CSX closes Framingham southside rail yard

jaymac wrote:Another possibility: Worcester intermodal, except possibly for UPS. goes to Westboro. The existing auto yard configuration is easily adaptable to intermodal, and Westboro provides better access to the Pike and 495 than Worcester does. UPS may be willing to relocate its Shrewsbury facility, but if it won't, then UPS tables continue to go to Worcester. At least some Worcester space would be freed up for alternate purposes, and the chess moves can continue. Remember that back in the days of Big Blue, the then primarily cement-powder Flexi-Flo transloading facility on Rte. 135 (Waverly St.) in Framingham got moved to Worcester, near where the CSX TT street-access is now. The "new" Framingham commuter platform is just north of where Flexi-Flo was, in case you never saw it.

Yes, you are correct about this being a chess game! What you might not be aware of is that all of this has been on the table (chess board) and being played since the late-80's....so its a slow game for sure! Westborough as an intermodal site has been on the radar since the 80's, was looked at by Conrail, and they backed away because of the Great Cedar Swamp and environmental concerns. (Actually it was PC or NYC that purchased the land in Westborough anticipating just what is being considered 50/60 years later!)
Westborough as a possible site is still in play as evidenced that the state is clearing the Boston Line for high-cube stacks (and automax trilevels) to Westborough. Personally, I believe this is the best location given its highway access, as you said, but whether UPS would come over is probably up to UPS (and in any case they wouldn't need to re-locate out of Shrewsbury) and what CSX is able to build (given the environmental issues). I know when Conrail designed a Westborough intermodal facilty at the sight it would provide for a major change....intermodal ramps need long pull-through un/loading tracks and not short stub-ended tracks like auto ramps, and of course, different parking lot configurations. However, if E Worcester were to remain as an intermodal ramp, even only for UPS, there is not enough room to put a rail yard back in, unless it is "mickey-moused", and I don't see that happening. Either the yard or intermodal unloading tracks would have to be short and stub-ended and there is the very big issue of re-locating Delaware Express, which has been part of the chess-board since Conrail was considering these same things. (BTW, I don't think the cement transload was moved to Worcester...these guys unload plastic pellets....I think the cement business either went away or was moved somewhere else).

QB 52.32--
Maybe some of the cement business moved to PAR. There's the cement off-load facility on the Leominster-Lunenburg road just east of the Kane facility.
Straddle gantries might help with space issues if Westboro intermodal ever does happen.
There is one thing to be said about real chess -- there's a ticking clock. Railroad chess seems more like it has a ticking calendar.

jaymac wrote:Straddle gantries might help with space issues if Westboro intermodal ever does happen.

IIRC, the minimum distance between track centers to operate a piggypacker is 90', particularly for the Raygo-Wagner type (with at least one machine of this brand recently put in service in Worcester)...it may be a little more for the Letourneau-type... vs. something like 50' for a straddle crane. The side-loader piggypackers are better for handling premium traffic like UPS because you can easily cherry-pick hot loads or handle last minute loads coming in at the gate cutoff. The overhead cranes are better for high-production operations like doublestack or general freight traffic. Of course, a terminal handling both types of traffic often has both types with the cranes doing the production work and the piggypacker working the service loads. Believe it or not, frequently the most critical capacity constraint and biggest land-user for intermodal terminals is for parking, less so for UPS and other premium traffic and more so for general freight moving in containers and needing to have a supply of chassis for unloading available, too. Most terminals reach their peak parking demand on Sundays/Sunday nights because traffic is coming in on the trains Saturdays and Sundays having been shipped during the busiest days of Thursdays and Fridays with nothing going out the gate and onto the street. Even UPS doesn't pick up their inbound loads on Saturdays and Sundays until late Sunday night. I'd guess that CSX needs 150-250 acres for a modern intermodal terminal handling traffic this side of Springfield.

That much footprint with fewer wetlands issues than Westboro and with easy major highway access unfortunately probably won't happen this century unless -- in the true spirit of the rapidly approaching April Fools Day -- the MDC offers up the Leo J. Martin Golf Course at Riverside, the Pike, and 128. In the words of Judy Tenuta, "It could happen."

jaymac wrote:That much footprint with fewer wetlands issues than Westboro and with easy major highway access unfortunately probably won't happen this century unless -- in the true spirit of the rapidly approaching April Fools Day -- the MDC offers up the Leo J. Martin Golf Course at Riverside, the Pike, and 128. In the words of Judy Tenuta, "It could happen."

Yeah, you never know (especially with Massachusett's politics) And, that may be the easy part compared to clearing the 17 or so overhead bridges to 20'6", especially in that one station area with an overhead bridge, track #2 under water, and the pumps constantly running!

Jaymac, I was interested in your earlier post regarding the old diamond east of 21 where the OC crossed the B&A. I'm guessing it must have crossed at a low-angle, ie., the New Haven paralled the B&A on both sides of this diamond and crossed at something like a 45-degree angle near Concord Street? I have vague memories of a diamond in Framingham when I rode the LSL in the mid '70's. Also, was there a diamond at one time for the NH's "Holliston branch" crossing the B&A and into N. Yard and later replaced by CP-22? If so, I'd guess that might have happened when the GM plant and CP-yard was built?

QB 52.32 wrote:

jaymac wrote:That much footprint with fewer wetlands issues than Westboro and with easy major highway access unfortunately probably won't happen this century unless -- in the true spirit of the rapidly approaching April Fools Day -- the MDC offers up the Leo J. Martin Golf Course at Riverside, the Pike, and 128. In the words of Judy Tenuta, "It could happen."

Yeah, you never know (especially with Massachusett's politics) And, that may be the easy part compared to clearing the 17 or so overhead bridges to 20'6", especially in that one station area with an overhead bridge, track #2 under water, and the pumps constantly running!

Jaymac, I was interested in your earlier post regarding the old diamond east of 21 where the OC crossed the B&A. I'm guessing it must have crossed at a low-angle, ie., the New Haven paralled the B&A on both sides of this diamond and crossed at something like a 45-degree angle near Concord Street? I have vague memories of a diamond in Framingham when I rode the LSL in the mid '70's. Also, was there a diamond at one time for the NH's "Holliston branch" crossing the B&A and into N. Yard and later replaced by CP-22? If so, I'd guess that might have happened when the GM plant and CP-yard was built?

The diamond was in fact just east of Concord Street, and crossed at a very low angle. It was removed in the 80's. There are some great pics at this link: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/srchTh ... ham&Page=2

Thanks for the picture link. Any knowledge of a diamond for the Holliston secondary (or whatever the NH called the line)?

JDM864-
Thanks for the link to the photos of the Framingham diamonds being lifted. I now feel a quarter of a century younger!

QB 52.32-
Ah Natick, the only place you can go wading at the platform and then need to disinfect yourself!
As far as the Holliston Branch, if you mean the extension of CP Yard, that was the B&A Milford Branch. What's now the Framingham Sub was the NH OC Division, and I couldn't find any evidence of a diamond between the B&A and Medfield Junction. There was an OC branch that supplied coal and other supplies to the state prison, but that was torn up before the 1941 topo that UNH has. The ROW for the prison line still shows on the map. The '41 topo does show a NH stub running west of the OC, that comes near the B&A Milford Branch, but that was before the GM plant was erected. The later-redrawn topo shows the plant and with only B&A service, and the NH stub mentioned above does not appear.
Framingham used to be a lot noisier, even before the diamonds were lifted: The B&A used to have a 4-track main running west of the station, which meant 4 crossings to make noise on, not just 2. The currently depressed -- and wet -- main at Natick plus the connection to the old Saxonville Branch were at street level with 4 tracks until a grade separation project. And Natickites think traffic on Rte. 27 is bad now.

Thanks, Jaymac for the information. Ah, I see, the Milford branch was a B&A branch...because I was thinking that it was a NH branch I thought that it, too, would have crossed the B&A in Framingham with a diamond to access the NH's North Yard. I found this excellant website of the B&A's trackcharts from the '50's http://www.zekedev.com/sites/boston_line/trackchart.cfm and see that there was no diamond there...which makes sense since it wasn't NH. I guess it makes further sense that the GM plant and CP yard was built on NYC property and not NH (the two being seperate, competing companies).

QB 52.32-
Thanks for the track-chart link. It's been added to my favorites. The chart shows the B&A 4-track main collapsing to 2 just east of the station and then increasing again. The former connection at Ashland with the NH branch out of Milford doesn't show, but the Ronald Dale Karr book states the stretch from Hopkinton and Ashland was abandoned in 1938. Yes, what is now a doctor's office in Ashland was once Ashland Union Station, in fact if not in name.
Also, GM not -- at least then -- being fools in the business department, it would have made sense to reduce the number of carriers. For significant amount of the material coming into Framingham GM, NYC would have been the only carrier. While the plant might have been sited elsewhere for NH or B&M service, It would have been alphabet-routing and increased potential problems at each interchange point.

jaymac wrote:Also, GM not -- at least then -- being fools in the business department, it would have made sense to reduce the number of carriers. For significant amount of the material coming into Framingham GM, NYC would have been the only carrier. While the plant might have been sited elsewhere for NH or B&M service, It would have been alphabet-routing and increased potential problems at each interchange point.

Yeah, I think the NYC was the "service road" out of New England being better capitalized and having a far-flung route structure out across the Northeast and Midwest with multiple Midwestern gateways, instead of the multi-carrier alternatives with the NH and B&M. If you think about it, it is still the same today for CSX and with NS trying to build single-line service with their rights over the ex-D&H and with the new Pan Am Southern arrangement, though with an under-capitalized system and inferior route structure (on the ex-D&H and B&M)...the essential and basic things seldom change in this "mature" business.

The line to Hopkinton used to be called the "Ashland and Hopkinton" railroad in the 1800's. The old Hopkinton station is still standing, restored and moved to a new location a few miles West of the original location. I have photos of the old Hopkinton station, as well as the "Hopkinton" station sign on display in my office. If you drive along Rt 135 towards Hopkinton, you can see traces of the roadbed in the woods, in the winter time.

J

According to stories I heard from my late Father, there was a politician named Anthony Colona who worked for the Town of Framingham, and had a vendetta of some form against the GM plant, and wanted it shut down. Pollution from the paint shop was the main reason, as well as noise. Interesting fact, Mr. Colona worked as the Clerk of Courts full time, as well as for the Town of Framingham Full time, and no action was taken against him. I also recall Conrail serviced 1-2 industries in Holliston in the 1970's, before abandoning the line later on.

J

Regarding Westboro, EMC is planning a major expansion, and had approached the State about building a new on/off ramp for the expanded campus. Westboro does offer easier access to major highways vs Worcester, which is "landlocked" by Franklin and Shrewsbury Streets.

Only major issue is the Cedar Swamp, which abut the Westboro yard, and any attempt to touch the swamp is regarded as "treading on sacred land" and the environmentalists will come out of the woodwork. The MA turnpike authority was working on the on/off ramps in that area and the environmental lobby slowed that project down.

A while back I read somewhere about a new yard being built West of Worcester in Leicester, but the NIMBY factions were mounting an attack on that idea.

J

Possible intermodal sites rumored and/or mentioned are: Westborough, Worcester, Auburn, Leicester, and (E) Brookfield. CSX owns lots of land in Westborough purchased by NYC or PC, land in E Brookfield purchased by Conrail, and, rumored, Auburn purchased by CSX. CSX has asked for the Commonwealth's help in siting a new terminal as part of the Worcester commuter rail negotiations, and with the goal of freeing up Beacon Park for Harvard's use...I take it to mean the political will necessary to get something done despite environmental issues and NIMBY's, and possibly the other infrastructure improvements necessary to support the project.