Wednesday evening, I had to run down to the store in Northampton. As I was going into the store, a Valley Flyer went by northbound. Good timing I thought to myself.
When I came out of the store, horns blaring, there go 3 Pan Am 6 axle GEs pulling some freight north. Well, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take the roundabout way home & chase them to Deerfield.
As it turns out, they were RJED pulling 111 or so cars. It was a key train with propane, acids & chlorine so the slower speed made the chase easy.
My son & I decided to stop in old Deerfield where it goes back to 2 tracks (sorry, not sure of the proper rr name). Much to our amazement there was southbound local with 1 GP40 and some of the trash containers waiting for RJED to pass. At this point we couldn’t believe our luck!
As we continued to East Deerfield, sitting on the bridge idling was a lone Pan Am painted GE waiting for clearance. At the yard, on the house tracks, here comes a GE with the Housatonic GP35 trailing! A couple minutes later, RJED came rolling slowly down the loop & into the yard.
We couldn’t believe our luck! Never had we seen so much in such a short time around here. My son said it was like being back in Cresson, PA. It was a welcome distraction in these difficult times & one we’ll remember for some time.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe & healthy!
B. Moore