Haverhill Line Upgrades (Western Route)

And the lone Lawrence platform on #2 track is another bit of SNAFU.

Have another tidbit, forgot to mention that all week long there are crews under the Rt28 bridge just outside Andover station taking readings and surveying the area under the bridge. My guess is that bridge is scheduled to be replaced soooooon!!!!
The trains horn blast each morning at 6 AM must be great for the neighbors in the area!!

The new signals at Lowell Junction Road are now in operation for track 2 only. This is a new interlocking location for east bound traffic. As was previously indicated in another post, the signal at the junction of the freight main line has been removed and the old signal cabinets have also been removed and as of Friday, July 28 they are laying on the side of Lowell Junction road. According to the crews on-site Friday they said it will still be a while before track 1 is put in service. A lot of work remains to be done at Wilmington Junction.

If anyone can safely get some pictures (or, better yet, video) of Wilmington Jct with a drone, please do! It would be great to have a bird's eye view of current conditions and see just how much progress there is.

At Vale interlocking I have noticed two large propane gas tanks next to the hut. It looks like work will begin soon on installing the new gas fired switch heaters. I have noticed odd looking equipment at other locations, one at Lowell Junction Road, one at Wilmington interlocking and one in the vicinity of the tower in the Lowell yard.

Any more updates?

It looks as if work should be complete by the end of October.

Thanks, George!

PTC weekend outages start next weekend...didn't MBTA say that no more than 2 lines would be shut down for PTC at a time? This makes 3 (Lowell, Haverhill, Needham)

I did not see any service alert on the website to that effect, so I presume trains are running into/out of Haverhill.

Rockingham Racer wrote:I did not see any service alert on the website to that effect, so I presume trains are running into/out of Haverhill.

Don't know when it was posted, but here it is below. Haverhill indeed not running trains this weekend. The new website takes a little digging to get an "upcoming" alert, my guess is since they aren't necessarily an impact yet and they don't want them showing along with current day service alerts. Also, the MBTA's original two-lines commitment came along with no alternate transportation. They are now running bus substitutes so maybe that changes things.

mbta.com wrote:Shuttle (Upcoming)
Shuttle buses, operating between Haverhill and Oak Grove, will replace all weekend service on the Haverhill Line from September 23rd through December 2nd due to the installation of PTC.

To help passengers travel between Boston and Haverhill, the MBTA is running ADA accessible bus shuttles (with WiFi and restroom facilities) that will make stops at every Commuter Rail station between Haverhill and Wyoming Hill, terminating at OAK GROVE for an Orange Line connection to Boston. Shuttle buses will NOT make stops at Malden Center or North Station.
During this time, the MBTA will install federally mandated Positive Train Control (PTC) systems along the Haverhill Line to improve safety by reducing train collisions and derailments. This work will require weekend shutdowns on the entire line from September 23 through December 2.

Last Updated: 9/18/2017 10:52A

MBTA website says:

Lowell - 8/5 - 10/1
Needham - 9/2 - 11/18
Haverhill - 9/23 - 12/2

So between 9/23 and 10/1 you'll have weekend outages on 3 lines at once.

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Side note, anyone know of a way to still revert to the old MBTA website? The new one is complete garbage.

Amtrak says the Downeaster will run to/from Boston this weekend and next, just bypassing Woburn. So why is Haverhill busing?

Amtrak7 wrote:Amtrak says the Downeaster will run to/from Boston this weekend and next, just bypassing Woburn. So why is Haverhill busing?

To allow the contractor more track time to install. Same reason they've shut the rest of the lines down - this is just one of the first lines where they have to deal with not only Amtrak but regular Pan Am freight. Even if Pan Am and Amtrak are still running, curtailing MBTA service is still beneficial to installation. Fewer trains in the picture.

Regarding propane fired deicers at Vale Interlocking:
When the switches were first installed I believe that the "west" switch had an electric powered deicer. Yesterday when I looked at the switch, I see that all of the electric stuff had been removed and the beginnings of the propane fired equipment being installed. Does anyone know why they changed from electric to propane?