Fast Trains, Slow Updates…

An Amtrak Acela floors it northbound through Kingston, RI.

Well, it’s been far too long since I’ve posted here, but as always the holidays left little time for much of anything having to do with trains. I’m pretty much all settled in for the new year now, so postings should continue pretty regularly, I’ve got a lot to add actually, photo’s from my trip home to Washington State last August, and from all my fall railfanning excursions, not to mention some shots of SNCT #101, and the P:87 turnout, for the moment though, here are two short video’s from a recent trip to Kingston, RI. Still photo’s just wouldn’t do the Acela justice when it’s moving at 150mph.

A southbound Acela that we were much closer to.

I’ve seen the Acela’s before, but never at full speed, it was certainly a treat, despite the fact that these trains just don’t compare to their counterparts in Europe and Asia. So anyway, as I said before, I should be posting more often now, I’ll try for a minimum of once a month, which I actually exceeded last year, so that shouldn’t be too hard.

This year there are lots of rail-related events planned for the southern New England region. Coming up first will be the Amherst Railway Societies Railroad Hobby Show at the Big E in West Springfield this coming weekend (Jan. 24th-25th) I’ll be there helping out the guys at the New England/Northeast Prototype Meet booth in the Mallory building. If you’re there stop by and say hi, I’ll have the F7 and one of my Railflyer walkway modules on display, and you’ll be able to see some other models by some of the meet organizers that are considerably more impressive since they’re finished and have paint, a level of completeness I can’t quite lay claim to yet :-). I’ll also be attending the 1/87 Vehicle Clubs meet and greet on Saturday night, I’ve never been to it before, but it looks like a good time.

Next up in May will be the New England/Northeast Prototype Meet itself on May 29th and 30th. This is always a great show, with lots of very informative presentations and a very large model display room. This will be my third year and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Over the summer, will be the NMRA’s 2009 National Convention in Hartford, CT. At the very least I’m planning on attending the National Train Show from July 10-12th, but I may participate in some of the prototype tours if I can afford to.

Finally the Penn Central Historical Society will be holding their annual convention somewhere in CT sometime in the fall… if the sometime and somewhere are convenient enough, I may join the society and attend the convention, I know next to nothing about Penn Central, but I’e always had a thing for lost causes, and there’s no better lost cause than the PC.

So there you have it, I’m going to have a busy year, interspersed with all the official stuff will hopefully be a few decent railfanning trips (maybe even to Sand Patch if I can swing it) and of course lots of modeling. Updates, photo’s and write-ups will, as always, be posted here in a very late and un-timely fashion. But they will be posted.

Chris