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Trip to Western Massachusetts not Pigeon Forge

Friday the 13^th

On Friday I was able to find AYPO at Lawrence, MA at 07:37 with MEC 7622, 7575, & 7727 doing switching. While I was there MBTA trains 208 & an unscheduled equipment move for 290 from Reading went by. I then went and found POAY at Chelmsford, MA with MEC 7585, 7635, & 7595 and followed them to Granitville, MA. However, I was not able to get ahead enough for a good picture.

At Ayer I was able to find a trio of NS engines (7326, 3048, & 1125) working the auto racks in what I believe was the Hill Yard. A quick picture of them and I bugged out toward East Deerfield. When I stopped at Shirley there were no trains scheduled for a while, so I went to North Leominster for train 418, and then to Fitchburg for 420 and 413.

At East Deerfield I found a yard switcher on the east end of the yard with GMTX 5000, & MEC 353, and a train called 11-R on the west end. The 11-R train had MEC engines 7627, 7528, 5966, 5973, 5936, 5967, & 5930, so, clearly something was up. But I thought it was large power for a larger than normal EDRJ or similar train through the tunnel. I decided to try to beat them to Shelburne Falls, but after an hour, no train. Hmm, what's going on? Did I miss them?

Since I didn't think they would be going another route yet, I decided to go direct to the Hoosac Tunnel East Portal. But after finding no train there until near midnight I decided to go over the mountain, and found a guard at the end of the road into the West Portal, a whole bunch of lights up there and a big crane. Clearly something was up.

Definition

Term	Defined As
Idler Car	An empty flat car used for protecting overhanging loads on an adjacent car or when a heavy weight load requires the engine to be a certain distance away.

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