Fitchburg Line Upgrade Discussion

agarturbo wrote:Was picking up my son at Littleton station yesterday and saw the coach. It left at 6:33 PM on the dot, empty, for Fitchburg. I assume that it made all stops out to Fitchburg. About 8 minutes later another coach pulled in from S. Acton. Again, I assume, making all stops out to Fitchburg. I was surprised that it they did it this way. I figured they'd do it with one coach that made all stops. Using 5 coaches (one for each station) instead of one has got to be expensive. Also, the driver told me that they will be doing this every weekend until October.

The bus that left Littleton on time made all the stops to Fitchburg. The second bus from South Acton serves Littleton, Ayer, and Shirey then heads back to South Acton making the same stops in reverse. They have a dedicated bus covering Fitchburg and North Leominster. The reasoning for this is to keep the trains close to on time. It would take too long for one or two buses to make all the stops up and back.

agarturbo wrote:On another note: there have been crews at S. Acton over the past week building what appears to be a temporary platform out of ties and ballast just west of the existing station. This structure is on the north side of the existing single track. Not sure why they would do this if they plan to use the old station just east of the existing station when construction begins.

I noticed the new platform west of the current station pop up this week. It appears that this platform will be used during the week when construction starts at Acton. And the old station platform will be used during the weekends during construction activities.

do the oil trains now mean the mbta will allow 18.3 tons per wheel ? last time i looked, their system was restricted to 16.4 tons/wheel. will pas be charged more per car/mile for increased maintenance? ken patrick

The agreement for cars over MBTA owned, PAR controlled track has always been private. And we will not discuss any agreements between the two about money here.

KEN PATRICK wrote:do the oil trains now mean the mbta will allow 18.3 tons per wheel ? last time i looked, their system was restricted to 16.4 tons/wheel. will pas be charged more per car/mile for increased maintenance? ken patrick

I don't think all of Pan Am is capable of 286k so the tankers are probably 263k.

i was opining on the weight of sd class locos- 220 tons on 12 wheels. nothing to do with 286 cars.

also, 'we'll not discuss rates between mbta and par' please, last time i looked mbta was a taxpayer operation . as such rates discussions are public. for example how many of you know that dot maintenance charges on state-owned rail kill private competition? why if the intent of dot is to encourage freight rail. so at $.50 per car per mile now, should sd power pay $1.00/mile, $2.00/mile et cetera? ken patrick

We will not discuss it. Anymore posts about such will be deleted. And it's off topic.

In the Grasping-at-Straws-for-Any-Signs-of-Wachusett-Extension-Activity Department, on 08-16-2012 at 0830, there were fresh white surveyor marks on the pavement of 5th Mass. Turnpike a couple of hundred yards west of Rte. 31, just beyond Wachusett.

I really hope you mean 8-6-2012 there, otherwise you've got some very interesting questions to answer about what you're doing in next Thursday already.

It's been a month since the site prep bidding period ended, and there's yet to be any public announcement.

Yeah, EGE-
My big B. Can't even blame it on sloppy punching, just sloppy proofing.

On 08-07-2012, an MBCR engineering crew was installing keyed and precast concrete segments to form a retaining wall for the Ayer Track 1 platform on the West Main Street side. There were still a number staged west of the tower at 1300.

I didn't realize Ayer was to be getting any upgrades.

agarturbo wrote:Over the past 2 weeks the tamper/track aligner has been active on the new track between the Central St and Rt 111/Mass Ave crossings in West Acton. This was first track to be laid almost 2 years ago and ballasted over a year ago. It has stayed there untouched while other sections have been worked almost to completion. It has been interesting to watch them hop-scotch around. I assume that they have a plan, but figuring it out is beyond my skills. Hopefully they connect that section to the one behind Idlewyld farms soon, completing the Rt 111, Arlington St and Central St (west) grade crossings. That'll get the tracks down between the new S. Acton station (or close to it) and the new Littleton stations ready to go.

The Central St crossing in West Acton was double tracked on Sun - Mon.

by The EGE » Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:29 pm
I didn't realize Ayer was to be getting any upgrades.

Dunno that it qualifies as a full-blown upgrade, but more a way of dealing with the north side of Track 1's decade-or-so candidacy for The World's Slowest Landslide Award. The 2 platform has already been seal-coated and repainted, and I'm guessing that the 1 platform will be getting pavement attention as well to exploit any bustitution down-times.
Given my bottom-feeder position on the MBCR information food chain, guessing is all I can do.

> The Central St crossing in West Acton was double tracked on Sun - Mon.

The conductors were more than usually chatty on Monday, as we crawled along (both morning and afternoon) due to signalling issues. One of them had worked the weekend, and related that the crew working on that crossing (the one near Idlewild Farm) released the track about 5PM Sunday, and only then did they realize there were problems with the signals. The buses had been dismissed from their shuttle service, but had to be called back in to replace the Sunday evening runs.

Dan

"The conductors were more than usually chatty on Monday, as we crawled along (both morning and afternoon) due to signalling issues. One of them had worked the weekend, and related that the crew working on that crossing (the one near Idlewild Farm) released the track about 5PM Sunday, and only then did they realize there were problems with the signals."

The signals have been very cranky on the Fitchburg Line for the last 10 days or so. Twice last week, both in the evening, and also on Monday night of this week, we encountered slow orders on the Fitch from approximately MP 28 (or two miles east of Littleton-495) to CPF-Willows on account of bad signals. Unrelated to the signal issues on this stretch, there were major signal issues from the Fitchburg Station to CPF-Slab City on Monday morning due to thunderstorms which occurred on Sunday night. As far as I know, the "old" signal system is still in use on the stretch between South Acton and Willows. New signal masts have been installed along this stretch, but they are turned away from the tracks, presumably until the 2nd track becomes operational.

-Mike