by Anura Guruge
on April 25, 2023
Click images to ENLARGE.
Visiting the famous, historic fort at Ticonderoga was one of the reasons for my trip to ‘Lake George‘, New York, last week. I knew the fort was closed for the winter but was willing to just walk some of the grounds. I visited the fort twice, on my first day & last. It was raining hard on the first day so I didn’t spend much time venturing around. But, to my delight I was that there was a station, obviously operational, right next to the entrance to the fort.
When I next visited, on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, around 1:30pm, to my DELIGHT there was a Canadian Pacific freight train sitting at the station — the locomotive growling. What joy. I love trains. SMILE. Always have, always will.
I parked pretty close to the station (& the railway crossing) on the entrance road to the fort. Since the entrance was closed this was not really an issue. There was no one else trying to get to the fort. You can actually see my loaner Volvo in the picture directly above (^^).
I went walkabouts. There was an old couple seated in their car at the station having lunch. I did not disturb them. The train sat there, and sat there, and sat there, for quite a while. So, I ambled down to the lake, i.e., ‘Lake Champlain’ & the ferry which is basically just there. After about 30 minutes the engine note changed & it started the horn started blaring. I knew it was finally moving. I headed back. As you can see I got back in time. SMILE.
I went back to the station. The gentleman from the parked car was outside & he greeted me. Very nice gent. Told me that he & his wife come to the station regularly to see the trains; the wife very fond of seeing them. He told me to hang around that an Amtrak was due soon. He was right. It came ever sooner than he expected. It came fast. Braked hard. Stopped fleetingly. No one got out or got on. It left in a hurry. So, that was that. It was fun.
