{"id":27562,"date":"2019-08-23T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T12:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=27562"},"modified":"2019-08-23T12:10:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T16:10:30","slug":"busy-afternoon-at-palmer-august-22-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/busy-afternoon-at-palmer-august-22-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Busy Afternoon at Palmer, August 22, 2019."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yesterday I met fellow photographer Mike Gardner at the Steaming Tender restaurant in the old Palmer Union Station for lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had iced tea and the Reuben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except for the New England Central switching all was quiet for the first couple of hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just after 2 pm, I said “Let’s head outside, I have a feeling it’s all about to happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luck, intuition or experience, call it what you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first the trains didn\u2019t favor the light. A New England Central local crossed the diamond northbound. CSX B740 was working deep in the old Boston & Albany yard. The Mass-Central came down from Ware long-hood first. Then everything stalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I\u2019ll bet everything is waiting for the Lake Shore.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 3pm Amtrak 449, the westward\u00a0Lake Shore Limited<\/em> appeared at the east end of the long tangent on the old Boston & Albany. On queue Mike announced, \u2018Headlight!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I made a series of photos of enthusiasts on the old station platform rolling the train by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Lake Shore, the illusion of a lull continued, and most everyone else got bored and left. CSX B740 had pulled up and was poised waiting for signal. Mike and I decided to hold on. And sure enough 15 minutes behind the Lake Shore was a westward CSX freight\u2014Q427.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After this passed, B740 pulled ahead through CP83 and then reverse back into the yard, meanwhile the Mass-Central was getting ready to head back north again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all in was a very successful day in Palmer. But the keys to our success were timing and patience<\/em>. If you left after the Lake Shore rolled west, you missed most of the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Amtrak 449 westbound.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CSX Q427.
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
CSX B740.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Massachusetts Central 1751 with interchange traffic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I met fellow photographer Mike Gardner at the Steaming Tender restaurant in the old Palmer Union Station for lunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[48],"tags":[4820,4210,4537,31,35,84],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/CSX_6229_leads_local_B740_at_CP83_Palmer_MA_DSCF2109.jpg?fit=4896%2C3264","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-7ay","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27570,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27562\/revisions\/27570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}