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  • What is happening in this Ayer-ial photo?

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1442551  by johnpbarlow
 
Photo came from a Google Maps aerial photo of a Pan Am train on the west wye at Ayer with an unusual power set and interesting consist. Photo appears to have been taken in late winter or early spring of 2017.

Here's a URL to zoom-able aerial photo:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ayer, ... 71.5899054

Anybody know what's going on here?
Attachments:
Pan Am OCS power west wye Ayer.JPG
Pan Am OCS power west wye Ayer.JPG (176.13 KiB) Viewed 3607 times
 #1442552  by KSmitty
 
That is the power set they used to move the circus train. They had the F''s bracketing an SD. So that's why the power set looks odd. As for what they were doing at that exact moment on the west wye, I'll yield to someone more local.
 #1442624  by johnpbarlow
 
Just to tie a bow on this topic, I learned from Jacob Mayo on the Pan Am Railfans Facebook page that this Google Maps aerial photo was likely taken late afternoon on Saturday April 15, 2017 showing an arriving WAAY backing its train with a long string of presumably loaded Eimskip containers. WAAY was ferrying the biz train Fs to Ayer for the RBBX Circus train run from Worcester to Manchester on Monday April 17. Here's an excellent photo Jacob took of WAAY crossing the Scarborough Marsh earlier on 4/15:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/134593851 ... 1802079894

It's pretty fortuitous that the Google satellite would have captured this edition of WAAY at Ayer prior to its historic mission.