I don't often have time to get out and railfan places other than my home time, but New Years Day offered some time to go out with some friends and we decided to go check out Palmer, Massachusetts which is on the CSX Boston to Albany main line and is also the junction with New England Central. With a restored HH Richardson depot and various yards and sidings we figured there would be something to see even though past experience has shown that there's usually nothing running on New Years.The depot looked nice with a restaurant and antique shop currently using it. There was also a nice Porter steam locomotive placed in the parking lot. And with the depot being right in the middle of the junction, with the diamond at the far corner of the building, you couldn't ask for a better watching spot. The sun angle was even right for photographing the CSX line.The surprise, though, was that almost immediately after arriving we heard a train whistle...and sure enough, within a couple of minutes a CSX freight pulls through. But as soon as he was gone we heard another whistle...and along comes an Amtrak train which backs down the siding and does a series of switching moves and then heads west on the main. Apparently he'd been waiting for the CSX freight to pass.PhotosHere's the Porter 0-6-0 steam switcher:
Along comes the CSX freight. Heading east note the old portable steam engine in the parking lot:
The Amtrak train required some switching, with all switches having to be manually thrown.
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