CSX Track Upgrades & Infrastructure of Pan Am

At the risk of getting off topic, I did read that provocative Trains Mag article about the BNSF Transcon meltdown and interestingly on pg 31 was a picture of CSX M424 tied down at Westfield, one of several parked a few miles short of its W Springfield destination a couple of months back. On the brighter side, as I watch various live cams I see neither CSX or NS is afraid to operate short pig trains to maintain schedule. And on occasion NS manifests departing Elkhart are < 100 cars (this morning a pair of NS road units took a mere 12 cars east). So maybe the class 1s are easing up on the relentless pursuit of running megatrains in favor of maintaining schedule frequency.

Word has it that the stone in those 55 Herzog hoppers is frozen so they are departing Ayer today for Nashua to thaw. Apparently it was intended to drop this stone on the Worcester main.

they headed the wrong way, send them south,FLORIDA

Another minor observation , at Gilson Rd Littleton crossing Holland Rail Services pickup trucks parked. Any activity is out of sight.

Saw rail train included with a general freight heading Maineward through Lawrence today.

It appears CSX isn't slowing down the trackwork for winter or Sundays. Today Holland and CSX are working on the Stony Brook at Pleasant St. and Town Farm Rd. crossings in Westford with a hi-rail mobile weld truck. It appears they are replacing insulated joints at the crossings.

Also a new signal tower bridge has been dropped off at Town Farm Rd. crossing for CPF-309. See attached photos.

Holland rail welding crew working at Town Farm crossing in Westford today . Correction to my earlier post-they aren't installing insulated joints but are welding the end of the strings installed by Pan Am 6 years ago that had conventional joint bars at the ends. They had to get off the track around 2 pm to let LA-4 bring some cars from Graniteville to Ayer.

Thanks for the update and pictures. I knew Pan Am put some CWR in the area but couldn't remember when. Just another item on the punch list CSX has that will increase track integrity and in the long run reduce maintenance.

Well it's official. I was at Burncoat St crossing talking with a CSX official, waiting for a single light engine coming from Ayer to Burncoat Street. They were testing the RR crossings to make sure the signal lights and gates were activated far enough up the track for the NEW 25 MPH speed limit up from the previous 10 MPH. Your hearing it from me, the CSX official said that after the light engine made it to Burncoat without incident, the speed increase should take place immediately. The CSX spokesman said it should take less than half the time now to make it from Ayer to Worcester and visa versa. The weight limit is raised as well and the plan is to use the track more than once a day. For 2023, a lot of work is planned in District 3 & 4 going almost to the Canadian border. The spokesman said that work will begin soon, in the next phase, and there is a lot of work upgrading the lighter rails that's in place now. You may also see some work starting from Fitchburg to Gardner as well but not as much as up north.

You mean District 1? District 3 is everything west of 312, and there is no District 4 ...

I would hardly call a track worker a "spokesman", lol.

I was wondering what I heard yesterday in the early afternoon when I was in the woods around the reservoir and MP 16. Train horn and then a minute later, when in view of the tracks, no train.

rustyrails wrote: ↑Fri Dec 30, 2022 6:43 pm ...They were testing the RR crossings to make sure the signal lights and gates were activated far enough up the track for the NEW 25 MPH speed limit up from the previous 10 MPH. ...

The "timetable" speed for the line has always been 25, except for the sections in yard limits and between MP19 and MP21 (through Lancaster) where it's been 10. Now that this work is complete, will the 10MPH section through Lancaster also be increased to 25? That would certainly cut the time needed for the run.

Joshua

If you go back into the GRS/ST timetables a few revisions back you'll see it was a mix of 25, 30 and 35 through the 90s. They dropped the TT speed to 25 when I was there because it was all 10 in reality.

Hiking at the Worcester Country Club golf course in Worcester this morning, I noticed that the area of the right-of-way on the south side of the current rail is all cleared and graded flat with stone (sorry, I should have taken a photo). This is around MP5-6. I wonder if this is a new planned siding? Knowing that the tight-of-way west of the Greendale siding is very close and sometimes impinged upon by business parking lots, maybe it is easier to add a long siding here, between Burncoat st and Shrewsbury st.

A welded rail train passed the Fairport cam at 12:17. Symboled W011, bound for Worcester. Any idea where this is headed?