" FPCH at Walk, Retro "
After posting the recent photo of current operator of the Providence and Worcester Railroad, Genesee and Wyoming crossing over the Norwalk River at "Walk", I went diving into the hard drive to do a little "Now and Then". Before the stone traffic to the Long Island market took off to what it is presently, the P&W ran a thirty car train for Prima Asphalt once a week, usually on Friday nights, occasionally with a cut of LIRR ballast, depending on the Long Island's track work. On Wednesdays if everything went right the empties would come back for reloading at the Tilcon quarry at Reeds Gap. After running down the previous night, the crew would be called on their rest for a daylight run over Hell Gate and Metro North's New Haven Line between the morning and evening rush hours, and the Mets moved the train right along. Surprisingly, very few people photographed these moves. Luckily I owned a night job at the time and was able to take advantage of the daylight runs. Now, both sides of the job run at night, but for awhile there were regular freight moves in daylight on the New Haven Line. Former NYS&W B40-8 4001 leads B39-8 3903 over the swing Bridge from South Norwalk to East Norwalk over the Norwalk River.
