MARC on the MBTA
In March 2011, the MBTA leased three former MARC locomotives at a cost of about $300, according to a Boston Globe article. A fourth was kept for spare parts and a fifth was returned to Motive Power Inc., in Idaho. As soon as I heard about the lease, I knew this was exactly the kind of thing I started this blog to capture -- those fleeting moments in time that vanish before you know it.
But with work and school and family obligations a week turned into a month and then a month into a year and I still didn't have a photo. I would often see one of the ex-MARC units. But it was never when I had my camera ready. Once there was no memory card in the camera, another time I just wasn't fast enough, a third time it was obscured by trees and the list goes on. Well last month I decided I couldn't make any more excuses and I set out to get a decent photo of one of the elusive locomotives in action, so I parked myself at the commuter rail station in Haverhill and waited. (The ex-MARCs are used on the northside commuter operations.)
As it turned out there was one sitting in the station when I got there waiting to take a train back to Boston. Luck favors the prepared. All I had to was sit down on one of the outbound platform benches and wait for the train to leave and cross the bridge over the Merrimack River.
One of the things I like most about this photo is the kid standing in the street on the other side of the river.
But with work and school and family obligations a week turned into a month and then a month into a year and I still didn't have a photo. I would often see one of the ex-MARC units. But it was never when I had my camera ready. Once there was no memory card in the camera, another time I just wasn't fast enough, a third time it was obscured by trees and the list goes on. Well last month I decided I couldn't make any more excuses and I set out to get a decent photo of one of the elusive locomotives in action, so I parked myself at the commuter rail station in Haverhill and waited. (The ex-MARCs are used on the northside commuter operations.)
As it turned out there was one sitting in the station when I got there waiting to take a train back to Boston. Luck favors the prepared. All I had to was sit down on one of the outbound platform benches and wait for the train to leave and cross the bridge over the Merrimack River.
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