I went out to Palmer, MA a couple days ago and spent a day railfanning. Here's my trip report:
Palmer, Massachusetts. Known as the “Town of Seven Railroads” for the seven railroads it hosted way back when, Palmer is the location of a junction between CSX and the New England Central Railroad and is a busy railfan location. The Massachusetts Central Railroad also serves the area. The town hosts the many CSX trains on the ex-Boston & Albany line, and Amtrak’s Vermonter and Lake Shore Limited as well as NECR freights and a Mass Central local.
I arrived a little before 1:50 to try to catch Amtrak’s Southbound Vermonter reversing directions off the NECR from St. Albans, VT, onto CSX to head west to Springfield, MA. It was extremely cold and windy, and waiting for the train was extremely unpleasant. 1:50 came and went, and before long it was 2:20, when Amtrak’s Westbound Lake Shore Limited was due.
Then I noticed the signals protecting the single track and diamond to the West were red. These are approach lighted, so I thought the Vermonter was approaching.
This whole time I was outside in single-digit weather without proper gloves. My fingers were totally numb, and I almost got frostbite. I sat in the car for a while, put on real gloves, and went back out to wait for the train.
As I stood there on the platform watching the NECR mainline to the North, I checked for the millionth time to the East on CSX, and saw the distinctive headlight arrangement of a GE P42 locomotive approaching. The Lake Shore Limited, supposed to come 30 minutes after the Vermonter, had come on time. I got the video camera rolling and got ready to get a photo of it crossing the diamond at 60 MPH, track speed for the area. But for a reason that my frozen brain could not comprehend, it came to a stop. I was wondering why when I realized that the signals were still red. I had totally forgotten about that in the cold and the excitement of finally getting a train.
I walked over near to the locomotive, above it near a road bridge over the tracks and got some photos of it. I walked up to the road bridge to check out the rear of the train, and noticed that a CSX train was stopped behind the Lake Shore Limited too. They were both waiting for something.
After 25-30 minutes, a CSX eastbound headed up by a pair of GP40-2s came off the single track and disappeared east with a short train that included an unpatched WC boxcar.
The signals blinked to green, and the Lake Shore Limited accelerated West, the coaches nearly silent on snow-cushioned rails.
Soon after, the signal (which had turned red as soon as the Amtrak locomotives passed it) blinked to yellow. I sprinted all the way down to the depot to get a good shot of the CSX train behind the Lake Shore and made it, getting a friendly wave and a toot on the horn from the engineer of the lead ES44AC (the GE designation, the CSX calls it an ES44AH).
I gave up on the Vermonter and headed home. I did manage to stop on the way at Worcester Union Station for a couple minutes to get some photos of the colorful sunset there.
I also filmed all of the action, but unfortunately the video camera doesn’t record in cold weather, so I lost all my footage for the entire day…
Hope you enjoyed!
Yes indeed, I truly did enjoy your railfanning report. It really reminded me of my days in Wisconsin waiting in winter for the Milwaukee Road, SOO Line, C&NW and GB&W freights in various towns and cities I visited while living in Wausau. Thanks for sharing with us all. HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
Thanks, Tyler, for the report of your trip. It was well done. I sympathize with you on the effect of the weather.
Merry Christmas,
Johnny
Very good pictures. Thanks for getting out in the frigid temperatures, and sharing your photos with us.
While many digital cameras will work at low temperatures, camcorders won't work at temperatures much below 40 degrees;at least that has been my experience. When you take a camcorder out in cold weather, and bring it indoors after a while the moisture in the indoor air will condense on the rotating head and cause the tape to stick to the head. A moisture sensor inside the camcorder will sense the presence of moisture on the rotating drum, and it will shut the camcorder down except for opening the tape compartment to allow the user to remove the tape. DVD cameras using digital disks or other digital media may not be as sensitive to as low temperatures.
Thanks!
Thank you as well for an explanation about why the camcorder fails in frigid temperatures. Is there any way to get it to record anything, like removing the tape from the camcorder before going inside, then letting it dry before putting the tape back in? Or is there nothing I can do about it?
Ty;
You might try taking the tape out of the camera before you go back into a heated car, but I am not too sure how much good that will do if the moisture in the air inside, or in a heated car, also condenses on the heads on the drum. You may be right there may be nothing you can do about it. Perhaps the most obvious reason camcorders may not work at very low temperatures is their batteries don't provide enough power at low temperatures.
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