by JCitron
I remember old New Haven Geeps servicing the industrial park and sitting at Metacross street yard when I was a kid. When I worked in Lowell during the early 1980s before Guilford, there was always a string of hoppers and other cars on the branch. These weren't MOW cars in storage, these were actually cars destined for customers. In fact it wasn't uncommon to see a switcher pushing box cars and tanks into the industrial park.
According to a not-so-recent STB filings (Dec. 2008), the B&M (Guilford/PanAM) has abandoned the Lowell freight trackage including the former New Haven line and the former line to Prince Spaghetti. The B&M had aquired the New Haven line during the 1970s when the also purchased their CT trackage that Guilford/PanAM has so nicely squandered away.
http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... enDocument ----- here's the one about the 1.7 mile Lowell Industrial track.
During the 4th of July holiday, there was a booth setup in Concord, MA at their celebration with news and information on the rebulding and opening of the the old NH line to Lowell as a bike trail. The woman at the table was shocked when I told her that the Lowell end is not necessily in a really nice area. I've biked through there many times, but it's not as genteel as these people were lead to believe. Sadly another line is lost to the bikes. We all know that once the yuppies and NIMBYs get a hold of a ROW, it's pretty rare that it will ever be returned back to what it should be used for.
In my opinion, these lines were abandoned the same way PanAm did with their other branches. They kept them online long enough to annoy and drive the customers away by not servicing them regularly, deferring maintenance to the extreme, and then finally use that as an excuse to close the line. I don't think they could directly cut the service without causing too much flack so instead they drove the customers away first and use that as an excuse to close the lines.
I saw this with the M&L, and the Danvers/Newburyport Branches along many others in the region. Yeah, we can use the argument that there wasn't enough business to support the line, the economy is poor, etc. but I can't always buy this argument. The B&M and the other owners of the line did well with them. It wasn't until PanAM came along and was it decided that the lines weren't worth keeping. The industrial park for example has/had the lines available for freight use, and if the RR was really interested in pursuing the business, they should have sent in a sales team, and tried hard to attract new business as well as keep the old customers, but no this is never the case. I'm suprised that they still have the Peobody, MA line open for Kodak. Surely there must be other customers on the line farther up towards the end. Do they still serve them, or did they squander them away too?
Sorry if I went off topic, but I had to vent this while discussing the old lines in Lowell.
John
According to a not-so-recent STB filings (Dec. 2008), the B&M (Guilford/PanAM) has abandoned the Lowell freight trackage including the former New Haven line and the former line to Prince Spaghetti. The B&M had aquired the New Haven line during the 1970s when the also purchased their CT trackage that Guilford/PanAM has so nicely squandered away.
http://www.stb.dot.gov/decisions/readin ... enDocument ----- here's the one about the 1.7 mile Lowell Industrial track.
During the 4th of July holiday, there was a booth setup in Concord, MA at their celebration with news and information on the rebulding and opening of the the old NH line to Lowell as a bike trail. The woman at the table was shocked when I told her that the Lowell end is not necessily in a really nice area. I've biked through there many times, but it's not as genteel as these people were lead to believe. Sadly another line is lost to the bikes. We all know that once the yuppies and NIMBYs get a hold of a ROW, it's pretty rare that it will ever be returned back to what it should be used for.
In my opinion, these lines were abandoned the same way PanAm did with their other branches. They kept them online long enough to annoy and drive the customers away by not servicing them regularly, deferring maintenance to the extreme, and then finally use that as an excuse to close the line. I don't think they could directly cut the service without causing too much flack so instead they drove the customers away first and use that as an excuse to close the lines.
I saw this with the M&L, and the Danvers/Newburyport Branches along many others in the region. Yeah, we can use the argument that there wasn't enough business to support the line, the economy is poor, etc. but I can't always buy this argument. The B&M and the other owners of the line did well with them. It wasn't until PanAM came along and was it decided that the lines weren't worth keeping. The industrial park for example has/had the lines available for freight use, and if the RR was really interested in pursuing the business, they should have sent in a sales team, and tried hard to attract new business as well as keep the old customers, but no this is never the case. I'm suprised that they still have the Peobody, MA line open for Kodak. Surely there must be other customers on the line farther up towards the end. Do they still serve them, or did they squander them away too?
Sorry if I went off topic, but I had to vent this while discussing the old lines in Lowell.
John
