Pan Am Worcester Main Line

jwhite07 wrote:Generally one train in each direction per day (I believe currently symboled SEWA northbound and WASE southbound, but train symbols change all the time). Once in a while a P&W coal train enroute to or from PSNH in Bow, New Hampshire, but that's an infrequent occurrence (P&W has their own main line to Gardner, so I guess they run it on the Worcester Main only when they can't use their own line for some reason). No locals at all. Catching a train is a chance event - trains run when they run, with no predictability whatsoever.

Is this the current P&W rail route? I believe only the coal train rails one each day.

Any route update is highly appreciated.

Is this the current P&W rail route? I believe only the coal train rails one each day.

Any route update is highly appreciated.

I'm not too sure about the P&W running daily. I belive there's two different coal trains. One that branches off the Worcester Branch (don't know the name of this branch line) near Crossman Driving School and goes directly to Gardener MA. And then the other coal train takes the Pan Am Worcester Branch all the way through into Ayer and then onto the Stoney Brook Branch.

EastMassParanormal wrote:

Is this the current P&W rail route? I believe only the coal train rails one each day.

Any route update is highly appreciated.

I'm not too sure about the P&W running daily. I belive there's two different coal trains. One that branches off the Worcester Branch (don't know the name of this branch line) near Crossman Driving School and goes directly to Gardener MA.

That's the one to Mt. Tom, I think.

And then the other coal train takes the Pan Am Worcester Branch all the way through into Ayer and then onto the Stoney Brook Branch.

That's the one to Bow.

That's the one to Mt. Tom, I think.

That's the one to Bow.

Ahh yes I see now. I couldn't think of which one went where.

Continue to subtract 15 from the alleged improvement of the Worcester Line to 25 mph west of MP 16. On 08-05-2010, SEWA, with CSXTs 592 and 5104 plus 42, was east of Gates Road at 1211 and east of South Meadow Road at 1228 which, for the 3.1 miles works out to 10 plus a small decimal mph. The South Meadow talker remains mute, not even a "detector not working." Also, in the area southeast of the Gates Road crossing is a section of panel track, presumably for a crossing rebuild.

Continue to subtract 15 from the alleged improvement of the Worcester Line to 25 mph west of MP 16. On 08-05-2010, SEWA, with CSXTs 592 and 5104 plus 42, was east of Gates Road at 1211 and east of South Meadow Road at 1228 which, for the 3.1 miles works out to 10 plus a small decimal mph. The South Meadow talker remains mute, not even a "detector not working." Also, in the area southeast of the Gates Road crossing is a section of panel track, presumably for a crossing rebuild.

Hey if you ever catch a train at Gates Road again could you take some pics? I'd love to see him going over that crossing. Well hopefully its gates road crossing that they're rebuilding cause currently it looks like crap. The one they put in up in Lancaster on rt.117 is a pretty nice one..

jaymac wrote:Continue to subtract 15 from the alleged improvement of the Worcester Line to 25 mph west of MP 16. On 08-05-2010, SEWA, with CSXTs 592 and 5104 plus 42, was east of Gates Road at 1211 and east of South Meadow Road at 1228 which, for the 3.1 miles works out to 10 plus a small decimal mph. The South Meadow talker remains mute, not even a "detector not working." Also, in the area southeast of the Gates Road crossing is a section of panel track, presumably for a crossing rebuild.

I don't believe this will be happening this production season anyway - it wasn't on the list and I can't see them having enough manpower to do a tie job down there just yet. But I hope it does!

EastMassParanormal-
I don't have a camera. Even if I did, it might break if I photographed such a nasty piece of alleged work.

I don't have a camera. Even if I did, it might break if I photographed such a nasty piece of alleged work.

Thats alright. Hahaha yeah good point.

Is this the current P&W rail route? I believe only the coal train rails one each day.

Any route update is highly appreciated.

As a previous poster stated, the P&W route branches off and goes to Gardiner. Speaking of the P&W, it looks like they want to add a track from Barber's Crossing to the beginning of the branch, but they're currently having some issues with getting National Grid utility lines moved off the ROW.

I moved to Harvard a few months ago and haven't had much time to monitor the action on PAR's Worcester Main. It seems (from reading everyone's posts) that there has been a significant uptick in traffic on the line in the past year. Anyone have any idea how many trains are using the line daily? Any consistent weekend schedule? In the past week I've surveyed the northern end of line from the Oxbow NWR crossing and northward to the Hill. Tonight at 2:00am I met a 50+ car CSX-powered train at the Still River crossing; moving at 10mph it seemed to be taxing the jointed rail. Any recent track improvements on the north end? The section off Depot St. in Harvard seems decent enough by PAR standards but I imagine some of the CSX lashups could be pushing the ricketey rails of the neglected line to their physical limits...

Just the two road jobs per day plus the occasional local, but they are significantly bigger.

As far as I know it's all still 10 mph - but they plan to raise it to 25 (they usually are too cheap to bring it to TT speed and have to maintain for the higher track class on their own dime).

I believe there's an occasional Bow coal train off the P&W as well.

CSXT and B&M have the choice of interchanging their traffic primarily through two interchanges, Worcester or Rotterdam. Some are interchanged through Springfield. However, CSXT-B&M cars that are interchanged through Rotterdam or Springfield much pay 50% of the line haul between those points and Ayer to Pan Am Southern, thus sharing the line haul with Norfolk Southern. This is the reason why more and more CSXT bound freight from the B&M and points east of Ayer is running over the Worcester Route to avoid the charges to Pan Am Southern. It should also be noted that billing via PAS requires another waybill for PAS.

With respect to the track repairs to the Worcester line to bring it up to 25MPH, when will all this begin and what will it consist of? Many of the actual rails on the route are deformed and will need to be replaced with some different rail.

Just guessing, but there's probably going to be a delay in anything major, waiting to see if the Commonwealth will float a bond or other financing for the Worcester Main rehab. PAR has been exceptionally polite in such circumstances, allowing others the courtesy of going first in major matters financial. Small stuff will probably get attention, but not the big stuff, absent OPP -- Other People's Purses.
Just wondering, but do any members of the Prancing Pony Powers That Be wonder if one more sign of an unseparate but unequal rate division relationship might be seen in the potential for conflict of interest in having D-3 control moves that affect both NS and CSX? Maybe NS is willing to look the other way until work on PAS and auto yard expansion is complete.