22K - Ayer, MA - 2015
Man how time flies. Coming up on a decade ago, I made the hour-ish drive out to "Pan Am Land" to see what was running. Weekends are always tough in Southern New England as far as freight traffic goes. But, you could always count on the pig trains from NS; 22K and 23K. Sometimes the occasional Pan Am local or road job from East Deerfield to Portland and vice versa. Having a monday-friday job kinda kills all your chances of getting out on the "busy" days. While other people are afforded the ability to call out of work whenever they wanted, I was not that lucky. So with that said, I tried to appreciate whatever I could lens.
However, I remember I was kinda bummed this day. The only moving train I saw (aside from a few MBTA commuter trains) was 22K backing into the Hill Yard in Ayer. That was strike one. Strike two was NS's Conrail heritage unit #8098 buried fourth out, and strike three was the excellent foliage being wasted on a run of the mill Dash 9. But I grabbed a few shots anyway and went home.
Fast forward nearly 10 years and I look back on what's become of the former Pan Am Railways. I always wondered how long it would take for me to say "damn, really wish that was a Dash 9 leading instead of..." and here we are. Leaders must be equipped with ACSES, which nothing on NS has except for some SD60E's - gross. And with CSX being the new owner from Portland, ME, to Ayer and the Berkshire and Eastern (a G&W subsidiary) owning from Ayer to Mechanicville, NY, cool power is dwindling away. Pan Am and Guilford units are becoming more scarce by the day, being replaced with CSX power and orange G&W mutts. Sigh...oh well.
Too long, didn't read: appreciate what you're photographing now. Because it can be gone in the blink of an eye.
October 2015
Ayer, MA.
22K - Ayer, MA - 2015
Man how time flies. Coming up on a decade ago, I made the hour-ish drive out to "Pan Am Land" to see what was running. Weekends are always tough in Southern New England as far as freight traffic goes. But, you could always count on the pig trains from NS; 22K and 23K. Sometimes the occasional Pan Am local or road job from East Deerfield to Portland and vice versa. Having a monday-friday job kinda kills all your chances of getting out on the "busy" days. While other people are afforded the ability to call out of work whenever they wanted, I was not that lucky. So with that said, I tried to appreciate whatever I could lens.
However, I remember I was kinda bummed this day. The only moving train I saw (aside from a few MBTA commuter trains) was 22K backing into the Hill Yard in Ayer. That was strike one. Strike two was NS's Conrail heritage unit #8098 buried fourth out, and strike three was the excellent foliage being wasted on a run of the mill Dash 9. But I grabbed a few shots anyway and went home.
Fast forward nearly 10 years and I look back on what's become of the former Pan Am Railways. I always wondered how long it would take for me to say "damn, really wish that was a Dash 9 leading instead of..." and here we are. Leaders must be equipped with ACSES, which nothing on NS has except for some SD60E's - gross. And with CSX being the new owner from Portland, ME, to Ayer and the Berkshire and Eastern (a G&W subsidiary) owning from Ayer to Mechanicville, NY, cool power is dwindling away. Pan Am and Guilford units are becoming more scarce by the day, being replaced with CSX power and orange G&W mutts. Sigh...oh well.
Too long, didn't read: appreciate what you're photographing now. Because it can be gone in the blink of an eye.
October 2015
Ayer, MA.