Franklin Line Discussion

Any progress on the double tracking? Haven’t heard in a while about this.

it's a ghost town, no action for quite some time

Well, here's an update:
Norfolk Depot: rails and ties are down for MOST of the way from just West of Walpole through to just East of Franklin with short gaps between Norfolk and Franklin. One of these gaps is, of course the crossing at Rockwood Street directly adjacent to the station.
Signal masts appear to be complete save likely for last-minute wiring/installation considerations.
Speaking of wiring, the bases for the new crossing protection are in with wiring visible in the center of each. The old electrical equipment box on the East side of the aforementioned crossing remains extant and connected to the new box by a conduit. I assume they've been populating the new box over the past year and swapping functions to the new one. So when they're ready, they'll just need to bolt the new protection to the new bases and remove the old box, then put the tracks down in the road.
The other two gaps seem to be getting shorter, but not with any predictable regularity. I've caught the crews working at Norfolk a few times over the last 2 months or so, but it's strictly "catch-as-catch-can."
So, ... status:
(I wish I knew the track numbers!) New track is as near to "service ready" from Walpole to the crossover East of the crossing at Norfolk, Crossovers are in place at both ends of the station but signals are still oriented for "not in service." At the station it's rail and ties with panel track sections waiting to be dropped in for the crossing, Rails solid West to the Park St OGB, then a gap of less than one mile, then solid the rest of the way to Franklin.
Also: they're bustituiting Walpole to Franklin/FP for work on the doubletracking project this weekend. Bunch of alignment equipment on the new track, but I couldn't tell where they were working on what.

"new track" is just referred to as OOS track, and the currently in service "single track"

no buses next weekend btwn Walpole and Forge, but after that, 6 weekends in a row to allow for the double track progress to continue working uninterrupted by traffic

Appears the Franklin line will be undergoing a major tie job in the near future. Islington has been designated as the staging area for many bundles of new ties delivered this past week

OOS track may also be referred to as the future No. 1 track, as the right hand track away from Boston is always odd (as are train numbers). So when it is double tracked, the new track will be the No. 1 and the current single track will become the No. 2.

THANKS CRail!

I visited the Norfolk T station on Friday 11/3/23 to see what progress has been made on the double tracking project between Walpole and Franklin and it looks like the T is not working on it very aggressively and has a lot more work to do IMO. Here are the views east and west from the station platform. The rails and ties of the 2nd track are in place but hasn't been connected to the existing 2nd track - crossing gates and signal boxes still need to be removed to allow the 2nd track to cross rte 115. Plus, given the west facing signal heads are turned away at the existing turnout to the 2nd track east of the crossing, I'm guessing the installed 2nd track is not in general use? The new track uses plastic ties making it look like Atlas flex track!

As I understand it the track forces that worked on double tracking the Franklin line up to this point were diverted to Southcoast Rail and that is why Franklin progress has halted. Once South Coast is open I expect progress will resume on the Franklin line.

Yeah, I was guessing pretty much exactly that.
That, and the push to eliminate Slow-Orders ad the whole GLX gauge debacle must have track workers pretty well tied up for now.
Does anyone know what happened to the series of weekend bustitution/shutdowns that were supposed to happen? I know it was mentioned around the time the first bustitution happened there were supposed to be another 6 such shutdowns, but I never saw evidence of more than 1 or maybe two having happened.

Does GLX remediation use the same contractors as Commuter Rail?

I wouldn't think so, but there's bound to be other departments involved.
Fr Br trackwork could be effected indirectly.

regarding the Green Line work....the CR track forces and MBTA forces are separate. We were suppose to run a 6 car ballast train the other day, but 2 Amtrak derailments in the early morning hours at SHSY may have squashed that move, I never heard if they actually made it down to Franklin.

As for the planned outages...remember, the area experienced several severe weather events between the 2 sides involving wash outs, heavy erosion, etc. track crews had been busy, let alone what other projects had already been planned for this month. As we all know, there is no rush to get this 2nd track in operation. WHAT they should do/have done before pulling the crews, is retire WALPOLE WEST, put the 80' section of track in, and fire up the new INT at Norfolk. At least we would have that roughly 3 extra miles of double track available for better timed meets

Stone train xtra OD today at 7am, run lite to Grand Jct, get 6 loaded cars, bring to Franklin Ind. trk and store there, return to RDV lite engine

Things ARE happening!
The bed for the new track has been dug out south of the Rockwood Rd crossing at Norfolk station. apparently in preparation for laying the track panel up to the roadway.
There's also been ballast work done south of town and equipment, including the ballast regulator, staged south of the Park St OGB.