Pan Am Worcester Main Line

A check of the area yesterday (Monday), 3 carts have appeared on the siding off of shrewsbury St ahead of the center Beam cars (so must have been brought in by truck,) the track equipment has been moved around there was some over behind Dunkin's on West Boylston St in Worcester,the rest is on the siding at St Gorbains, and it look like some work has taken plcae east of the Burncoat st crossing, but I could not stop to look to much traffic and I headed out the other way. Also on Sterling st there is a large pile of ties next to the trackas well as several pieces of corrigated pipe for a culvert some where. the drag detector has also \been painted floresant green.

There is also a big pile of ties at the Temple Street (Route 140) grade crossing.

Are these piles of ties new ones waiting to go in or old ties ripped out? Any broad estimate on the count?

On Friday I saw Pan Am crews tied up behind the Dunks on West Boylston St.

A check on the Shrewsbury st crossing, the centerbeam cars are gone, replaced by track gang equipment, and personal vehs. they have gone beyound the crossing. they started at Burncoat st at least, looks like new ballast or atleast they ran a regulator over it. I did see a tamper also parked on the siding. looks like the track speed will be increased when all is said and do. also looked like stick rail laying beside the track where it could be pickup easily.

Bill

Hopefully the next edition of the Clipper will go into some detail about these improvements.

Since they aren't related to any Amtrak trains there is significantly less public knowledge about purpose and intentions.

gokeefe wrote:Hopefully the next edition of the Clipper will go into some detail about these improvements.

Since they aren't related to any Amtrak trains there is significantly less public knowledge about purpose and intentions.

One question that I keep asking is why restore it 25 MPH now. I say restore because the 10 MPH is a bulletin restriction, a slow order. It's been that way for years, what has changed?

My best guess is that CSX crews will be running directly from Selkirk to Ayer when the work is complete. This is not possible now with the 10 MPH slow order, but will be possible when the line is brought back to 25 MPH.

Ironman wrote:

gokeefe wrote:Hopefully the next edition of the Clipper will go into some detail about these improvements.

Since they aren't related to any Amtrak trains there is significantly less public knowledge about purpose and intentions.

One question that I keep asking is why restore it 25 MPH now. I say restore because the 10 MPH is a bulletin restriction, a slow order. It's been that way for years, what has changed?

My best guess is that CSX crews will be running directly from Selkirk to Ayer when the work is complete. This is not possible now with the 10 MPH slow order, but will be possible when the line is brought back to 25 MPH.

Actually the 10 MPH restriction is now timetable speed for the majority of the Worcester Main. Yeah, it's that bad... They are restoring it because the majority of traffic coming and going to Maine now is going that route, and even PAR realizes they need to do something about the track.

I don't believe CSXT has trackage rights to Ayer on the Worcester main...

The system map on the CSX website claims trackage rights into Ayer. Getting the Worcester line up to a reliable 25 mph could be part of the ongoing PAR v. PAS dynamic. A 75 minute Barbers-Ayer transit as opposed to one of three-plus hours could mean both more business for PAR and more CSX power going further east. Mebbe the racks and intermodal are becoming the new coal trains -- guaranteed business for the PAR part of PAS -- so there's no great incentive to further invest in improving running time or getting and maintaining the needed crews. Mebbe, also, PAR has decided to write off west of 312 and let The Pony take it under terms of the joint venture.
This is too much speculation for a long-weekend Sunday morning -- my head hurts.

CSX Crews Used to bring the trains up to ayer, can't remember which ones, but it was back when they ran more than 1 train in each direction.......

CSX crews ran their rack trains up to Ayer, before they shut her down.

The problem with the track upgrades is that they are buying sub standard ties. Instead of spending literally a few extra dollars per tie to get good quality ones, they are choosing they cheap route. Honestly I've seen better ties in rarely used customer sidings. So even if they get the speeds up to 25 by the end of the summer/fall, more than likely by the end of winter or beginning of next summer they will be back down to 10.

newpylong wrote:

Ironman wrote:

gokeefe wrote:Hopefully the next edition of the Clipper will go into some detail about these improvements.

Since they aren't related to any Amtrak trains there is significantly less public knowledge about purpose and intentions.

One question that I keep asking is why restore it 25 MPH now. I say restore because the 10 MPH is a bulletin restriction, a slow order. It's been that way for years, what has changed?

My best guess is that CSX crews will be running directly from Selkirk to Ayer when the work is complete. This is not possible now with the 10 MPH slow order, but will be possible when the line is brought back to 25 MPH.

Actually the 10 MPH restriction is now timetable speed for the majority of the Worcester Main.

Timetable speed for the entire Worcester main line from Harvard to Barber is 30mph except for a 1 mile section in Lancaster that is 25mph.

Two possibilities:
-Whole bunches of speedometers need recalibration
-Speed Summaries reflect a reality that the TTs don't

Well the speed summary gives you the restrictions to the time table speed, so yes they give you the "day to day" of what the speed limits are on the system. A good portion of the system is listed on the speed summary because of the amount of restrictions, so its 3-4 pages long. Whereas on say, the MBCR there is only 2 or 3 restrictions at any given time and the speed summary is only about half a page..