Maintenance? Guilford?

I'm just speculating here, so someone correct me if I'm totally wrong, but I'd be surprised if Pan Am ever installs any CWR on their own again. The only place they've done it recently was out on the West End, and there was speculation that NS was actually paying for it. I don't know if there are any real cost-saving benefits of CWR over stick rail if you're satisfied with Class 2 track, which they seem to be. Tie replacement and resurfacing, yes, CWR, not likely. Besides, it kinks up something awful in the hot weather. The Downeaster was hit with 25mph speedos last summer, I recall.

CWR cuts down on maintenance costs quite a bit, especially at the joints as one would expect. Are those savings great enough to justify the installation of CWR? In the long run probably yes, but knowing how shortsighted PAR is, I'd be surprised to see them spending a lot of their own money on it. I know some Engineers that spoke of going from MBTA track or the DE route to PAR freight only track and they said the transition is like dropping off the face of the earth. It's pathetic how bad the track becomes at places like Fitchburg, Mountain Jct (and Plaistow before the DE) when you get off the passeneger track - a real roller coaster ride. That was a few years back, so maybe it's gotten a bit better?? Getting back to CWR, at one time GRS was taking up garbage rail, cropping it and welding it together at Billerica. It was about the ugliest CWR you'd ever seen and much of it was laid on the former MEC North of Portland. They also relaid some CWR on the B&M side I belive that was taken up from what used to be the second mainline in places along the Fitchburg out near Deerfield.

Well CWR does have benefits as stated. I mean, if it weren't cost effective then why would all the Class 1's upgrade tracks to CWR? The CWR made by GRS is pretty scary looking. A lot of it is in Gloucestor and man oh man, I've never seen such kinked welds in my life.

They can only scavenge so much decent stick rail from the old mains, eventually that will run out and will have to look elsewhere.

I'd forgotten how much CWR they installed on District 1, and also about the welded rail plant at N. Billerica.
I browsed through a study of track maintenance costs and it confirmed that ordinary maintenance costs can be cut dramatically by what was called renewal maintenance, and that usually includes tie replacement, re-surfacing and installation of new rail. However the study pointed out that renewal maintenance is costly and is considered a capital cost, as opposed to an operating expense for ordinary maintenance, and requires a lengthy time horizon based on traffic disruption and other factors.

I heard the other nite that Guilford or whatever you call them has a lot of 25 mph speed restrictions in place near Hoosac Tunnel.

It must be nice to be able to go 25. A large section of tracks between Waterville and Rigby is restricted to 10, and a few months ago, the entire line between Waterville and Rigby was restricted as such. Currently, a crew is being used to make a one-way trip between the two yards, a 80 mile trip. The east side of Waterville has been plagued by slow orders as well, but I don't know how conditions are currently.

lakeshoredave wrote:I heard the other nite that Guilford or whatever you call them has a lot of 25 mph speed restrictions in place near Hoosac Tunnel.

Lol, 25 is considered fast on this railroad. There isn't any 40 MPH running left on any Guilford owned track, outside of the Western (where the Downeaster runs). Up uptil last year, there was still a few miles out in Pownal and Buskirk where you could pick it up to 40. And as you look back even farther, much more 40 was there.