Housatonic Railroad Thread (Maybrook, Berkshire, Pittsfield)

[newpylong]

There is no wiggle room. What kind of wiggle room do you think there is?

Any time a track car goes across you get all sorts of slow orders. That's pretty normal. As stated before, a track inspector in a high rail can only find so much.

Think what it's like taking a 26k 200+ car soda ash train across something like that. I went over track last night that was good for 70/79 the day before and has a 1/2 mile long 25 order on it.

Don't try to make it out like its doomsday.

Each section foremen is responsible for their territory. It needs to be patrolled x amount of times based on the track class. Of course it is hard to get a complete picture from a hirail, that's why you use gauge bars and inspect turnouts, crossings, known problem area closely, etc. It's not an ultrasonic inspection of the rail or a systematic 100% profile like a geometry car, but it is shown to work.

Now you have an outfit like the Housatonic, that despite these inspections in place, keep dumping them every week. Do the math on how much "wiggle room" there is.

[Pj]

Are you, or ever have been a rail employee?

[MEC407]

Barking up the wrong tree, Pj...

[Pj]

So is making accusations and how things work these days (and this is coming from someone who worked MOW and now runs trains as well as being responsible for and familiar with FRA regulations).

It's not making sense.

[newpylong]

Are you, or ever have been a rail employee?

Did you think you're the only one on here who is?

[Gilbert B Norman]

Oh well, first hand observations of "the Housy" around New Milford, Woodrow, and Kent coming up this weekend.

[Ridgefielder]

Some observations of HRRC track at grade crossings, courtesy of Google.

At Wildman St. crossing in downtown Danbury: https://goo.gl/maps/41ZtzyFqzdR2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hawleyville Rd. (Maybrook Line) in Newtown: https://goo.gl/maps/DUqce7oXrEA2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Aspetuck Ridge Rd., New Milford: https://goo.gl/maps/szofi3QGXYD2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sharon-Goshen Turnpike, West Cornwall: https://goo.gl/maps/szofi3QGXYD2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Now I know these are just pictures, and say nothing at all about the actual physical condition of the track-- whether or not it's in gauge, condition of the ties, etc. But-- it sure makes you wonder.

[MEC407]

Looks ever-so-slightly better than your typical ST industrial track or moribund branchline.

[Ridgefielder]

Looks ever-so-slightly better than your typical ST industrial track or moribund branchline.

This is all HRRC mainline trackage.

[J.D. Lang]

The Sharon-Goshen Turnpike through downtown West Cornwall has 136lb welded rail with pandrol track clips the extends about 1000ft in both directions before returning to well around 100 yr. old jointed rail which is typical of a lot of their mainline. When CT. DOT renewed that and other road crossings they also upgraded the rail on either side of the crossings. Photo by John Bazan taken yesterday in Kent shows another area that they upgraded the tracks crossing Rt. 7. Mr. Norman you may like the picture and good luck with your visit.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... otoindex=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also here is a Google street view:

Rt. 128 Crossing W. Cornwall.jpg

John L.

[Jeff Smith]

And Mr. Norman, when you're up in that area, look up a voodoo woman named Karen who bewitched my soul back in the 90's and say "hi". She'll know what it means.

Hey, I'm the site admin, I can go off topic!

[MEC407]

Looks ever-so-slightly better than your typical ST industrial track or moribund branchline.

This is all HRRC mainline trackage.

My point exactly.

[CRail]

From what the pictures show, that doesn't look THAT bad. They obviously don't weedspray and haven't dumped any ballast in a while, but the rail doesn't resemble a pasta dish and it looks like every 3rd or so tie is relatively new.

Since it's important to some people, I've worked in multiple capacities for multiple rail entities (including railroad companies, outside contractors, and volunteer organizations). I've never held any sort of certifications in track maintenance but I've performed it and I've seen much worse!

Shifting gears a bit: Not that my reassurance holds any particular value, but while I agree with UrbEx that some criticisms seem to be driven by animosity towards the railroad company (which I will say do seem to be warranted), F-Line is spot on that there's a big difference between going on the ground and re-railing with some jacks and steel plates and spilling your load down an embankment into a river a half a dozen times. I, too, would like to see this line thrive and hope someone reputable comes in at some point to run it, whether it be a P&W like outfit or someone like Priscolli (mentioned a few pages back, I did a lot of reading in this thread in the past couple days, covering 2 or 3 years worth of posts!).

The one question I have at this point (I think the consensus has been reached, and correctly, that passenger transportation over this line ain't happening, but this has morphed into a rather lively and interesting discussion, so I don't think a quick topic shift will derail the thread[pun not intended but rather fitting]), what's the situation with the BSRM looking like now that MassDOT owns the line from the border up? Can't they just grant passenger rights to the Berkshire Scenic and let them go back home?

[Noel Weaver]

In the case of track conditions pictures are not always worth a thousand words. They can make a railroad look good when it is not good and they can also make a railroad look worse than it really turns out to be. I have grave doubts that any track on the Housatonic is really good and in fact I would be willing to bet that the majority of their trackage is no good for more than 10 MPH.
Back in the days before most if not all rail work involves welded rail we had stick rail all over the New Haven, New York Central and everywhere in between as well. Our passenger trains were in practically all cases good for at least 70 MPH and freight 50 MPH. Slow orders were very rare or non existant, we did not have rock offs and other major derailments due to track conditions and both passenger trains and freight trains got over the road with few problems practically all of the time. The cars rode good too especially on the mainlines of the New Haven. I wonder today how we ever did accomplish this but looking back today the railroads in practically every case took good care of their tracks. The first major railroad that I remember with bad track conditions was the Boston and Maine between Springfield, Massachusetts and Windsor, Vermont. Riding south out of White River Junction you could tell when you went by Windsor without looking. First we slowed down and second the ride got quite rough. It got worse over the years in the early 60's, McGinnis really ruined that splendid railroad over a period of years. Stick rail is not always the reason for rock offs but poor track conditions due to little or no maintenance is usually a prime reason for this happening.
Noel Weaver

[Gilbert B Norman]

From Rocky River Inn New Milford

I wish this site could support more than 500K images, but nevertheless. Here is how things look at Woodrow. Looking South from Bulls Bridge Road.