Trackside Log for Sunday, September 21, 2008

Sam and I awoke in Providence, Rhode Island to a beautiful day. We ate breakfast and headed out so take in the scenery and find a few trains along the way. Today the term "few trains" would be accurate. We checked out a couple places around Providence but didn't find anything readily photographable. So we pushed on to Central Falls where the Providence & Worcester greeted us with a GP38-2 parked right by the road.

• 1014 Central Falls, RI - P&W power - PW 2007 (photo)

After a couple photographs and a tour of the old mill site in Central Falls we continued on to Worcester, Massachusetts. Now this is a P&W town. I was initially struck by how many buildings had P&W logos on them. Quite interesting. There were a variety of locomotives parked outside the shops.

• 1207 Worcester, MA - P&W power - PW 3908-PW 4004 (photo 1, photo 2)
• 1207 Worcester, MA - P&W power - PW 3001-PW 3002 (photo)
• 1209 Worcester, MA - P&W power - PW 150 (photo)

We were at a service station across the street from the Providence & Worcester shops when a local train passed through.

• 1215 Worcester, MA - P&W yard job - PW 2006-PW 2008

After exploring town a little we headed west toward home. The first stop was Palmer where we discovered a New England Central yard job switching at the interchange with CSX. I was amused to see my old friend "Barney", GEXR 3843, performing the work.

• 1352 Palmer, MA - NECR yard job - GEXR 3843 (photo)

There were also a pair of leased engines parked in the yard, but I was unable to photograph them. Bummer. Next we continued on to Springfield where I had intended to visit the yard there to see what was going on. Bad timing. It was state fair time and the area around the yard was ridiculously busy. Sam and I quickly decided that we didn't need to be mixed up in that mess so we had lunch at the IHOP and moved on. Next on my hit list was Westfield, home of the Pioneer Valley. However, when we got there the yard was devoid of any motive power. Either it was all out on line somewhere or inside the sheds. Either way no photographs were to be had. Sam and I then drove to Albany, New York to spend the night.