Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Seven: The Conway Scenic Railroad, Going Back the Way We Came

For the last leg of our journey, please click on the link for The Conway Scenic Railroad, Part Three at The Distracted Wanderer.  Thank you! 

Venturing Out on Vacation, Part Five: North Conway & The Conway Scenic Railroad

This post has been relocated to The Distracted Wanderer - please click here to take a ride on The Conway Scenic Railroad - Part One.

A Monday Moment

Travel
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with friends I make,
And better friends I not be knowing;
Yet there isn't a train I'd rather take,
No matter where it's going.

Training Myself on What to Do With My New Day Off

With the advent of our newest dispatcher being fully trained and able to step into his new rotation, my work schedule has changed ever so slightly and I now find myself with having Wednesday afternoon/evening off. Not quite sure what to do with the novelty of having this extra time, I found myself having to find something to do yesterday afternoon so I did one of the things I like best ... grabbed the camera and headed to Indian Leap Falls in search of the elusive southbound New England Central Railway train!

The area had thawed significantly since I was there last Tuesday afternoon so I stopped to take a couple of shots of the falls themselves before heading to an area near the footbridge and waiting for my prey to hopefully arrive this time!  Turns out I wasn't there too long at all before I heard the sound of a train whistle coming from the Norwichtown area and I knew that finally I was going to get a break.  A few moments later the elusive NECR engine approached the trestle bridge and crossed over to my side of the river.

 

Now I know for a fact that the engineers never ever sound the horn after they've come over that bridge - or even approaching it as there's no roadway - but darned if the engineer didn't give the horn a hearty blast as the engine approached me.  I was darn lucky that this other shot wasn't one big blur as I'm pretty sure I jumped quite a bit!  Still, I'll take it as a friendly gesture as he wasn't waving any single fingers in my direction as he passed by!

Giddy with my success at finally capturing a southbound train on the trestle, I decided to hot-foot it down to the harbor near downtown Norwich in the hopes of perhaps catching the afternoon northbound Providence & Worcester train.

Less than five minutes later I was rewarded with a double engine P&W making its way through Norwich - woohoo!  Or is that "choo-choo"?!?

All in all, I'd have to say that it was a rather good first 'new-day-off' and perhaps Wednesday is going to be my lucky day for trains from here on in.  Now to go in search of some other locales to shoot in as I've no doubt you folks are getting tired of seeing the same old places post in and post out but I really hope you don't mind trains as I appear to be fascinated with them lately!  I'm hoping to someday get that 'perfect' shot that I can submit to Trains magazine and be officially published once the editors are done ooh'ing and aah'ing over it!  Bear with me, this may take awhile!