by Steve Wagner
Friday, September 6
3:27 p.m.
I was on the first inbound train from Concord, MA, this morning but haven't had a chance to post until now. I learned at home in Maynard that it was stopped at Ayer because of "freight interference" and was running 40-50+ minutes late. It left Concord at 6:38, running 56 minutes late, and got a little later because of an unscheduled stop east of Belmont. As we were about to get off at Porter, another passenger who'd boarded at Ayer or farther west told the conductor (another Stephen) that he'd seen what had happened: a low bed truck had taken out a rail at Willows Road in the eastern part of Ayer, not on the tracks used by the MBTA Commuter Rail, but on the freight line that diverges there en route to Lowell and points farther east and north. Apparently the PanAm people who control the trackage in that area weren't sure just where the rail was out and erred on the side of caution.
3:27 p.m.
I was on the first inbound train from Concord, MA, this morning but haven't had a chance to post until now. I learned at home in Maynard that it was stopped at Ayer because of "freight interference" and was running 40-50+ minutes late. It left Concord at 6:38, running 56 minutes late, and got a little later because of an unscheduled stop east of Belmont. As we were about to get off at Porter, another passenger who'd boarded at Ayer or farther west told the conductor (another Stephen) that he'd seen what had happened: a low bed truck had taken out a rail at Willows Road in the eastern part of Ayer, not on the tracks used by the MBTA Commuter Rail, but on the freight line that diverges there en route to Lowell and points farther east and north. Apparently the PanAm people who control the trackage in that area weren't sure just where the rail was out and erred on the side of caution.