Photo of the Week: 1/7/2011

It's Friday, which means it's time for another photo. As I've said before, although I've posted this on Saturdays in the past, I will be posting it on Fridays as often as I can remember to.

This weeks photo was shot at Ayer, MA. It is a small town in eastern Massachusetts where not much ever happens...unless you're a railfan. Boston's MBTA has a station in Ayer on the Fitchburg Line, which makes a great vantage point to watch all the action. The station is literally in the middle of a wye, which connects two freight yards. The main line through Ayer connects Boston with Albany, but there are branches connecting Ayer to Worcester and Nashua. Pan Am and MBTA run plenty of trains on the ex-B&M main line, plus there are other freights coming from the other branch lines as well.

Without any further ado, here is the photo:

Although Pan Am owns the tracks here, Norfolk Southern equipment is a very common sight. One train is MOAY and AYMO (Mohawk Yard in Albany to Ayer). This is a daily intermodal train that almost always has Norfolk Southern power leading it. MOAY arrives at Ayer in the evening, and returns as AYMO just after noon the next day. In this shot, Pan Am is using the laying over NS power to switch one of the yards. My vantage point is the end of the platform, and I am looking down the east leg of the wye. The main line is behind me. I spent the whole morning there railfanning, and this locomotive pair kept appearing and disappearing on the wye, each time with a new string of freight cars behind it. It provided some good entertainment during otherwise dull moments, and every time it showed up I got another chance at the same shot. This one was the best one I got of the train.