Mass Central Visit

Back on Friday 8/6/16 The DT&I Fan and I departed my place around 7:30am for Palmer, Mass.  The idea being that we could try to find the Mass Central RR and maybe even Leo Landry, who is an engineer there and HO modeler that Carl knows.

We started with lunch at the Steaming Tender restaurant and then drove over to the railroad office.  No one was around at first but I got out to take a photo and an employee said "Photos are ten bucks!" You could tell he was joking.  We chatted a second and then I asked him if Leo still worked there.  He said he was out on the road.  Before leaving he got on his phone and called Leo for his location, which was north of Ware.  He'd be there in 20 minutes.  Awfully helpful of the guy.  We charged off in that direction.

On the way up we noted all the crossings and such where good photos could be had and got a ways beyond Ware when we saw the headlights.  Carl turned it around and headed us to the transload facility in Ware.  It's and interesting place since the transload appears to be on a remnant of the B&M while the bulk of the MCER is former B&A (NYC/PC).  The bridges in the yard reflect that.  Plus, a GP9u and NW5 are currently sitting there.  The train came along and Leo instantly spotted Carl with a friendly wave.  We chased him back to Palmer where Leo took us into the compound for some better photos of equipment.

We ended the day with a visit with Billy Leazer at the old Amshack where we caught "Purple Trains" and the actually timely "Late For Sure Limited".  No freight through but CSX was not still as an intermodal went back and forth sorting outbound trains.  We left when the light died around 8:30pm.

The selected photos are in the Flickr album here:


BC

Maryland and Pennsylvania

PRR cabooses used by tourists now.  Northern Central RR, New Freedom, PA

The day after July 4th I was convoying south with my brother's family to their home in Maryland. The photo above sort of exemplifies the whole adventure given the Pennsy dominance and regional flavor. This family visit was followed on the 11th by a few days running up to Hamburg, NY to chase down a Pennsy I-1, stay at the Bridgeview B&B, and experience a couple of nights at the Station Inn at Cresson. This was with the usual railfan co-adventurer, Charles "The Fiddler" Kadyk. Yes we checked out the newly cleared Horseshoe Curve, but for the first time for me, we also visited the Allegheny Portage Historical Site. Cassandra overlook was included but we also got down to Holidaysburg where Curry Rail Services had some cabs out where I can see them and a sizeable group of Pan Am boxcars were going in for overhaul and new owners.  More local railfanning radiating from the Kadyk estate followed this trip.  I then concluded 17 days of wandering with a visit to Macungie, PA where I saw the re-newed Pan Am cars in GATX paint.  Finally I moved on to Steamtown, finishing the trip by staying at the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel in Scranton.

I could go on forever, which wouldn't help anything. Here are the photo highlights on Flickr, in order and mostly with captions, because I'm getting too old to write blog entries and insert more than a few photos at the same time:

BC

Red Barns

Normally when you hear "red barn" you think of something where cows are milked and hay is stored.  In the railfan world that would be the CP's cowled SD40-2's or SD40F's.  I had a chance encounter with one about 10 years ago near Montreal and thought that was a big deal.  Now that CMQ has acquired a few, they suddenly show up more often.  Last week at Millinocket, ME and yesterday west of Lac Meganic, QC.  I think I have another "bad penny" locomotive around.  Anyway, here is the Flickr album I created of them and I assume it will see some additions down the road...

https://flic.kr/s/aHskyYMabG




BC  6/27/16

Adventures in Central Mass.

Carl and I took a near-spontaneous trip to Mass. to see something different.  Almost all of what's left of freight in the southern half of the state is nocturnal these days unless you want to chase down branches with very sporadic operations. We were growing weary of driving all over Maine and seeing maybe one train.  Lately that one train has been a scheduled Downeaster.  Not much excitement there.  Brownville Jct. is seeing more action these days but we figured the same driving would also take us to Worcester.   As it turned out, Bill Leazer had the day off so we started by meeting him at Flynn's Truck Stop in Shrewsbury to pick him up.

After a good breakfast at the Edgemere Diner just down the street, we moved on to Worcester.  Union Station on a Saturday morning is wide open for parking, but we at least got to see an MBTA train leave for Boston and the layover yard was full.  CSX and the P&W were quiet.  The intermodal yard was quiet too.  Little radio chatter.  So, after we took a walk down the platform, where I took some photos in morning light, we moved on to Palmer, W. Springfield, E.Deerfield, then Greenfield.  The album below has the captioned photos of the tour.
The Flickr album is here:


It was a hot day.  My car thermometer got up to 94+ with a lovely humidity to accompany it.  We dropped by the Gardner T station/Chinese Restaurant where an autorack and a local were parked.  But, it wasn't to be our day for freight trains.  We moved south back to Flynn's on Rt. 140, which turned out to be a quiet and scenic route around all the urban crap.  We said our goodbye's and headed back to Maine.  It was a long day, especially when the heat took so much out of us.  But it was worth it to hang out with Billy and reconnoiter a piece of the new Conn River route.

BC