13-08-30 PHOTOS: Downeaster Exeter

For the last couple of years I have had a friend up in New Hampshire that has provided me with an excuse to go up there from time to time and make use of the Downeaster train service. Recently he moved from one location to another in the Portsmouth, NH area and as a result I have switched the station I use from Dover to Exeter. In this photo set I'll show some photos and video from Amtrak's Shore Line, a few pics from North and South station and finally a few of the Exeter, NH station area.

You can find all of these photos right here.

We begin in the New Haven trench just west of downtown. I was hoping to get a series of photos out the back of my Amtrak train, but morning shitty weather threw a wrench in the works. Before I gave up in the interest of shooting video here is SLE cab car #1711 on point for an eastbound SLE train that would follow ours. Power was P40 #840.

At Shoreline Junction we passed a westbound Acela Express trainset with power car #2015.

View out the back of the train as it passes through the East Haven tunnel complex.

As I said between Guilford and the Connecticut River bridge I shifted over to video from the back of the train due to poor lighting conditions.



More video from the rear taken between Providence and Route 128. This includes one of the 150mph sections used by AX trainsets.



After Route 128 I shot directly from the rear vestibule using HD video. This includes the famous Southwest corridor trench and the MBTA junction at Readville.


MTBA F40PH-2C #1074 at South Station.

Power for my train was AEL-7 #944.

The highly ironic Veterans cab car #1528 was also at South Station. The irony comes from the fact that the car was constructed by Messerschmidt, the same Messerschmidt that built fighters that many of those same Veterans faced over Germany in World War 2. 

Train inbound to North Station with a route cleared for an outbound train on Track 9 across the twin drawbridges.

 Amtrak P42DC #113 next to the departing F40PH #1012.

Video of the departing #1012 and its train.



F40PH-2C's 1061 and 1060 in the same shot with F40PH #1005. This was not the first pair of siblings I had caught that day with 1070 and 1071 sitting side by side in South Station.

Brand new Rotem Bi-Level (R-car?) #804 now in service on the North Side behind F40PH #1009.

F40PH #1010 on its own at North Station.

My train to Exeter had P42DC #112 subbing for the normal F40 cabbage car today. Note this is the third set of siblings I encountered on this trip with #113 powering the train on point. Here my train is seen departing the station.

The new Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, NH has been completed and is ready for service.

My friend's garden was infested by tomato hornworms. Oh well, I think they are cool.


Amtrak's Exeter, NH station.

That's more like it. Cabbage car #90213 leading southbound towards North Station.

Well that's it. Next week check out some classic LIRR photos...or something around the Camden Yards area in Baltimore.