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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
Juggling The Circle	Missing a train-order hoop. This would mean that the person who missed the hoop would have to walk back to the station or the train would have to be backed up to pick up the orders.

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