Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

Rather than starting a new post every time I see something cool while I'm out for a bike ride, I figure I'll start one thread, and anyone who is interested can add to it when they see stuff. When I can't make it to the woods during the day, I mountain bike on the street at night instead, and I always tend to end up along the line in these three towns.

I figured I had missed the LOSA since it was 11:40 last night, but nope. A pretty short one was parked by Rhostien. At the time I thought it was dropping off cars to them, but looking at google maps, it could also have been the building behind theirs, they look like they have spurs that parallel. It was cool too, I guess the cars for whoever they were for were near the back of the train. There were only a few cars left behind, and almost the whole train was backed down the spur.

There was nothing at Wilmington Cold Storage, and you could clearly see its been at least a few days, maybe more since anything has been down their line.

I also ventured down whats left of the woburn branch. The part thats still in use when they are switching the cement company. Luckily one of the recent cars seems to have been leaking cement all over the tracks, so it was very easy to pedal all the way down the middle. The whole time, I'm there thinking 'shit i'm right next to a toxic chemical dump' (olin)

So I saw the DOBO gravel train today. On the RT 38 bridge in Wilmington. It was funny because at first, as it approached, I couldn't tell if it was commuter rail or freight. Then as it got closer, the lead locomotive started to sound like an old chevy pickup with rusted out exhaust. Then I knew, it has to be the G
I saw a ton of commuter trains on the line tonight, but no LOSA. I haven't seen LOSA in a while, whats the deal with it, it IS still running right?
Know what else is interesting, Wilmington Cold Storage (no cars recently, sand piles) no longer has a run around. the first switch for the run around was in the middle of the street. They are repaving that street and the point where the tracks cross each other on the switch has been replaced with a regular straight switch. They did it recently too, probably within a month or two.
Also theres this company out behind new boston road that had a pair of box cars out back. What I thought was strange, they were both on the same short spur, but they weren't connected. Over all it was a fun night... I managed to pedal 30 miles

Where exactly were the two boxcars?

Out behind some plywood company. I was back the night before last night and one was gone.

Atlantic Plywood...

D

Yes thats the one. And if you happen to be checking it out on two wheels, they have a big loading dock for trucks out front that is pretty fun to hop in and out of

l008com wrote:So I saw the DOBO gravel train today. On the RT 38 bridge in Wilmington. It was funny because at first, as it approached, I couldn't tell if it was commuter rail or freight. Then as it got closer, the lead locomotive started to sound like an old chevy pickup with rusted out exhaust. Then I knew, it has to be the G
I saw a ton of commuter trains on the line tonight, but no LOSA. I haven't seen LOSA in a while, whats the deal with it, it IS still running right?
Know what else is interesting, Wilmington Cold Storage (no cars recently, sand piles) no longer has a run around. the first switch for the run around was in the middle of the street. They are repaving that street and the point where the tracks cross each other on the switch has been replaced with a regular straight switch. They did it recently too, probably within a month or two.
Also theres this company out behind new boston road that had a pair of box cars out back. What I thought was strange, they were both on the same short spur, but they weren't connected. Over all it was a fun night... I managed to pedal 30 miles

Have you seen anything recent?

Why now that you mention it, yes
Wednesday night I way the gravel train, seemed kind of short, with three green locomotives. NHN i believe. No guilford locomotives. Isn't this a Guilford train anyway though? Oh and it was at about 11:15 going through south wilmington. Seemed much later than usual.

Also the box cars behind the plywood place are all gone.

No activity to wilmington cold storage. Looks like nothings been down that way in a month or two. Deep sand traps over the trails at the edge of the street.

A downeaster did go by almost silent. It was the strangest thing, I didn't hear it coming, and if I wasn't looking towards the tracks, I might not have heard it at all! (I was in the parking lot of the SBLI building jumping down the 4' stairs) Must have had all new wheels I guess

l008com wrote:Why now that you mention it, yes
Wednesday night I way the gravel train, seemed kind of short, with three green locomotives. NHN i believe. No guilford locomotives. Isn't this a Guilford train anyway though?

The gravel train is usually only about 25 to 30 cars (give or take) long, why they use 3 engines per-train set is beyond my knowledge. You are correct though; Guilford crews take the train from Dover to Boston and back using NHN motive power.

I've seen some long ones this year. Once seemed to go on forever. I've never counted cars so I have no idea what actual numbers I'm talking about, but the one I saw the other day was probably the shortest I've seen. I really wanted to catch the LOSA switching out SOMEONE but no luck. I've never seen them switch the cement plant out, I'd really like to get lucky and see that some day.

It still looks like Wilmington cold storage hasn't received a car since they started repaving the street there (forget the name). I suspect they still plan on getting rail traffic though, else they would have ripped all the track out of the street, instead of just modifying the switch.

Gravel train barreled through Anderson RTC at about.... 11 or so? Give or take. And of course there is that big rail train parked on the side track at ARTC. There are already at least two threads about that already though. Apparently no LOSA tonight, unless I missed it.

Hey, I've been thinking about getting out on my bike to go check out the rails in the same area you're riding. I live in the north end of Reading so I can take Concord street over to the Reading/Haverhill line pretty easily. It would be nice to get farther over though to spot some freight trains or Downeasters. I'm looking on Mapquest right now just to see where the tracks are. Isn't that short link between the Wilmington and Reading lines called the "Wildcat cutoff" or something like that? Anyways I'd like to get over there because that's where the Downeaster goes though, and apparently also some Guilford traffic. Any commuter trains on that little stretch of track?

rush hours to haverhill

There is one reverse MBTA run from Haverhill that uses the Wildcat.