Stanbridge Subdivision

[MEC407]

In the foreground, the inactive Stanbridge Subdivision crossing that has been paved over recently although application to abandon the line has not officially been filed.

Photo by Frank Jolin:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=558201

[Townshipfarmer]

I actually had hopes that this line would come back to life. Now I have even less hope that the St Rosalie sub will see a resurrection.

[csx2039]

The cmq folks sure do a lot of positive talking, problem is they have a class one railroad mentality with barely 500 miles of track... or less as it now seems.

[Townshipfarmer]

After looking at Frank's pictures I noticed that the new side walk looked different were the tracks would cross the road. So I drove out to Farnham to see for my self. Infact the side walk has wooden separations isolating it from the rest of the sidewalk sections. Call me a foolish optimist but it looked like the side walk was designed to be removed and the rails replaced if or when the crossing is reinstalled. Could CMQ be waiting for future possible government funding to refurbish this line? Or is this just the slow death of the stanbridge sub?

[CN9634]

As we have seen in the past, paving a crossing have hardly been an indicator of whether a line is done for good.

[newpylong]

As we have seen in the past, paving a crossing have hardly been an indicator of whether a line is done for good.

But most of the time it is...

[BandA]

Was it paved because the crossing was in poor condition?

Also, Massachusetts, IIRC the owner of the road (municipality or state in almost all cases) technically has to pay for the road crossings and bridge crossings, although they usually wait for fed grants or something.

[Sir Ray]

Not judging on whether the subdivision will be abandoned or not (although several years of inactivity is never a good sign), but just wondering what traffic did the Subdivision carry, say 10 years ago, and what traffic prospects would still exist today?

[Townshipfarmer]

There is a large Lime mine at the end of the line. I have herd that when mm&a stopped service on the line the lime company had to slow down production at the stanbridge mine and increase it at other mines that they own. This was due to the increase in transportation costs. In the artical I read the company even said some thing along the lines that they were looking foward to see service returned to the stanbridge sub and were in discussion with CMQ. This was the summer of 2014. There is also a mid size grain elevator and mill in Bedford that has rail access but is far from running at 100% capacity. Adjacent to the mill is what looks like a loading dock for unloading rail cars. There are other industries in Bedford that might of at one point had rail access but no longer do.

[CN9634]

I won't lead in any further but CMQ is looking into re-opening this line.