Today's Tain of Thought takes us to Dayville, CT where one of the Providence & Worcester's remaining EMDs is embarked on a fairly mundane task surrounded by a winter wonderland.
Like many eastern railroads, the Providence & Worcester started out paralleling already extant canals- in this case, the Blackstone Canal- between Worcester and Rhode Island's capitol- and was completed in 1844. By the early 1890s the New York, New Haven & Hartford agreed to lease the P&W for 99 years. However, on January 1st, 1969 the NYNH&H merged into the Penn Central Railroad- but by April of 1970, the P&W announced their intention to separate themselves from the merger. The announcement led to a court battle in which the P&W was ultimately victorious and after an 80-year hiatus began operating as a separate entity once again beginning in 1973. In addition to the original line paralleling the Blackstone Canal, the P&W took over additional lines radiating out of Worcester, including the ex-New Haven line between Worcester and New London, CT and the former Boston & Maine line between Worcester and Gardner, MA. By the 1990s, the P&W had secured trackage rights over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor all the way into New York City and acquired the former Connecticut Central line between New Haven and Middletown, CT and the former Conrail line to Danbury, CT.
Here, P&W GP38-2 #2009 is seen bracketing a pair of snow-draped crossing signals in Dayville, CT as it stops to do some switching while in charge symbol freight NR-2. NERail Photos contributor Ray Blanchette caught the geep on a wintry January 14, 2008
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