Bay Colony Millis Line

Update Saturday, 25 March. 2017

The Spur is clear of cars.

The snow covered 1701 in her nest looking for work

Update Sat. 08 April 2017

The Spur is clear of cars.

The 1701 in her nest looking for work

Rip Van 1701 should awaken next week. Hearing half-dozen loads coming at some point
soon...

D

Hearing a late morning wake-up call for the 1701 Friday!

D

Update: Sat. 15 April

NAHX 93954
NAHX 94232
NAHX 94349
NAHX 94722
NAHX 94723
NAHX 94731

By Island Road waiting to be unloaded.

Note: Island Road and the unloading area next to the tracks have been recently graded and smoothed out.

Update Sun. 23 April:

NAHX 93954
NAHX 94232
NAHX 94349
NAHX 94722
NAHX 94723
NAHX 94731

Empties staged by the secondary switch waiting to be picked up.

A number of drainage castings unloaded by the switch as well.. Looks like work being scheduled to rebuild the North Brook Creek crossing .
Hi-Rail working the crossing signals on West Mill Street.

Puzzling.. Bay Colony's web site seems to be gone.. A google search is no help.. Seminole Gulf's web site seems to have absolutely zippo about it.. Wonder why..

Is bay colony independent or does some other railroad own it?

Trainman101 wrote:Is bay colony independent or does some other railroad own it?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, it's part of the same outfit as Seminole Gulf in Florida..

MaineCoonCat wrote:

Trainman101 wrote:Is bay colony independent or does some other railroad own it?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, it's part of the same outfit as Seminole Gulf in Florida..

Yup...subsidiary of. The loco livery is a dead giveaway.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

MaineCoonCat wrote:

Trainman101 wrote:Is bay colony independent or does some other railroad own it?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, it's part of the same outfit as Seminole Gulf in Florida..

Yup...subsidiary of. The loco livery is a dead giveaway.

Any idea why BC seems to be a "stealth arm" of the company? There's no mention of any New England op's whatsoever on the Seminole Gulf website anymore.. I fear it doesn't augur well for the future.. Please tell me I'm wrong.

What if the Medfield Bay Colony really didn't exist anymore? https://youtu.be/AFdRVlqkAcU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MaineCoonCat wrote:

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

MaineCoonCat wrote:

Trainman101 wrote:Is bay colony independent or does some other railroad own it?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but as far as I know, it's part of the same outfit as Seminole Gulf in Florida..

Yup...subsidiary of. The loco livery is a dead giveaway.

Any idea why BC seems to be a "stealth arm" of the company? There's no mention of any New England op's whatsoever on the Seminole Gulf website anymore.. I fear it doesn't augur well for the future.. Please tell me I'm wrong.

BC used to be so much bigger. Newton till '05, & West Roxbury to mid-90's. Cape trash train till they got outbid on the contract renewal by Mass Coastal in '08, and the South Dennis stub before it got cut back late-80's. Plymouth Line & Hanover Branch out of Braintree interchange to late-90's. They had Greenbush Line to the Cohasset military spur till '84. They had the Framingham & Lowell till '90 thereabouts. Used to have more of the Wattupa Branch west of Mid-City Scrap.

Until they lost the Cape contract they had the most route miles of any MA shortline...only CSX, PAR, P&W, and NECR had more. Now they have the fewest miles of any carrier excluding CSOR which just pokes across the CT state line at north tip of the Springfield Line. Complete 180 in fortunes.

Trainman101 wrote:What if the Medfield Bay Colony really didn't exist anymore? https://youtu.be/AFdRVlqkAcU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If BCLR were to throw in the towel MassDOT would probably accommodate Tresca directly on the Framingham Secondary with economic development money paying for construction of a team track and unloading spot to replace Environmental Dr. Couple of spots right by the junction where they could snake a trackside gravel driveway and square things with the town. CSX would do its normal set-offs unchanged, but the state's newfound line ownship would square the access directly on Tresca's end minus the intermediary carrier.

Unfortunately the certainty of the state stepping in to accommodate the customer with cheap in-house solution really, really makes the Millis Industrial expendable. Environmental Dr. literally offers no value-added, and it's only BCLR's incumbent status re: local handler of Tresca's biz justifying its existence. If Seminole doesn't think the nickels of revenue they're making in Medfield are worth the effort, absolutely nothing changes with anyone if they pulled up stake tomorrow. The Wattupa's more complicated, but Millis Ind. is as expendable as it gets. Entirely in Florida HQ's court how much longer they want 1701 to keep on keeping on out there. But thanks to the new MassDOT presence Tresca and CSX don't have anything to worry about if the end comes for BCLR there.

FWIW, the "parent" organization is calling itself "Southwest Florida Freight" according to the website..