Pan Am Worcester Main Line

One company I know of that makes new turntables is MACTON---- https://www.macton.com/locomotiverailway-turntables-1 The company I worked for used them for some new transit car lifts and truck turntables at a MBTA shop. Excellent guys to work with.
The company rep on our project told me the most unusual job he worked on was to install a turntable in a garage for a rich guy in Hawaii so his wife wouldn't have to back out of the garage!

CP installed a new turntable at East Binghamton yard in the 1990s (that NS now uses) so, I'm guessing, it could turn power at the engine service area without having to send it on a 5-6 mile walkabout to CP-BD - Bevier St - QD and return.

Interestingly there are two turntables at NS' closed heavy locomotive shops at Roanoke - perhaps they're available for re-deployment?

[OT] the batcave has a turntable to turn the Batmobile

I went through Greendale today and saw two large excavators and some track equipment on the siding track in back of DD's and the auto parts store. It must be a good size project with those two excavators. Does anyone know what's going on in Greendale?

I did a drive-by of Depot Rd Harvard on Sunday 7/21/24 and saw staging materials for some sort of project: several piles of fresh stone, a few lengths on new rail, several bundles of flex drainage tubing, a front loader, a port-a-potty (must be a long term project?), and, most importantly, a MAS DEP file # sign that likely explains what is happening here. File # Harvard 177-0743 is a CSX wetlands project called "CSXT RAIL UNDER STATE ROUTE 2" filed on 2/15/24. On the detail page is a further description "LOWERING OF RAIL LINE". So perhaps this one the clearance improvement projects for double stacks on the Worcester Main?

PAS track north of the Harvard station sign remains a bit decrepit with well worn 100lb stick rail approaching 100 years of age still in use while south of the sign is CSX pristine 136lb CWR. It looks like PAS has surgically replaced several ties though, witness the stack of spent ties near the outhouse.

I also took a look at the track and small amount of staged materials at Clinton where the Worcester Main goes under the CSX Agriculture branch and I didn't see anything obvious about pending work at that site. I have no idea where the dozen pieces of new 136lb rail and accessories are going to be deployed.

Interestingly the Ag branch rail over the Worcester Main at Clinton Union Station is freshly installed 115lb CWR so CSX has new CWR on both lines now - who would have thought we would have ever seen that achievement a few years back before CSX took over?

In my unprofessional opinion, it doesn't look like too much of a project to lower the Worcester main track 2-3 feet (if needed) under the Ag branch bridge but north of the overpass a ~1% grade (?) will be needed to climb 3 ft or so to the Sterling St grade crossing.

Additionally, a search of the MASS E&EA Data Portal shows the following CSXT filings to lower Worcester Main roadbed in areas of wetlands:
- file # 135-0306 submitted by CSXT on 2/12/24 to lower the rail bed under the New Harbor Rd in Clinton about 2,000 ft south of the Ag Branch overpass.
- file # 295-0558 submitted by CSXT on 2/12/24 to lower the rail bed under State Road Route 12 in Sterling
- file # 295-0557 submitted by CSXT on 2/12/24 to lower the rail bed under Chace Hill Rd in Sterling[

On railroads, grade changes happen slowly and over the course of hundreds or thousands of feet. Sure, it looks simple to lower the railbed a few feet under the bridge... but Sterling Street is only about 100 yards away. Lower the railbed, and you're dropping the street into a hole. What of utilities buried under the road and the railroad too? And there's a pond that the tracks run alongside a half mile west - can you be back up to the original grade by then? If it were so simple, it probably would have been done by now. And I think they already did as much as they could to clear the line for autoracks in the 80s/90s.

jwhite07 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 7:09 am And I think they already did as much as they could to clear the line for autoracks in the 80s/90s.

Many have said that they raised the bridge back then.

To add yet another unprofessional opinion. it'd be easier and less expensive to raise the Fitchburg Secondary, which will be yet another clichéd nail in the coffin of reconnecting the Secondary to the Worcester Sub.
There has been at least 1 semi-local main lowering with very little approach mitigation at the Bellows Falls tunnel. AMTK was already running at low speeds cuzza the station stops and freight was never high speed through the tunnel either, so minimal impact.
Guessing that CSX wouldn't want the hassle of a localized speedo for Sterling Street et al., so raising the Secondary with approach ramping either side seems -- again unprofessionally -- preferable, especially since the Secondary could deal easier with service outages than the Sub.

Clinton bridge indeed was raised
And i believe track was also undercut
Both approaches were used to accomodate the racks
Will be intersting to see how it is done this time

jaymac wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2024 8:15 am To add yet another unprofessional opinion. it'd be easier and less expensive to raise the Fitchburg Secondary, which will be yet another clichéd nail in the coffin of reconnecting the Secondary to the Worcester Sub.

Far more lifeline in the physical capabilities found within and between both rights-of-way when considering reconnecting the Secondary to the Worcester sub, even if the bridge was raised the required maximum of 2.5 feet.

What's interesting is that welded rail has already been installed on the bridge.

In reference to the slope at Sterling st if the existing slope is 1% and you lower the track at the bridge 3 feet you double the slope to 2%. There are many issues when you get into the design of something like this, existing fixed points being the toughest to deal with. I'm not to go in to all the technical stuff here unless somebody really needs to know.

RE: "What's interesting is that welded rail has already been installed on the bridge."

Yeah that makes no sense if they plan to raise the bridge. They would have waited.

Didn't they do the CWR around 2019-2021? It could have been done before they made a move on Pan Am, or at least was planned before the sale was approved.