The Connecticut Valley Line. Along much of its route, Valley Railroad trains are seldom far from water. The line runs next to the Connecticut River as well as by and over several tributaries. Here's an aerial view of NPE-2, the second North Pole Express train of the day, as it crosses Chester Creek, with the Pattaconk Yacht Club in the background.
That's Locomotive #3025 doing the heavy lifting. She's an SY Class Mikado and a 1989 product of China's Tangshan Locomotive Works, built for export to the US. She ran on the Knox & Kane Railroad in PA before coming here. On the throttle today is Engineer J. David Conrad, who has been working with steam locomotives for decades and who was instrumental in bringing this and one other SY to the US.
