Metro-North announces Fall Railfan Trips

Glad you liked them, Tali (FL-9-Chic)! When I shoot, I try to balance between the locomotives and the scenery.

I was in the black Monte Carlo. boblenon got my car in this picture and my pic here.

I chase the HRRC quite a bit, so I do know some shortcuts, but some of the chasers were a bit on the crazy side. Towards the end, I was on River Road (sb) in New Milford going at what I thought was a crazy speed and I saw cars catching up to me!

Also, many of the chasers were just looking for the head on shot and didn't care about anything else. I tried to get the whole train - that's why I 'only' ended up with 20 locations. Plus I had to pick up the camcorder after my stills.

For the chasers, the weather was actually a plus. It kept many of the leafpeepers off of route 7 which basically parallels the Berkshire Line. If it had been good and sunny weather, I'm sure many of us chasers would have been delayed.

Got my map and certificate too which is nice. wctrr, nice shots I remember seeing you out there in that field.

David Telesha wrote:Got my MN FL-9 trip certificate and map in the mail today.

Many thanks again for the continued effort and nice job with the materials as well (timetable, certificate, etc..).

Me too, I didn't expect that to come, but as usual, Meto North taking care of their fans.

NJD8598 wrote:

nick11a wrote: I noticed them too. I was on the east side of Car 2 (and later 3) for the trip. On top of those cars mentioned, there was also a guy in a gray SUV type vehicle who I saw a lot.

They really had their game planned out. I saw the same chasers at least 7 or 8 times going up and a few more coming back down south.

At times, the chasers had a train of their own.

Yeah a gray Chevy pickup I think it was, I saw him too. Also there was a white crown vic with Mass. plates that looked like some kind of police vehicle. A few of the cars ended up in some of the pics I took in West Cornwall and Cannan.

The white Crown Vic was mine. I loved having a police looking vehicle to drive on the trip as a friend and myself chased the trip all the way from Stamford to Canaan and back. I thought is was a great fan trip. The weather wasn't the greatest, but the sun did shine through at times and at least it didn't rain. I thought the photo shoot at West Cornwall was a madhouse. Some so called railfans acted like power hungry maniacs with all the shouting. There should have a bit more crowd control there. Also I didn't like some of the other chase cars racing the train to several grade crossings, barely missing being hit by the train. I was hoping the MTA PD (who also chased the train) would pull over and ticket some of the more reckless drivers. But aside rfrom these minor incidents the trip was great and very memorable. My thanks to all from HRR, MNRR, CDOT, DRM who helped put this trip together. I want to offer special praise for several MN employees who worked their day off without pay who not only helped plan this trip, but worked on the train as well.

As I write this almost 4 years after the fact, and now that the FL-9s are now officially retired, I look back with great fondness that I witnessed this trip. I will miss the look and sounds of the FL-9s. They served over 50 years and although they never worked as well as originally designed, they serverd many railroad and travelled God knows how many millions of miles. Much like the New Haven Railroad itself, the FL-9s are "Gone, But Not Forgotten".

I agree! I was lucky enough to get a first class seat on that ride. Resulted in a FL9 cab ride a few weeks later up in Maine on the Maine eastern. Now THAT was a special day....