Steam & Excursion > More from the Valley RR in CT

I usually try to begin and end my summers with trips to the CT shoreline. That always includes some time at the Valley RR in Essex, CT.

They have a variety of things going on for much of the year. The normal summer daily schedule has a train going north along the CT River and back in about an hour. They run that train 4 times a day. If you take one of the first 3 trains, you can also combine that with boat trips and hiking and lunch, and you come back on a later train.

They don't use a "wye" or a turntable. The locomotive pulls the train to the northern destination, then uncouples and uses the adjacent track to move to the rear of the train, and then it pulls the train back to Essex "tender first".

Pic 1: The 3rd run of the day pulls into Essex. They use two Mikados, an Alco and a fairly modern Chinese one, and they were running the Chinese one today.

Pic 2: The locomotive makes its way to the other end of the train.

Pic 3: The coupling was smooth, delicate, and impressive.

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Pic 4: They didn't take on coal or water, but there was some lubrication. Watching this guy lubricate a Pullman was worth the whole trip. Hook in one hand, oil in the other, and a leg since both hands were being used. It was such a quick "1-2-3" process that I barely had time to snap a pic. And, I had to run to get ahead of him as he went from box to box to get into position for the shot.

Pic 5: My friend Larry got me into looking at dynamos. This Chinese made locomotive seems to have an American made dynamo.

Pic 6: The last run of the day pulls out.

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I enjoyed looking at these pics. The tender looks undersized for this size loco.

How long is a typical trip on this train?

Did that dynamo have a good whine sound??

Thanks for posting.

Posted from iPhone

The dynamo was pretty quiet.

The rail part of today's trips was only about an hour for the "round trip" if you stayed on the train. But, you can do part of the trip back on a riverboat, or use a ferry to cross the river to and from a cool place called Gillette's Castle, and catch a train ride back to Essex later on. Some people do a quick trip and others make a whole afternoon of it.

It will also be a wonderful way to see the fall colors sooner than I wish.

JS

The tender is cut down for better rear view visibility. That was common for locos that did a lot of switching.