Pan Am Southern / Patriot Corridor Discussion

But detour moves are different and don’t require conventional rights- merely cooperation
The detoured 264 had no rights over the water level route across NY

It wasn't run as 264. It wasn't even run by an NS crew (since they haven't qualified on the line).

Detour rights are actually something that are agreed to ahead of time so that there's a legal framework to exercise them under covering who pays for what, who has liability if something goes wrong, and and a whole host of other things. It's not simply a matter of calling up another railroad and asking "can we run a train over your line?".

Yes, I know detours are run by crews of the home railroad. The detouring RR wouldn't have qualified folks. My understanding is the class 1s generally have detour arrangements with each other - because disasters and derailments happen to everyone, so such arrangements benefit all parties in the long run. So what you seem to be saying is that PAS and G&W don't have a detour arrangement.

That would be my guess.

When the tunnel collapsed there was no existing agreement to run over from Whitehall to the VTR and down, but they put the framework together fairly quickly with all the different railroads and made it happen. The VTR stipulated all types of crap like the racks couldn't exceed 10 mph etc. I'll try to figure out what's going on there but it likely is something else.

As of this afternoon, the stalled 264 remains parked in royalston

A photograph of PAS EDAY freight passing CPF-335 Westminster Sunday afternoon 9/17/23 was posted on CSX / PAS FB page - I don't know if it tied down at CPF-333 Wachusett or continued east but another observation posted on FB said the washout at N Leominster appeared to be filled in Sunday afternoon but track/row work was still under way at that hour.

In other Patriot Corridor news, NS instituted a 36 hour curfew window this past weekend on the Lake Erie District to replace a few more spans on the trestle at Conneaut OH causing 264 to be detoured by way of Harrisburg and up the D&H Sunbury line to Mechanicville.

Good news: MBTA line through Leominster washout area re-opened for PAS traffic Monday evening. MBTA train service will resume to/from Wachusett mid-day Monday 9/19/23.

And somewhat related Patriot Corridor news: NS Lake Erie District has re-opened after curfew at Conneaut OH (bridge replacement) went a day or so longer than planned, requiring 264-16/265-16 to detour via Sunbury/Harrisburg/Horseshoe Curve on 9/17/23. And the CSX 8881-led (with NKP heritage unit) X427 (aka NS 265-17 that departed Ayer 9/17/23 via the Worcester Main and CSX B&A) continued west on CSX all the way to Berea before getting on NS.

Something I'm hearing today is a very active "Ayer utility" running around Ayer in a vehicle helping with shoves, radio comms, transporting conductors etc. Probably a B+E effort to keep things fluid.

...and Danny Donnellan, retired Ayer utility, just came to mind...