Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

[johnpbarlow]

Update on G&U track work in N Grafton yard: Did a drive-by of G&U's N Grafton Yard as well as a limited train chase on Thursday 9/27/17 and saw that 3 or 4 new or reconfigured/re-habbed tracks are now in service. First photo is the view from the rte 30 crossing in N Grafton showing covered hoppers and ballast hoppers sitting on the 3 or 4 "new" tracks. Concern I have is that newly installed switch off the main to these tracks offers maybe a hundred yards of switching headroom before crossing rte 30. In my observations, G&U builds trains from the south end of the yard so there may be increased road incursions. There are currently no gates installed on rte 30 so perhaps the crossing will continue to be manually flagged to minimize impact on traffic? If gates are to be installed, I'm guessing the gates would go up and down repetitively as the train is assembled even if rte 30 isn't crossed.

Photo #2 shows track crew doing some rehab work on a track from the north end of the yard. And photo 3 shows that the leased GMTX MP15AC is still being used on the road freight as it prepares to cross Tracy Ann Dr in N Grafton at the base of the hill up to Grafton Center. Crossing signals at Snow Rd are still bagged and manual flagging is used.

[johnpbarlow]

10/18/18 Update on G&U:
1. Found G&U's F7 unit sitting in the dead line at N Grafton. Looks to be in VG cosmetic state
2. Found G&U's ex-RBBB 8 room housing car (ex-UP Chair car built in 1950 by Pullman Standard) parked around the corner from G&U's world HQ.
3. I toured the G&U from Milford north to Hopedale and found that while the RoW between the rte 16 road crossing at Hopedale and MBTA track at Milford is cleared of weeds and brush, there are no obvious signs that track is to be re-laid. There are no grading stakes, piles of stone, stacks of ties/rails along the RoW. The RR overpass at Hopedale St looks as decrepit as ever. Between the Vernon Grove Cemetery in Milford and the MBTA track there are a few handfuls small, weed overgrown, stacks of used but still decent quality ties and a pile of old rail but the area looks like a dumping ground. There are two good sized piles of stone along the MBTA track along with an MBTA brush cutter and an MBTA front loader but there's no obviously recent work on or around the track.

[Mass Coastal 2010]

GU's slug set has been or is in the process of being scrapped at North Grafton.
Mike

[b&m 1566]

That doesn't surprise me, I think the motive power they have now is much more stream line and far more efficient. I wonder what other engines are on the chopping block if a buyer doesn't pick them up. I think the only engine that might be safe from the torch is the F7.

[backroadrails]

There was a party (don't recall who, only that they were interested in a GP series or a rebuild) interested in the 1750 or the 1500 (or whatever the CF-7's number is) but ultimately they decided against it.

[johnpbarlow]

Here's a photo taken Thursday 11/8/18 at N Grafton of 1750 & 1751 looking to be in decent shape, at least cosmetically. The F7 and another geep were stowed on a separate yard track where they couldn't be photographed. Also, interestingly, three of the 4 MP15ACs were being used to switch the new (?) tracks at the south end of the N Grafton yard. Looks like ballast work may still be happening in the yard.

[hrcoleman3]

The roadbed from Route 16 east to the low bridge on Hopedale Street has been cleared out again, all of the brush that had grown is now down to dirt, not too sure if anything is in the works or maybe for the fall?

Henry Coleman

[johnpbarlow]

I think the key indicator if G&U is going to rebuild track to connect to MBTA at Milford would be doing something about the rickety bridge over Hopedale St - rebuilding it or replacing it.

[danm41]

About ten years ago Milford historian Paul Curran gave me a copy of Gordon Hopper's 142-page history of the G&U. I've finally got it on my Hopedale history website. Here's a link to a page with the first five chapters. You'll see links to the rest of it there. http://www.hope1842.com/guhopperbook01.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[danm41]

During the first week of December two large tanks arrived at the G&U Hopedale yard. You can see several pictures, plus a little info on the company whose name is on them, about halfway down my Hopedale in December page. http://www.hope1842.com/2018-12.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jedijk88]

Those are likely flyash silos. Charah also has an operation at Midstates Packaging on the PW in Worcester, but gets really bad service.

[johnpbarlow]

On 12/26/18, NS train 14R (Enola to Binghamton) had a former PP&L SW900 #36 hastily relabelled "GU 36" behind the power. Word is that NS 16R will take the unit to E Deerfield to turn it over to PAS for delivery to P&W at Gardner to then be forwarded to the Seaview RR at Davisville. Anybody have any deep background on this unit? Here's a Jim Stanton photo of PP&L 36 taken about 6 years back:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... XTL2oIIzkA

[johnpbarlow]

After my previous post I learned that the blue ex-PPL SW900 was purchased by Seaview RR and is only using partner’s G&U reporting mark to ship the engine to Davisville.

Separate topic: reconstruction work on G&U's long out-of-service Hopedale St bridge has started with both steel work and abutment work. And it looks like construction an engine house in N Grafton has started. See attached pictures from 12/27/18.

[johnpbarlow]

Those are likely flyash silos. Charah also has an operation at Midstates Packaging on the PW in Worcester, but gets really bad service.

If these silos are used for fly ash transload, would the fly ash be arriving Hopedale by rail (I saw a few shorty covered hoppers near the newly erected silos at Hopedale) to be transloaded to truck? Apparently fly ash is used for concrete making. So perhaps a concrete supplier like Tresca Brothers in Millis might be a consumer of G&U transported fly ash? Also noticed a brand new truck scale being installed near the silos.

I'm guessing that G&U owner Jon Dellipriscoli, who is also principal in First Colony Development Co (Categorized under Commercial and Office Building Contractors), would deal with a number of construction material vendors and consumers in southern New England.

[Jedijk88]

Yes, flyash is in great demand among ready mix and precast concrete companies. Local coal-fired sources have gone away so now some flyash is being railed into Mass for transloading into trucks. Charah does ship flyash by rail, so I would say there's a good chance they will send cars to Hopedale.