Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

[quote="At 5:43 PM I on Jun. 19, 2016 n an article entitled "Upton: Traffic delays expected during railroad improvements", Corin Cook Daily News Staff"]

Upton: Traffic delays expected during railroad improvements

UPTON - Residents can expect traffic delays this summer as the Grafton Upton Railroad installs new safety equipment at intersections with roads.
Four roads in town may be closed for up to 24 hours while crews install safety measures, Town Manager Blythe Robinson said.
In 2014, the Grafton Upton Railroad received a federal grant that will pay for 90 percent of the installation of crossing materials at four intersections. The railroad is responsible for the remaining 10 percent.
According to Robinson, the materials will be installed where the railroad intersects Williams Street, Maple Street, Pleasant Street and Hartford Avenue South.
Crews will take out old equipment and install new crossing arms, lights, and the bells to warn vehicles of a train approaching.
Currently, she said, the train stops while an employee comes out to check that there are no vehicles coming, which is unsafe, she said because “some cars are dark in color so maybe they can't see them.”
In 2011, a vehicle was hit by an unmanned maintenance car at the Hartford Avenue South crossing.[/quote]
Read more at Wicked Local Upton's web site

Credit to the Friends of The Grafton and Upton Railroad's facebook page for the tip!

Checked in at North Grafton yesterday morning. 1500 was nosed up to Westboro Road by the truck loading dock. 1800, 1801 and the caboose were nosed up to the building on the other side. 1751 was on its own by the yard switches. Yard was pretty full especially with pellet cards.

Doug

I've been seeing pictures of a GATX MP15AC operating on the G&U. I know they have at least 3 engines of their own. Are they all down with maintenance issues or is this a "lease to buy" deal?

Recent pics from the FoG&U Facebook page show two of the OOS units that were out for overhaul back and running, so Wikipedia's loco roster (last updated May) is now out-of-date. Maybe they're rotating more units out?

Also saw on FoG&U that they went before the Milford Conservation Commission back in late June about spraying and brush-cutting the Milford ROW. Prelude to construction activity???

Hypothetical question here...
If and when the G&U takes over some of CSX past Milford would the G&U stock go up for the folks at Genesee & Wyoming for them to make an offer? This question came to my mind after they purchased the P&W

Too small. Like, really really too small for G&W. Plus, Priscoli isn't anywhere near done realizing his vision for the rebooted RR. Lots of building-up left to do before the value of the RR crests to a point where he has a sell-high opportunity. Several more years of doing what they're doing before all plans are executed.

If G&U takes over for CSX, what will that be? I know its been mentioned before but this thread is big.

G&U gets the Milford Branch and Franklin Industrial Track, plus overhead rights to run in MBTA territory to Walpole Jct. and CSX Walpole Yard. Unlikely there'd ever be an interchange set up at Walpole, because N. Grafton is so much easier, so that last bit is just a rainy-day consideration. Right now the customers in this territory are covered by a CSX weekly, so you're not talking big business by a longshot. But there's quite a bit of ripe industrial property on the Milford Branch that a vigorous sell job can attract customers to. It's an ideal fit for G&U, and CSX is happy to give it to them because they'll grow that biz at the interchange more than CSX ever cared to with that paltry weekly train.

The reason there's no timetable for the handoff is that G&U is plenty busy getting its transload in gear, and the yards generate way more interchange revenue for CSX. CSX wants them to take their time finishing up to-do's on their main profit centers, so G&U's got all the time in the world to tend to top priorities before it raises that one bridge in Hopedale and completes the last 1.5 miles of track work (excluding all grade crossings and 2 blocks worth of track in Milford near the junction that are already finished). They took out a permit with Town of Milford to do brush-trimming and spraying this summer, so probably means early prep work is going to start soon even if it takes them until the 2017 construction season to actually finish the job.

Oh, okay. I retract my last question then about G&W, for some reason or another, I was under the assumption that CSX wanted to dump everything south of Framingham (which I found odd but clearly just a miss understanding on my part).

STB released a decision today that sets up the (correct) order of proceedings for the remainder of the case. (It's actually a correction of a previous one filed a few days before on the 23rd that put the wrong dates. Oops.)

... On July 15, 2016, the parties filed a joint proposed schedule under which: (1) Petitioners would file and serve their opening statement within 60 days from the service date of the Board’s decision establishing the procedural schedule; (2) G&U would file and serve its response within 45 days thereafter; and (3) Petitioners would file a rebuttal statement within 30 days after G&U’s response. The Board finds the parties’ joint proposal to be reasonable and consistent with Board practice. Thus, the following procedural schedule will be adopted:

• October 24, 2016 Petitioners’ opening statement
• December 8, 2016 G&U’s reply
• January 9, 2017 Petitioners’ rebuttal

On the morning of Friday September 16, 2016, I did a G&U drive by from Milford up to N Grafton to see what progress in extending/upgrading the physical plant has occurred in the past few months. Short answer is no visible investments have been made that I saw. Also, all 6 of G&U's rostered engines/slugs appeared to be shutdown if not out-of-service, with F7A 1501 parked at W Upton as it has been for months and the 1750, 1751, 1800, 1801, and 1500 all parked at N Grafton. I did not see GATX MP15 leaser 326 so perhaps I just missed it on the road. I have attached a few photo collages of the RoW starting in Milford that shows no track work has been done since track was laid behind Pinz bowling alley and across various street crossings a couple of years ago . Also, if there was any brush cutting done earlier in 2016, more will need to be done before any new track is laid. There were no piles of ties/rails/ballast anywhere in evidence between the MBTA connection at Milford and current end of G&U active track at Hopedale.

G&U RoW / Infrastructure visual survey part deux:

The G&U bridge over Hopedale St has had no work done to it and it looks quite frail - I don't know if it can be seen in the attached photos but two pieces of rail are propping up one of the bridge footings on the north abutment. Perhaps the plan is to replace the bridge providing higher road clearance?

There is a tarp covering two of the four tanks at the N Grafton propane transload - perhaps the tanks are being scraped and painted? Hopefully the propane transload goes on-line this winter.

Dana Rail covered hoppers are still stowed in a variety of sidings at N Grafton and Grafton. It's impossible to get a detailed look at where N Grafton yard expansion appears to be happening but there's no indication of track being installed at the previously graded locale (ie, there are no piles of ties, rails, or ballast in sight at N Grafton).

And re: G&U engines being sent out for repairs, all of the roster is present and accounted for and, as indicated previously, shut down on what I think is a day of operation for G&U (must be using GATX MP15?).

Docket Number.: FD_35652_0

Case Title: DIANA DEL GROSSO, RAY SMITH, JOSEPH HATCH, CHERYL HATCH, KATHELEEN KELLEY, ANDREW WILKLUND, AND RICHARD KOSIBA--PETITION FOR DECLARATORY ORDER

General Filing Type: Opening Statement

Filed On: 10/24/2016

Filed For: Diana Del Grosso, Ray Smith, Joseph Hatch, Cheryl Hatch, Katheleen Kelley, Andrew Wilklund, And Richard Kosiba



To view the entire document, click the above image OR click this link: https://www.stb.gov/FILINGS/all.nsf/c72 ... 241839.pdf.. Sorry but the file is too large to provide a courtesy copy for download here...

So I'll just break this down real quick as to how I read it;

1. We didn't bring up repelletizing last time, but you guys ignored it so we'll bring it up now.
2. Just because there's a pellet operation of some sort in the Upton yard doesn't mean it needs to be there.
3. Because they're doing a normal step in the process involving these pellets, it's manufacturing and not covered under preemption.

Can these idiots quit grasping at straws? They lost to begin with. What makes them think that making the STB look at this again after they come up with some new excuses for why the STB is wrong?