress;
ten minutes later, an eastbound loaded auto rack track sailed by:
Once the autorack cleared up, the extra got a high green and went west with
it’s freshly repainted GP-40
note the solar panel and electrical cabinet on the ballast car.
Each car was so equipped. Not sure what purpose they have
a few minutes after CSX cleared the interlocking, a New England Central
GP-38 scurried north across the diamond
The final act was the reverse move of the northbound Vermonter,
which rolled in from Springfield being pushed by it’s Genesis engine, paused
while the engineer changed positions from cab car to locomotive, and the
conductor dismounted and lined the two manual crossovers. All in all the
reverse move, and manual turnout process consumed almost 15 minutes
after crossing to the connection to New England Central, the train then
stopped again to let the rear brakeman (I assume) realign the turnouts before
leaving town
And off they went (shortly after that, so did I)!
