Large Scale Central

Valley Railroad - Essex, CT

Prototypes
#1

I finally had some time today to make the trip to southern Connecticut to retrieve my Jackson & Burke caboose from my friend Lee Carlson. Lee works on the Valley Railroad which is a steam powered tourist hauler that utilizes about 9 miles of the old New Haven valley line along the banks of the Connecticut River. I had hoped to also see the unloading of the ex Knox & Kane Chinese Mikado, but it didn’t arrive today as originally thought. With the help of a chasing guide written by our own Matt Brown and a guided tour of photo spots, I did my best to chase the 1:00 PM Santa Train today. The weather cooperated and a rainy morning turned into a sunny afternoon, but I only managed to get shots at two northbound and one southbound location for the 1PM train. For the 3PM train I stayed in one location, but with the sun low in the sky and on the wrong side of the train the photos didn’t turn out too good. Here are a few of the best ones… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-1-1024.jpg]

[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-2-1024.jpg]

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#2

Thankfully we have tourist railroads keeping steam alive.
Very nice pictures.
Now that gas has come down, I may have to wander out for some photo shoots.
Ralph

#3
Ralph Berg said:
Thankfully we have tourist railroads keeping steam alive. Very nice pictures. Now that gas has come down, I may have to wander out for some photo shoots. Ralph
Thanks Ralph - I was shocked to find gas at $1.77 on my way home and they even let me use my credit card :D Thanks to our ever so smart Attorney General, the gasoline suppliers were forced to allow stations to charge different for cash Vs. Credit. This was supposed to give cash customers a discount but ended up only penalizing credit customers since the stations that don't have the legal signage to offer the discount compete against the cash price for all forms of payment.
#4

Jon,

Looks like it was a good time. I’m also glad to see steam alive. And I sure am glad that that “Caboose” that was called a “Van” is now once again a “Caboose”.

#5

Wow, those are beautiful shots!

#6

A few more… [url=lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-3-1024.jpg]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-3-640.jpg)

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(http://lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-4-640.jpg)

[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-6-1024.jpg]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-6-640.jpg)

[/url][color=blue]FF: Click to Enlarge - IE: Right Click Photo and select Open Link in New Window to Enlarge[/color] [url=lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-7-1024.jpg]

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/vale97-7-640.jpg)

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#7

That’s a scary looking Rudolph :smiley:
Ralph

#8

We went up to Lancaster yesterday to watch a Christmas Show and passed through Strassburg on the way. Caught the train at a road crossing and noticed they too, are running their Christmas Train. Had 5 coaches and a Diner car and it looked like the train was full. Didn’t have my camera or much time to take any pix. Had the 2-10-0 on the head end and it was a beautiful day here too.

Thanx for the pix Jon.

#9

Ken - I’ve done the same at Strassburg on the way home from York several times.

The weather was a surprise. The forecast was for cloudy with rain late in the day. I started out at 8 AM and ran into heavy rain with hail on the way. By the time I arrived just after 10 the rain had stopped and there were some breaks in the clouds. The sun came out for that first shot no less than 90 seconds before the train arrived. The later shots were taken with the sun low in the sky and on the wrong side of the train. The one just after Rudolph with the sun in the steam cloud was dumb luck., I didn’t see that until I got home and looked at the pictures on the big monitor. And the close up of the engine in the cut was the result of a very overcast sky and a fast ISO speed on the camera. More dumb luck :smiley: