CSX Fitchburg Secondary Discussion

Where are the sidings they could park the track equipment at night?

rustyrails wrote:Where are the sidings they could park the track equipment at night?

Clinton siding on the south end. Equipment can be seen on the two steel bridges in the center of town at the end of the day. Everything I have seen is CSX equipment other than a Railworks box truck. I assume Railworks is welding the joints of the CWR lengths.

ST377 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 07, 2023 4:00 pm Second loaded rail train made it's way to Leominster over the weekend. Power (6232N and 6233S) ran around this morning and came south to Northboro, where presumably it will start dropping.

They started dropping rail near Main St (Rt. 20) heading south on Monday around 1500. They made several moves and had rush hour traffic all messed up as they blocked several grade crossings for a considerable period of time.
The town was not happy with as CSXT as they had previously provided notification of upcoming grade crossing work (tied to the rail replacement) and would provide the town with 24-48 hour notification of any crossings that would require detours. Because this move was not tied to a grade crossing project, there was no notification.

It appears as if they may have dropped enough rail to meet up with the existing section of CWR which starts about MP QBU 24.5, just south of NewCorr or where the former ToysRUs warehouse was located (and ends at Marlborough Junction at approximately QBU 28.8). Does anyone know if they will replace the rail south of Marlborough junction? If I calculated correctly there should be almost enough rail on the CRW train to replace a good chunk of the rest of the rail to almost Framingham.

After the Bolton fair I checked out Fitch Sec.THERE WAS NEW CWR installed north of crossing at 19,53 which I think is Linden St, I am not sure how far it went ,but at the next crossing north there was not any new rail.The new strings of welded rail along side of track went all the way to collins st crossing at about mp23.8. BEYOND that you could see mp 24 and there were 3 strings of rail on each side of track which could match with prior welded rail at 24.5 as mentioned in another post.The old rail is in bad shape and the kink in the rail that was previously shown was still there north of a crossing in Northboro. At northboro there was a portable derail just north of route 20 and every crossing had a porta potty and rail with insulated joints for the crossing.I spoke to a worker at a crossing and he said they would be there for 2 weeks starting Monday to install the new CWR.There were just 2 workers doing prep work ,very informative guy from TN.I did not ask him if all the track equipment on siding on WORC main in Clinton would be used.Thats over 5 miles of new welded rail, what an improvement in this area.I still think they are going to connect FITCH AND WORC SEC at Clinton.There is plenty of room, concrete arch bridge at Clinton center is 3 or 4 tracks wide.

CORRECTION. CWR IS INSTALLED North of crossing at mp18.8 If they install CWR from 18.5 to 24.5 that is 6 MILES.A very large investment ,the rail was in very bad shape on this stretch.I did not see any new rail south of Marlboro Jct.

Yes, huge investment

Hope at some point in the not too distant future they invest in the north end to Leominster
Bolton/Berlin north through Clinton, Lancaster, sterling and Leominster needs rails ties and ballast in my opinion

Apparently the W022 CWR train that most recently dropped only 10 strings of CWR (sufficient for a bit over a mile of double track) on the Fitchburg secondary departed west for Selkirk on M439 from Worcester 5 days ago still loaded with 50 strings of CWR to be deployed elsewhere.

Has anyone noticed how they are running trains up to the trans load in Leominster (usually 3 or 4 trains a week) with all this track work going on?

Notice from City of Framingham. Salem End Road crossing 8/18 closed from 8 a. m. for approx. 8 hours. Notice says rail replacement.

johnhenry wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 7:13 am Has anyone noticed how they are running trains up to the trans load in Leominster (usually 3 or 4 trains a week) with all this track work going on?

There is no trans load in Leominster anymore. The big customer up there is now the C&D facility. Not completely sure but when they do run that far they arrive in the Clinton area about 10pm. When they serve only the south end customers, they would normally run to Clinton and run the power around the train at the Clinton siding for the return. They have mostly been storing all the MOW equipment on the Clinton siding at the end of the day. It might be possible that they have to run all the way to Leominster to turn the power. I don't know. Last Thursday through the weekend there was no MOW equipment stored on the Clinton siding. Its back now being stored there this week.

In a previous post I mentioned all of the MOW equipment I have seen was CSX with the exception of a Railworks high rail box truck. I did see another contractors high rail boom truck working in Northborough the other day. I don't remember the name but it was a company I was unfamiliar with. Just today I saw a Progress Rail boom truck parked at one of the Berlin crossings. CSX seems to be spreading the wealth a bit on this project.

Sunday saw the equipment parked on the line 1/2 mile north of Clinton center - so that is why you didn't see it on the Clinton siding. Probably so they could run around in Clinton when serving the south end of the line as you explained.

SpiderHill wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 6:25 pm In a previous post I mentioned all of the MOW equipment I have seen was CSX with the exception of a Railworks high rail box truck. I did see another contractors high rail boom truck working in Northborough the other day. I don't remember the name but it was a company I was unfamiliar with. Just today I saw a Progress Rail boom truck parked at one of the Berlin crossings. CSX seems to be spreading the wealth a bit on this project.

I wonder if the high rail boom truck was the same I saw on the Worcester Main in July from Strategic Rail, a woman owned rail contractor from Wisconsin.-------https://strategicrailllc.com/

With all the investment, will CSX feel pressure to increase their rates on former PAR?

johnhenry wrote: ↑Tue Aug 15, 2023 7:15 pm Sunday saw the equipment parked on the line 1/2 mile north of Clinton center - so that is why you didn't see it on the Clinton siding. Probably so they could run around in Clinton when serving the south end of the line as you explained.

That would make sense. Thanks for the info. I hadn't been up on that end of town in while. On one level it is surprising they did that for such a long period of time. Before all this work they would run to Leominster on Sundays going through Clinton in the late afternoon.

neman2 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 16, 2023 7:25 am I wonder if the high rail boom truck was the same I saw on the Worcester Main in July from Strategic Rail, a woman owned rail contractor from Wisconsin.-------https://strategicrailllc.com/

It was not. It was another company. There is Strategic Rail boom truck that has been regularly parked at the end of the day at the Clinton station with some Corman equipment.