Abandoned Switcher in Boston?

Me and my buddy went to the New England Auto Show at the Boston Convention Center and while trying to find parking we stumbled across this switcher. It is located basically behind the parking lot for the venue. It was night time so I couldn't see much but it had an orange traffic barrel on the exhaust stack.

(google map image)



I followed the track it currently sits on back to the MBTA main line with no freight stops and dead end tracks the other way. I tried googling around for info but came up with nothing.

Does anyone know anything about this switcher and how it came to be there?

Boston Terminal Railway is about all I can remember. That's the company that owns it and was located there. They closed up shop due to a dispute with CSX of some sort, I believe, and relocated, but haven't sold off the property yet. Try searching around, the details are somewhere around here. The track it's on actually used to continue on to the Conley Terminal. The track it splits off of runs to the Southampton Yards one way, and runs to Black Falcon Terminal the other way. It is called Track 61 and it's one of MassPort's pet projects in an attempt to lure development, industry, and/or shipping to MassPort's Seaport parcels.

Here's the main thread on the Boston Railway Terminal: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 126&t=9546

So who actually owns the switcher? Do you know if it ever moves? It looks like an old SW but I am not sure.

Its an S series Alco.

Garrett wrote:So who actually owns the switcher? Do you know if it ever moves? It looks like an old SW but I am not sure.

Based on the discussion in the thread I linked to, I can't tell if Boston Railway Terminal still owns it or if CSX seized it along with the property. Either way, it was mentioned that it was temporarily inoperable and needed repairs. I'm not sure those were ever completed (I don't think they were, sadly).

http://jwdp.rrpicturearchives.net/showP ... id=1917392
http://jwdp.rrpicturearchives.net/showP ... id=1917390
http://jwdp.rrpicturearchives.net/showP ... id=1917391
My pics from a few years back

Weren't they planning to fetch it some time after the move south? Or is the engine simply kaput?

I think I remember raeding that it was supposedly going to
Pawtucket where whoever owned Boston Terminal was gonna' set
up another operation. It was quite awhile back though.

The Pawtucket operation has been set up for a while so it doesnt look good for this move.

MA Corporate records show Boston Terminal company as being dissolved in 2007. Maybe they re-incorporated in RI since then.

frrc wrote:MA Corporate records show Boston Terminal company as being dissolved in 2007. Maybe they re-incorporated in RI since then.

Correct. Seem to recall they left in a big snit for some reason. Taxes, unwillingness of the state to help them, something of that nature.

Least they could do is clean up their former site by removing abandoned equipment. That's not real nice of them.

I skimmed through the posts on the Boston Terminal thread
and read all the posts on this thread and I am unclear if the
loco sits on a track that is connected to the "outside world"
or not. Even if it is, it probably has friction bearings trucks
and the only way to get it out of there will be by truck, as
the rail lines won't touch anything with friction bearings anymore.

Yes, it is on the national rail network.

History of this unit is:

BRT 409 Alco/MLW S3 Built 11/51 Acquired: August 1997

Ex- National Harbours Board D-8 (Montreal, Quebec).
Rebuilt by MLW 1/73 under the auspices of United Railway Supply
Sold 9/10/74 to Stelco (Contrecour, Quebec)
Sold to BRT via Pakin (dealer)

Delivered by Conrail to S. Boston 3/23/98 by local WARE-20.

D