What's with Watertown?

b&m 1566 wrote:When was the rest of the Water Town branch abandoned? Was it abandoned in sections or all at once?

The Branch had alot more costomers that it served, their was a Co-Op in Cambridge right after it came off the Fitchburg ML as well as Newlywed Foods, Barker Steel which was right across School St down the road from my house, (Lexus Deler there now) And it kept going all the way and served one more costomer a Brick Place before Watertown Sq. I may be wrong, just trying to think from memory..

I can remember seeing action on the branch as a kid later than 86 into the 90's. But my me starting middle school in 1997/98 arround then, the activity was all or none.

Incidently, if you take the MBTA Commuter Rail to Waltham, right at the Tower the B&M now Guilford's Bemis Branch comes off of the Main Line their goes across the road thru Waltham and into Watertown, it used to serve a massive cold stoage warehouse which is now torn down being built for lovley $$ condo's. The branch is torn up in sections, with the section near the tower used for MOW Storage

It's funny, living in Watertown for 16 years i only saw the Branch active 2 times, and 1 time on the Bemis branch. I've seen it more active living in NH than i ever did in MA

As long as Newlyweds keeps demanding service, GRS might not be able to force abandonment. Its come out a few times that Newlyweds has no intention (at least at the time) of vacating their location, and does not want to lose rail service, as all they're getting is the type of bulk commodity that rail is ideally suited for.

Its a pity the cement plant further down Grove St. is so far away from the tracks.

Right, thats what i Figured. But if you were Pan Am or Newlyweds im sure they dont want their shippments, and for Pan Am, their engine's getting derailed and stuck. Luckly the other day MEC 512 was returning from Newlyweds and not going to their as if they got stuck and derailed going to Watertown, that can delay their shippments. Granted the track isn't in good shape at all, but you would think after these 2 problems, Pan Am would repair at least that god awful part under the bridge, nicknamed the "Cambrdige Waterworks Trap"

octr202 wrote:As long as Newlyweds keeps demanding service, GRS might not be able to force abandonment.

No, but they can sure make life difficult if they want to by simply embargoing the line as unfit for traffic (and that point seems to be getting pretty close) or surcharging carload rates to a point where Newlyweds' freight bill gets too high. Newlyweds could in turn mount a legal fight, but that could cost them money and they might loose in the end anyway. Ever since the Staggers Act deregulated most rail freight service, railroads have a lot of freedom to simply walk away from business that they don't want.

Guilford last year announced the intent to abandon this segment, but then withdrew the announcement with a subsequent filing of a System Map.

Anyone know the last time they did any real track work down there? By real track work I mean more than scraping away mud until you can see tracks again..

l008com wrote:I hope I didn't already post this....

For all those who wish they were lucky enough to catch action on the watertown branch, you should be as lucky as google:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=17+Herber ... 5&t=k&om=1

If you look closely it seems one car is very long like a centerbeam and at the photo it still shows cars at the old lumber dealer whichg leads me to believe BO-1 is just switching the lumber co.

l008com wrote:Anyone know the last time they did any real track work down there? By real track work I mean more than scraping away mud until you can see tracks again..

No Idea. But I can see why a locomtive could get stuck down their. The mud is all over the rails and it's just horrable. I thought soft mud was worse, but i guess soft or frozen it still is bad enough! The entire branch isn't in the best of shape, i should know i rolled my ankle down their bad, but that section of track is very bad under the Waterworks bridge, they should at least replace that

OR

Were going to be talking about Guilford getting another locomotive stuck as it did last week next time they try to service Newlywed's

Photos for those who want to see what were talking about on NERAIL

http://photos.nerail.org/show/?order=by ... y=bkennedy

Next time they get stuck i want to try and get down there and take some pics! That would be so cool.

Hey i found this pic of the watertown branch on railpictures.net ...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174756

l008com wrote:Hey i found this pic of the watertown branch on railpictures.net ...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174756

HA, and I thought Watertown was bad..

l008com wrote:Hey i found this pic of the watertown branch on railpictures.net ...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174756

Hey that must have been maintained by Penn Central.

dansapo wrote:

l008com wrote:Hey i found this pic of the watertown branch on railpictures.net ...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174756

Hey that must have been maintained by Penn Central.

Its not Penn Central any more... it's Pan Am

b&m 1566 wrote:

dansapo wrote:

l008com wrote:Hey i found this pic of the watertown branch on railpictures.net ...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174756

Hey that must have been maintained by Penn Central.

Its not Penn Central any more... it's Pan Am

You said it not me! Didn't want to start a fight over who is worse

dansapo wrote:

b&m 1566 wrote:

dansapo wrote:

l008com wrote:Hey i found this pic of the watertown branch on railpictures.net ...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=174756

Hey that must have been maintained by Penn Central.

Its not Penn Central any more... it's Pan Am

You said it not me! Didn't want to start a fight over who is worse

LOL! That sure would make a good topic "The Worst of the Worst"