A few words about Wordless Wednesday #105

A very good friend, whose judgement I trust implicitly, mentioned that it'd be nice to add "at least" a few words to my Wordless Wednesday posts - "A pic is only worth 992 words" after all. I admit, when I see such posts on other blogs, I hope for at least some basic caption info - and I'll try and do that a bit more in the future (except, of course, for "Name That Location" photos where I need your help). And I'll let you in on a little tip - the labels at the bottom of the post usually contain some important information as well.

But this photo definitely merits some additional attention. Perhaps not as many words as this post, but a few more words nevertheless. . .

This Kent Cochrane photo shows DEY-5 (S-2) #0604 northbound at East Haddam, CT probably c. 1949. It's one of the two Shoreline locals: In those days, there was one from New London and one from New Haven and they typically swapped cars in Old Saybrook. Depending on the year, one or the other would head up the Valley Line to exchange cars with the Valley Local which operated south from Hartford to this point. That's what the 0604 is doing here - coming in on the siding to drop cars. In this case, two PRR boxcars.  Could be that it's just sitting there waiting for the Valley Local - there's no crew in the cab keeping watch.

The old passenger station used to be located on the right (west) side of the tracks, but it's gone now. But the house in the background remains - the railroad used it as the first station here before they got theirs built. The house is still there today, owned by an employee of today's Valley Railroad.

The sheds on the left, as well as the freight house (mostly hidden by the engine) are still there too. In fact, all that's really changed since this photo was taken about 67 years ago is the freight train itself. There's no longer freight services on this portion of the line and the DEY-5 - and I daresay the cars and caboose - are long gone.

But the track is in better condition now than ever - and sees more passenger trains than ever too. Route 82 in the background is busier, but you can stand in this spot today and it won't take much effort at all to imagine the 0604 burbling through here once again.