Long-ass drive to West Bridgewater

Diesel-powered “T” commuter-train out of Boston cruises southbound on the electrified Northeast Corridor line. (Photo by BobbaLew.)

This past weekend yrs trly made a long drive to West Bridgewater, MA, to visit my younger brother.
My journey was supposed to be over a year ago, a flight, but my brother had to cancel due to his wife’s sister being hospitalized.
I had to cancel my flight reservation, and had the airline hold my charge for rescheduling.
You’re supposed to reschedule within a year, but my brother is always working. He can’t easily take time off.
So my set-aside vaporized. —No great loss, I had more-or-less forgot it anyway.
So I set about making a new airline reservation, although apparently I made the mistake of trying to reserve from a previous day’s site I had left open on this computer.
The airline is updating their site every day with new ticket pricing.
They threw an error-message at me, and suggested I call their 800-number.
I did, but after almost an hour-and-a-half on hold I gave up. —And I was using my cellphone. That’s airtime minutes.
Other factors were at play:
—1) I wanted to take this laptop, my camera, my lenses, and my railroad-radio scanner, all probably security hassles.
—2) My flight to Boston was direct, but return required change-of-planes in Philadelphia. I could store everything in my carry-on, and use the scooters, but making a plane-change with all that stuff might be a struggle at my age (70).
I decided to drive. Home to West Bridgewater would be about eight hours, 400+ miles. But most was turnpike with service-plazas where I could get out and walk around.
My brother’s wife’s sister has since died.
A trip to Altoona PA, where I chase trains — I’m a railfan, and have been since age-2 — is only five hours, but there are no service-plazas.
—And furthermore, I’m not using interstates here in New York. I could, but they’re roundabout, and take about the same time as my two-lanes.
So, I drove to West Bridgewater on Friday, May 23rd. It took about eight-and-a-half hours.
I ran into three traffic slowdowns, all of which required I stop at least once.
It was Memorial-Day weekend, but nowhere near as bad as two years ago shortly after my wife died wherein my seven-hour drive to my nephew’s wedding in northern DE turned into a nine-hour marathon, and I missed the rehearsal-dinner. During that trip I encountered numerous parking-lot traffic-jams.
Driving back from West Bridgewater Sunday, May 25th was no problem.
No delays at all.
My brother and I would chase trains all day Saturday, May 24th.
My brother has become a railfan, and has accompanied me in Altoona.
Perhaps the biggest surprise to me is how bad I’ve become on stair-steps.
My brother’s house is two stories; one has to climb stairs to get to the bedrooms.
There also is a short staircase from the garage up into the house.
My own house has everything on one floor, even the laundry and freezer, both of which are usually in the basement.
My wife and I designed our house this way by intent. The idea was to be able to stay in our house despite getting old and weak.
When I first climbed that short staircase up from the garage I knew I’d have a problem.
The long staircase to the second floor was even more a challenge. Its steeper — shorter steps — than my stairs down to my basement.
The first time I tried that staircase I was carrying this heavy laptop and my lens-filled camera-bag.
I lost my balance and started to fall.
Climbing steps at my age takes guile-and-cunning. I have to hold onto the handrail so -a) I can pull myself up the steps, and -b) steady myself.
I can’t have both hands holding a laptop and a camera-bag. I have to have one hand free to hold the handrail.
I can get up steps, but I look wobbly.
No wonder my brother’s wife carried my duffle up to my bedroom.

Our first stop the next day was along the right-of-way of the original Boston & Providence (RI) Railroad, what is now Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor to Boston.
The line wasn’t electrified, but has been recently. It doesn’t look like Pennsy’s storied New York City-to-Washington D.C. main. The railroad is only two tracks; Pennsy was four.
The electrification is not Pennsy, but looks substantial.
It’s on metal poles.
We waited a while. My brother had got schedule information about Amtrak trains and Boston’s “T” commuter-rail.
The “T” is Boston’s commuter railroad service. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor is one of the many lines into Boston the “T” uses.
The line may be electrified, but “T” trains are still diesel. Plus “T” trains are push-pull, pulling out of Boston, and pushing in. I’d have to shoot an outbound train to have the engine leading.
Finally an outbound “T” appeared; that’s my lede picture. A northbound Amtrak Regional blasted past; Regionals often have an AEM-7 on the point.
Regionals aren’t the high-speed Acela, but they still get 125 mph. Acelas are much less frequent — a premier train. They’re good for 150, and the Corridor to Boston is good for that. Only small portions of the old ex-Pennsy main are good for 150 mph.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor is trumpeted as high-speed rail. But really it isn’t. There are too many tight curves and complicated junctions, plus tunnels in Baltimore built in the 1800s.
The only proper way to do high-speed rail is a completely new railroad. —Fortunately, the old Boston & Providence was straight enough for high-speed rail. Speeds on the new electrification into Boston are high-speed rail.

We then drove to the storied Canton Viaduct.
It opened in 1835, and is still in use. In fact, the Boston & Providence was finished with completion of the Canton Viaduct.
It’s stone, averaging about 60-70 feet high.
It’s not that long, but crosses the valley of the Canton River, and the east branch of the Neponset River.
About 30 years later, a railroad might have crossed with a fill, and Amtrak had to make the viaduct capable of handling Amtrak fliers.
It was first proposed to descend and climb out of the valley with inclined-planes.
But another inclined-plane railroad had an accident, so the viaduct was built.
I kept being smitten how impressive the viaduct is, and my wife was missing it.
But photographing a train on it is near impossible.

ZOOP! (Photo by Jack Hughes.)

Here it comes! (Photo by Bobbalew.)

The trains go so fast, you have no warning down below. My brother and I tried to shoot Acelas. My brother’s shot is only a northbound snippet. Mine, bottom-left, is only slightly better.
I did fair, but the way to do it is to be trackside with your camera down where it needs to be with a radio-controlled shutter-trip. And motor-drive; that is, 6-10 shots in quick succession. With that, you might snag a successful shot.

We then moved to our next location, namely the “T” station in Sharon on the Northeast Corridor. There at least you have indication something is coming; the station PA warns a train is approaching.
My brother’s schedule-info said an Amtrak Regional would pass, plus some “Ts” would stop.
Amtrak was late. We hiked here-and-there, but nothing.
It looked like the “T” would be ahead at Amtrak, but suddenly here it came!
Amtrak doesn’t stop at Sharon. 125 mph!
I had planned to multiple-shoot it to get it close enough, but didn’t even have my camera on.
My brother did, but his camera won’t shoot multiple shots. Which you almost need with a train bearing down on you at 125 mph.
My brother waited until the last possible instant, and snagged an excellent picture.


STAND BACK! (Photo by Jack Hughes.)


We then moved on to Framingham. CSX, who now owns the old New York Central Boston & Albany line, no longer runs into Boston. In fact, its Boston yard-property was sold.
CSX now just runs to Framingham, then hands over freight-cars for southern MA to its own smaller operations.
There apparently is also an intermodal terminal, although we didn’t see it. That’s how New York City operates: after the intermodal terminal the stuff gets trucked into the city — in this case, Boston.
So CSX no longer runs into Boston on the Boston & Albany, but Amtrak runs trains, as does the “T.”

GP40-2s await next week. (Photo by Bobbalew.)

We then went to Framingham’s “T” station. My brother got a pretty good picture, as did I.
I also got others at Sharon.
But I don’t run any because I think the “T’s” paint-scheme is awful. It’s that purple color, which is also on the coaches as a window-stripe.
My lede picture has a “T” locomotive pulling single-level coaches. We also saw bi-level coaches at Sharon and Framingham.
And the “T” still has diesels — no electrics on the Northeast Corridor line. Only Jersey Transit has electric locomotives, and also the Maryland Area Regional Commuter-rail (MARC).
And the “T’s” diesels are very definitely commuter-locomotives. They have secondary generators that run at full revs, even at stops, to supply head-end power.
What blew me away is that Canton Viaduct. Would that my beloved wife could have seen that.
My brother and his wife also have a dog, a 100-pound Labrador Retriever name “Brady.”
Brady gave me hearty welcome as I strode in, then decided I was okay, since I’m a dog-person. That is, unlike my brother, who believes in a well-applied foot, I pet the dog.
Yippee; a male that pets instead of kicks.

• RE: “I’m a dog-person.....” —My current dog is “Scarlett” (two “Ts,” as in Scarlett O’Hara), a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s almost nine, and is my sixth Irish-Setter, a high-energy dog. (A “rescue Irish Setter” is an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. [Scarlett was from a failed backyard breeder.] By getting a rescue-dog, we avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Scarlett isn't bad. She’s my fourth rescue.)