New England Central Railroad (NECR)

Signal work is all done on NECR, and has been for better part of a year. PAS's Springfield-Northfield portion of the Conn River is where all the remaining action is, and they're blitzing along the whole length of the line. Most of it's rail work right now, with tie-ins of all the new interlockings happening last.

I saw 54 today just usual 5 car set no cab car unless they added it in New Haven during engine swap

Cab coaches will be reassigned to other service until April as they don't do as well in snow and ice as locomotives. The Vermonter trains have been running with locomotives at each end ("topped and tailed" as our friends in the UK would say) north of New Haven for most of the winter.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Signal work is all done on NECR, and has been for better part of a year. PAS's Springfield-Northfield portion of the Conn River is where all the remaining action is, and they're blitzing along the whole length of the line. Most of it's rail work right now, with tie-ins of all the new interlockings happening last.

So once the entire project is finished to include the Conn River line between Springfield and East Northfield, will CTC be extended from CPF-385 to East Northfield (14 miles) or will this remain DCS territory as it is today? If the CPF-385 to East Northfield section is slated to receive CTC as part of the overall project, will Vermonter trains run on a track warrant from East Northfield to West River? Can't understand why Amtrak would want a 12 mile section of dark territory between two sections of CTC, if the CTC is extended north to East Northfield on the Conn River. East Northfield to West River would only consist of a few blocks.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Signal work is all done on NECR, and has been for better part of a year. PAS's Springfield-Northfield portion of the Conn River is where all the remaining action is, and they're blitzing along the whole length of the line. Most of it's rail work right now, with tie-ins of all the new interlockings happening last.

No it is not, it is still dark between East Northfield and West River on the CV.

CTC will be reactivated between Greenfield and East Northfield on the B&M.

It looks like the NECR is using 160.770MHz as their road frequencies from New London to the Canadian Border. Are the other frequencies still used in any kind of fashion across the system, e.g. 161.205MHz, 161.415MHz and 161.040MHz? Did the Hot box detectors also migrate to the 160.770MHz?

When will installation of the welded rail north of St. Albans begin and will a tie job follow? Will this work include bridge updates to the East Alburgh trestle? Is the welded rail dropped right up to the border on the CN side of the trestle?

Is the Vermonter still going to use the PAS rail? I heard the Vermonter will be using the original line, instead of the NECR rail north of Palmer. I hope the NECR rails (and the P&W Groton line) will have passenger service.

Upon completion of track work, the Vermonter will not run on CSX between Springfield and Palmer,nor will it run on NECR between Palmer and East Northfield. When articles say the "original route",they are referring to the Montrealer's 1972-1987 route on the ex-Guilford/B&M "Conn River" route. This new route will save at least 30 minutes off present times.

When the switch to the Conn River occurs, NECR will lose passenger service between Palmer and East Northfield. Amherst station will be replaced with Northampton.

shadyjay wrote:Upon completion of track work, the Vermonter will not run on CSX between Springfield and Palmer,nor will it run on NECR between Palmer and East Northfield. When articles say the "original route",they are referring to the Montrealer's 1972-1987 route on the ex-Guilford/B&M "Conn River" route.

Note this was also the traditional pre-Amtrak passenger route into northern New England for joint NH/B&M services like the White Mountain Express, as well as the NH/B&M/CV trains to Canada. Passenger service on the CV south of the VT line ended a long time ago-- I think the last was a daily mixed that was discontinued in 1948 or so.

So the NECR won't have passenger service. I thought I read that a passenger group is looking to start passenger from New London to Brattleboro. I think I read that Willimantic, Palmer and Amherst would have stops. Was I dreaming?

FLRailFan1 wrote:So the NECR won't have passenger service. I thought I read that a passenger group is looking to start passenger from New London to Brattleboro. I think I read that Willimantic, Palmer and Amherst would have stops. Was I dreaming?

No, and perhaps the group came to see the folly of this plan.

FLRailFan1 wrote:So the NECR won't have passenger service. I thought I read that a passenger group is looking to start passenger from New London to Brattleboro. I think I read that Willimantic, Palmer and Amherst would have stops. Was I dreaming?

You mean the "Central Corridor Rail Line"?

The local governments continue to like that proposal - I get a few google alerts per year pertaining to that - and there was an agreement between half a dozen of them to pursue funding in 2012. Nothing much since then - I suspect NHHS, Metro-North's woes, and the Vermonter project are taking up most of the state governments' attention.

dowlingm wrote:

FLRailFan1 wrote:So the NECR won't have passenger service. I thought I read that a passenger group is looking to start passenger from New London to Brattleboro. I think I read that Willimantic, Palmer and Amherst would have stops. Was I dreaming?

You mean the "Central Corridor Rail Line"?

Yes... I knew I wasn't dreaming. Palmer would be a great rail fan area
Hope it will happen. Was I dreaming on Groton Worcester passenger trains?