Conrail Southern Secondary local SA-31 generally needs 2 crews for the round trip from Sayreville NJ to Lakewood, NJ. The train is usually re-crewed in Lakewood, but sometimes they make it back up the line to a certain point. On this fateful day, the crew made it back to Shrewsbury at about 5:30 am. Since they need access to the New Jersey Transit North Jersey Coast Line commuter rails to return to Sayreville, the crew were either low on hours to work or NJT denied access due to their rush-hour train schedule. So, Conrail engineer Wallace picked a good spot to park and called for a cab back to the yard on a dry, cloudy morning. Then Mother Nature took over. At about 6am, the flurries started and then large, wet snowflakes fell and an hour later there were blizzard conditions. In the world of rail photography, one always dreams of a great snow shot and fortunately that very opportunity presented itself on this day. A Christmas card scene developed and the rest is history; Mother Nature had delivered a beautiful winter landscape, just begging to be captured.
Image recorded March 10, 2017
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