Continuing the photos from my New England trip at the beginning of March, here are photos from my primary objective, which was chasing the Connecticut Southern Railroad's CSO-3 job on its work around Hartford, CT. The CSOR operates a cluster of ex-New Haven lines in the city, and interchanges with CSX via Amtrak's Springfield line at Springfield, MA. I had made two trips previously, in March 2023 and March 2024, respectively. Both times I was after Providence & Worcester 2215, one of 11 U23Bs rebuilt into B23-7 'Super Sevens' that G&W rostered. Unlike the former Ohio Central units, 2215 was not an ex-Monongahela Railway unit, but may have demonstrated there. Both of these trips were instigated because of the unit's inclusion on a list of locomotives that G&W was mandated to rebuild or retire to comply with an EPA emissions settlement, but as I guessed in late 2024 (and had confirmed on this trip) 2215 was swapped for another unit and will be the sole operating Super 7 under G&W ownership (1 additional unit was rendered inoperable but preserved, and two more are on a non-G&W shortline).
Sometimes, CSO-3 starts its day by heading south on the former freight main to New Haven for a mile before diverging onto the Market Spur. On my previous two visits, because of the logistics involved I had just missed them returning from the branch both times, but on this trip, I rented a car the night before and drove up in the early AM. My reward was catching 2215 trailing on the return trip past the former Colt Armory factory, featuring the restored Russian-style dome.
After picking up construction debris gondolas on the spur, the train returned to the yard to set out those cars before heading east on the Armory Branch. In this shot, the train is on the freight main, while the Armory Branch to East Windsor crosses from left-to-right. The train does not seem to use the Armory branch portion of the diamond, as it only connects to the Amtrak main a few hundred yards to the left.
After working the yard, the train crossed under I-84 and rambled toward East Windsor, with a shorter-than-usual consist of cars for Home Depot's distribution center. If the crew has work along the way, they will often run with the second unit (GP38-2 2011) trailing behind the cars.
A telephoto shot showing 2215 at work after pulling empties out of Home Depot.
Pulling out of the warehouse.
Finally, my last trailing shot of the day focused on the train crossing the Connecticut River bridge as they returned to Hartford with seven center beam flatcars from the Home Depot.
In videos this week, first up is a grab-bag of weekend Amtrak and MARC action around Maryland, DC and Virginia.
Second is a chase that holds the dubious honor of being the earliest I have ever woken up for a train; last summer I headed over to Delmarva at 2 AM or so, with the objective of meeting the 4 AM call time for Delmarva Central's SE-1. At this time, because of track work, this train, which normally starts in Seaford, DE, started in Delmar, MD, for its run south on the former PRR line to Cape Charles, VA.
