12-08-04 PHOTOS: SONOTOMO

I really wish I had something Christmas-y to post, but even though I have chopped my processing backlog down to 2 months from 11, that's not close enough to get in my photos from the Baltimore Streetcar Museum Santa Special or anything with the Nostalgia train which I didn't bother to ride this year. So everyone is going to have to sit back and yawn as I dig up some photos from August when myself and an all-star cast of Subhcatters including Chuchubob, Fred G and Alex converged on South Norwalk, CT for a visit to the preserved New Haven Railroad interlocking tower there.

Now this is not my first trip to the museum, but with the M-2's due for retirement I needed to get out on the New Haven Line anyway and this was probably the best destination available. For those of you looking for an in depth description of how turn of the century electro-mechanical interlocking machines functioned I am going to save that for another essay in the future, but there are plenty of non-signaling related visual treats available.

We start off with a string of classic M-2 railcars departing Stamford inbound towards New York City. I took Amtrak to Stamford and then got a ride from Alex there instead of trying to make the 1 minute transfer to Metro-North.

Enter the bag guy, track left as an outbound train of M-8's pulls in.

Inbound Stamford local train with M-2 #8832 in the lead.

Roof shot of M-2 #8832.

Video of 8832 and friends departing Stamford from above.



MNRR BL20-GH #115 pushing at the rear of an outbound Danbury shuttle train. The Beeps have been suffering from some overheating problems which is why one of the side doors is open.

Amtrak Acela Express #2039 in the push position as it heads through the Norwalk truss bridge.

Brand new Metro North catenary structure bolted to the original 1918 New Haven gantries is at least a nice consolation prize after the original catenary was removed.

The original New Haven electrified wire warning sign needs to be updated as voltage was raised to 12,000. At least its better than the "High Voltage SEPTA" signs.

#115 on its way back from Danbury passing the new old SS45 WALK tower.

The hotter mid-day temperatures means additional side doors had to be opened.

Hudson Blue Shoreliner cab car #6313 is on the north end of the shuttle train this day.

#115 again as it once again heads up to Danbury.

Skipping ahead to Trenton I caught NJT ALP-46 #4657 pulling in to the eastbound track from Morrisville yard.

SEPTA SL-IV #385 picking up passengers on #5 track as a Bomber set with cab car #2404 hanging out on track #6.

#385 departing Trenton with the connecting R7 train to Philadelphia. I guess if the terrible RiverLINE connections are good for anything it is railfanning the Trenton station area after getting off NJT.

Finally while trying to snag an HD video of the US&S model A-5 pneumatic switch machine powering the #45 turnout I had to setting for an Amtrak Regional train arriving on track #1 with AEM-7 #909.



Well that's all for now. If you are interested in a more detailed view of SS44 check out my Position Light post on the topic. See you next week when I go up to have a spot of fun in New Hampshire.