A Still and Not So Still Still River

 

Arrived at the foot of Still River Depot Road in Harvard, MA at 6 am yesterday morning to find a CSX freight train parked on the mainline...

The train is designated as M427 and runs from Portland, ME to Selkirk Yard near Albany, NY.  Apparently, after passing through Hill Yard in Ayer, MA, its crew ran out of time and the train was awaiting the arrival of a fresh crew.  Other than the low rumbling of the idling diesel engines Still River was still.  Still River Depot long ago served the village of Still River.  The Harvard Reconnaissance Report prepared by the Massachusetts Heritage Landscape Inventory Program describes the village: "Still River was an agricultural village formed as a linear settlement along the ridge overlooking the Nashua River".  

I launched just a short distance from the train at the Oxbow N.W.R. and paddled the short distance to the railroad trestle over the Nashua River...

...in hopes of seeing the train get underway, cross over the river, and continue its journey to Selkirk Yard near Albany, NY.    Because this train was occupying the single-track mainline and, by so doing, would block the Norfolk Southern's double-stacked container train from reaching its final destination at the Hill Yard, I figured M427 would get underway sooner rather than later.  However, it didn't and remained parked there for several more hours while I paddled downriver.  I'd later hear it get underway around 9:30 am.   

Did see this train of ducks passing by...

Nearly every fallen tree limb in this section of the Nashua had become a trash trap of sorts...

This particular stretch of the Nashua River is kind of like the Bermuda Triangle for the pesky little liquor bottles known as "nips".

My trash haul ended up including 257 of these "nip" bottles...

...which thanks to our outdated Bottle Bill have no monetary value.

Upon leaving the boat launch I discovered this elderly snapping turtle who'd sought some shade under my car...

Would like to have asked the turtle some questions but heard the train horn of the approaching double-stacked container train and watched it approaching the crossing at Still River Depot Road...

...hauling a good number of containers the last few miles to the Intermodal facility at Hill Yard...

...leaving the Still River Depot site still again.