CSX Boston and Albany Line

I was wondering, I came over the 495 the other day and saw a large amount of cars in the westboro yard.(Mostly boxes). the swithcher was in on the cumbies track and the restr of the train in the yard. My question is, who gets all the box cars? the G&U? I know Cumbies hasn't gotton a load in quite some time, and the tanks goto Staley. looks like there is alot of box cars there. are they that short of room in Framingham that they leave them there???

Most of the boxcars are for Sack's Warehouse in Worcester. The sack's manager will request certain cars at a certain door making for a real challenge for the local's crew.

pharmerphil54 wrote:making for a real challenge for the local's crew.

Not challenging if they know how to switch . And it actually makes them more $$ because more time involved, especially IF done by all the rules.

Actually, the challenging part at Sack Storage in recent years was pulling empties out. One time a CSX crew almost knocked the warehouse down when pulling a boxcar with the dock plate still in the downward position

Actually they did tear part of the wall down, the building was condemed for quite a while, all because that conductor is one of these newer "heroes" who's in a rush. There's alot of guys that shoot themselves in the foot by hurrying around, as if to show us that it can be done alot quicker, even though everyone already knew it could be, but we're thinking of OUR job security....and of course $afety.

CSX, bring back the bus, that was awsome!

Sorry, but Otto asked me to change it because too much of a distraction. I think maybe he thought people would have a Simpsons flashback and remember that Otto was the name of the dangerous school bus driver, lol.

CSX 9010 was in Boston today.

Looking at Intermodal schedules on CSXI's website, it appears that CSX is only running 3 Intermodal trains each way a day on the Boston Line. Seems like just a few years back they were running 5 or 6 each way a day. I guess some of that traffic is now going to Ayer (JB Hunt, etc), while a lot of the International container traffic is now going all water to the East Coast vs going landbridge to Worcester(PW). Then there's the economy..... Also interesting to note that CSX has completely dropped their I-95 service between the Southeast and New England. I remember that being an area they were very optimistic about after the Conrail takeover as God knows their is plenty of truck traffic going up and down the East Coast. Hopefully when the economy turns around they'll be able to build the business back up.

Well in a few years, Beacon park will be shut down and no longer recieve freight traffic. The only freight to Boston will be short freights from Guilford and the Gravel Train. But I wonder about what they will do with all of that trash taken by the trash train.

Unless these have been very recent changes due to the big dropoff in rail traffic, last I knew CSX has been running 4 e/b and 5 w/b van trains on the Boston Line. If things haven't changed recently, perhaps the website only reflects those trains for CSXI's domestic service(?). Hunt has been gone for a while now and the stack business via the P&W has been down for a couple of years. While the SE/NE lane was touted as part of the justification to break up Conrail, with investments made to support that, that's a tough lane economically because you're loading your (dry van) equipment into a surplus equipment point in either direction. And with CSX's response to pressure to improve financial performance by raising rates and being more selective with traffic, that lane probably has become "de-emphasized".

What E/B's are there besides Q 114, Q 122 & Q 140 and W/B's besides Q 113, Q 115 & Q 117?

Q168 e/b runs 5 days a week and Q167 w/b runs 3 or 4 days a week. q119 runs w/b 5 days a week. L172 and L170 runs 1 day a week.

Q420 and Q421 have been abolished. Q436 / Q437 will handle the Boston freight in/out of Framingham.
Local freight B721 now originates out of Framingham (as of 1/4/09) and takes the freight to Beacon Park,
then runs over the Grand Junction and switches New England Produce market in Chelsea. Then comes
back to Beacon Park, picks up freight and takes it to Framingham, where it will move west to Selkirk
on the next days Q437.

NaDspr, can you provide us with any other Boston line changes? I read your post that Q421/Q420 have been abolished