![\"pw_grwo_moosehorn_pond_hubbardston_dscf8908\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/PW_GRWO_Moosehorn_Pond_Hubbardston_DSCF8908.jpg?resize=474%2C316\")
<\/p>\nSometimes railway locomotives mean more than power for today\u2019s train.<\/p>\n
Over the years some old engines connect the dots.<\/p>\n
A brisk wind was blowing across the water, as I listened to the distant whistle of a southward train approaching Moosehorn Pond in Hubbardston, Massachusetts.\u00a0\u00a0I thought back over the years . . .<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In January 1991, under clear California skies, J.D. Schmid and I explored Santa Fe Railway\u2019s Needles District between Barstow and Needles.<\/p>\n
We were east of Ash Hill when the once a week Maersk double-stack from Richmond rolled by with brand new DASH8-40BWs in the lead. These were the only modern General Electric wide-cab four-axle diesel locomotives built for a freight railroad.<\/p>\n
They were dressed in the classy classic red and silver Warbonnet livery designed by Leland Knickerbocker for Santa Fe\u2019s early EMC diesels.<\/p>\n
\u201cA flash in the pan!\u2019 He said, as we began our high-speed pursuit across the Mojave Desert. We caught them. And those photos have appeared in books.<\/p>\n
Some 19 years later, one evening my late friend Bob Buck and I were having dinner at the Steaming Tender in Palmer, Massachusetts\u2014located in the old station, near the crossing between CSX\u2019s Boston & Albany and New England Central\u2019s old New London Northern line.<\/p>\n
It was dark and cascading rain outside, when a loaded unit ethanol train pulled across the diamond. Bob and I looked up to watch it pass. In consist were these former Santa Fe DASH8-40BWs that were being delivered to Providence & Worcester along with the ethanol train.<\/p>\n
The train stopped.<\/p>\n
As Bob ordered desert. I said, \u2018let me find out the story on this.\u2019<\/p>\n
I dashed into the rain and inquired of the incoming crew when they expected to head south.<\/p>\n
\u2018In about five minutes.\u2019<\/p>\n
Returning to the warmth of the restaurant, I relayed the message to Bob. \u201cWould you like to follow it?\u201d Bob\u2019s enthusiasm for the chase was unchecked by weather or darkness.<\/p>\n
Bob inhaled his dessert and paid his bill so quickly, you could see the draft of wind in the waitresses hair as we flew out to my car.<\/p>\n
In the driving rain we followed the laboring train through Monson, Massachusetts as it ascended State Line Hill. The heavy train and wet rail made for slow progress. I exposed atmospheric night photos.<\/p>\n
At Stafford Springs, Connecticut, I made time exposures with my Canon EOS 7D of Bob rolling by these Santa Fe GEs, some still in Warbonnet paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat show!\u201d<\/p>\n
Afterwards we drove the length of Route 19, a highway that connects Stafford Spring with Bob\u2019s home in Warren, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
It was still raining when we arrived and Bob had been telling me of his experiences with steam on the Central Vermont six decades earlier.<\/p>\n
So back to the\u00a0other day; I was traveling with my friends\u00a0Pat Yough, Tim Doherty when we\u00a0caught those same DASH8-40BWs leading a Worcester-bound train across the Moosehorn Pond in Hubbardston, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes railway locomotives mean more than power for today\u2019s train. Over the years some old engines connect the dots. A brisk wind was blowing across the water, as I listened to the distant whistle of a southward train approaching Moosehorn Pond in Hubbardston, Massachusetts.\u00a0\u00a0I thought back over the years . . . In January 1991, … Continue reading Three Santa Fe\u2019s at Hubbardston.<\/span> ![\"Late](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/PW_GRWO_Moosehorn_Pond_Hubbardston_DSCF8920.jpg?resize=474%2C316\")
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