Connecticut River Line (Pan Am)

HarmonicRock wrote:CWR in at Elm st South Deerfield this afternoon. Quite the operation to observe

Yes, a very impressive operation.

As of this hour the main grouping of NS crews is spread out on the line between Christian Lane and Elm Street in Deerfield. I'm not sure how much longer they will continue to work tonight.

I stopped by CPR-33 and Pleasant avenue in Deerfield today and was surprised that the dwarf signal on the siding is being replaced with a tall signal that is not new at all- it looks like it was taken from somewhere else on the railroad. The new crossings and track does look great though.

Are there work windows, or are they taking the line OOS during the day and running at night during the blitz?

fogg1703 wrote:Are there work windows, or are they taking the line OOS during the day and running at night during the blitz?

PLED/EDPL has been running at night so unless ED-2 is running in the daytime then everything is at night.

BenH wrote:Here's a link to a set of 9 images that I took in Northampton today:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26316537@ ... 175001108/

The images are of the 25-car Norfolk Southern camp train that is currently parked on the Northampton Running Track.

If you wish to see these cars I would suggest parking behind the Catholic church at 99 King Street and then walking north on the bike path. Keep in mind that the camp train is only scheduled to be in town for about two weeks.

Anyone know the history of the heavyweight car in the consist? Looks like an old diner to me.

amtrak-wnd wrote:I stopped by CPR-33 and Pleasant avenue in Deerfield today and was surprised that the dwarf signal on the siding is being replaced with a tall signal that is not new at all- it looks like it was taken from somewhere else on the railroad. The new crossings and track does look great though.

I think they're only replacing the concrete bases at this point, to prepare for new masts and signals down the road - however, that' just my uninformed assumption... :-p

-Jay

Ridgefielder wrote:Anyone know the history of the heavyweight car in the consist? Looks like an old diner to me.

At has been reported that this six-axle car was built in 1922 for the Norfolk Southern Railroad as a Pullman 12 section, 1 drawing room sleeping car. The original name of this car was Cuttyhunk. The car was converted to a maintenance of way dinning car by Norfolk Southern.

Addition information on these links:
http://trainprofiles.blogspot.com/2012/ ... drake.html
http://www.jreb.org/ns/index.php?topic=14661.0;wap2

People who live next to rail lines make me laugh. Having lived next to one the past year, I'm pretty aware of the fact that a train can show up at any time for any reason.

http://wwlp.com/2014/07/09/residents-ar ... backyards/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CN9634 wrote:People who live next to rail lines make me laugh. Having lived next to one the past year, I'm pretty aware of the fact that a train can show up at any time for any reason.

http://wwlp.com/2014/07/09/residents-ar ... backyards/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So the headline reads the cars have been parked there for 3 weeks when the story was published 3 days after the train arrived? You can always count on local reporters to get it wrong.

What I'd also like to know is where were all these concerned residents when the town had a meeting in mid June to go over the details of project?

HarmonicRock wrote:

CN9634 wrote:People who live next to rail lines make me laugh. Having lived next to one the past year, I'm pretty aware of the fact that a train can show up at any time for any reason.

http://wwlp.com/2014/07/09/residents-ar ... backyards/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So the headline reads the cars have been parked there for 3 weeks when the story was published 3 days after the train arrived? You can always count on local reporters to get it wrong.

What I'd also like to know is where were all these concerned residents when the town had a meeting in mid June to go over the details of project?

I attended the June Passenger Rail Advisory Committee meeting at Northampton city hall. For the record, the representative from MassDOT never said anything about the NS Camp Train during his discussion of the planned July construction blitz on the line.

As of this evening welded rail is in place between Greenfield and Depot Road in North Hatfield. (a distance of about 12 1/4 miles).

Here are some photos from Deerfield on Sunday:

New siding signal at CPR 33


Pleasant avenue crossing

amtrak-wnd wrote:Here are some photos from Deerfield on Sunday:

Sweet! It does my heart good to see heavy CWR and Pandrol clips down a wide, vegetation-free path!

Thanks for the pictures.

The used Triple searchlight is weird for the Runner at Old Deerfield. Is there any evidence of new signals anywhere else? They certainly don't need that many aspects at that location.

The only thing I can think of is they are cobbling together signalling to make all of this work prior to investing in new signals. There are a ton of old GRS lights that have been removed from the freight main in the past few years.

Would seem weird given this is a MassDOT steered project, but who knows.

When this is all done, will the whole line be 286K freight-accessible, or will there still be some weight-limited bridges?

newpylong wrote: Is there any evidence of new signals anywhere else? They certainly don't need that many aspects at that location.

The only other thing I noticed is that the old southbound signal at CPR-18 has been removed (there's a picture posted a few pages back in this thread) and a similar signal was installed about 100 feet south of the old one's location on the other side of the track.

Speaking of signals, why was the B&M so big on three head interlocking signals anyway? Most of the time I thought you could get by with 2 heads just fine.