Eastern Railroad Discussion > Sunday Fun Day (Pan Am edition)

Sunday Fun Day, or, A Day Of Blue Leaders.

On the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, I left early and went out to try and catch a Pan Am eastbound or two before work.  Anyone who knows Pan Am will tell you that's a crap shoot, but I came out lucky on this occasion.  The original plan was to try and intercept EDPO at Shirley and then chase it to Lowell, where it typically gets tied down to await a fresh crew.  Upon arriving at Shirley, I found no sign of it.  Before long, however, the scanner came alive with the District 3 dispatcher talking to an AYPO getting ready to leave Hill Yard in neighboring Ayer, so I backtracked there.

1 - AYPO comes around the east wye and out of Hill Yard at Ayer.  Two painted units power the train, along with one of the grungy wide cabs.  Around this time, I learned that EDPO had run early, and was already canned in Lowell.

2 - At the other end of town, AYPO passes through Willows Interlocking.  The track in the foreground is the B&M Fitcburg Division/MBTA Fitchburg Line; the train is diverging onto the PAR Freight Main Line/B&M Stony Brook Branch.

3 - At Lowell, I caught up with EDPO in front of the old B&M tower behind one of the few remaining SD40-2s  For some reason, the ex-QNSL units are still in service, while most of the others are gone.  MEC 505 on the far right was presumably awaiting pickup by the Nashua local, which comes to Lowell to pick up or drop cars for the through trains.

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4 - The plan, as conceived by District 3, was for AYPO to combine their train and power with EDPO before proceeding east.  Once AYPO finally got to Lowell, their trailing unit became third of five, as they backed onto EDPO's power.

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The reason the ex QNSL units are still in service is probably because they were in perfect shape a few years ago when they first arrived on the property. The other sd40s at the same time were already pretty beat up and could not be relied upon at all. I can only imagine how much worse it got after the c40s showed up. I remember stalling out with the 600 and 604 on a 3500 ton train and having to pick up a gp40 to continue. Vice versa I had two of the 3400s on the same hill with just over 6000 tons and they had no problems.

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Good shots with a lot of classic power!