hartford/waterbury

Just curious. What does NS have to do with Hartford/Waterbury area ?


Nice map http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... v6i6FqrWqA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

read map, it shows joint venture , assuming panam.

DutchRailnut wrote:read map, it shows joint venture , assuming panam.

Ding. 50% NS, 50% PAR. Although I'm not sure of the extent of Pan Am's ops south of the MA/CT line. I'd guess it's pretty bare bones.

BostonUrbEx wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:read map, it shows joint venture , assuming panam.

Ding. 50% NS, 50% PAR. Although I'm not sure of the extent of Pan Am's ops south of the MA/CT line. I'd guess it's pretty bare bones.

PL-1 is the train that operates out of Plainville Yard to serve the on-line customers Berlin-Derby. EDPL (southbound)/PLED (northbound) is the train that goes East Deerfield-Plainville to restock Plainville and do the interchanges at Hartford Yard with CSOR and CNZR. The PL-1 equipment gets cycled once a week on the back of the East Deerfield train. Very limited power pool because Pan Am only stocks like 4 or 5 locomotives on its roster with cab signal units for reaching the Springfield Line. I'm sure if Norfolk Southern were supplying the power instead of PAR they could run it way more often, since their fleet out of Pennsylvania runs on more cab signal territory than any other freight railroad in the country including CSX.

I don't know how often PL-1 operates. Once a week for sure...probably twice. Less often the further west you go towards Waterbury the least often in Metro North territory. Most frequently-served cluster of businesses are in Berlin close to where the Highland Line diverges from the Springfield Line, and in Plainville on the Canal Industrial Track. Though there's been a couple recent new customers signed on, including one just announced in Plymouth. EDPL/PLED was up to twice a week...might even be 3 times a week now (hard to tell since it's running at night more these days to sidestep the Springfield Line upgrade construction crews). That one is definitely growing quite a bit, and travel time has been cut in half by the Conn River Line upgrades. The way they've been doing track work of late on the Highland Line in CT seems to suggest they see this area as a nice grower.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:I don't know how often PL-1 operates.

Well, they're on five days a week. Though perhaps they run PLED one of those five days, and EDPL another of them.

Why does the local run more often than the road job that brings it cars to deliver? Is there actually so much local business that the switching takes a couple days for each EDPL/PLED's cars?

TomNelligan wrote:Why does the local run more often than the road job that brings it cars to deliver? Is there actually so much local business that the switching takes a couple days for each EDPL/PLED's cars?

"Because Pan Am."

Pan Am Southern to be accurate, not Pan Am, owns some of the the track operated in CT (Berlin-New Britain-Plainville-Waterbury plus Plainville-Southington and a few other pieces) and contracts Springfield Terminal to operate the railroad.
Now that the Conn River is in good shape, the EDPL/PLED can get over the road in several hours where it once could take 3 days.
The PL1 (local operation) generally goes to Waterbury once a week. The other days will generally switch the Canal Line customers - Amerigas being the most active customer in CT.
There are two other customers that should be starting to use rail later this year if all goes well. One will receive propane, the other will ship construction & demolition debris to ST via the Naugatuck RR, interchanging at Waterbury.

CVRA7 wrote:Pan Am Southern to be accurate, not Pan Am, owns some of the the track operated in CT (Berlin-New Britain-Plainville-Waterbury plus Plainville-Southington and a few other pieces) and contracts Springfield Terminal to operate the railroad.
Now that the Conn River is in good shape, the EDPL/PLED can get over the road in several hours where it once could take 3 days.
The PL1 (local operation) generally goes to Waterbury once a week. The other days will generally switch the Canal Line customers - Amerigas being the most active customer in CT.
There are two other customers that should be starting to use rail later this year if all goes well. One will receive propane, the other will ship construction & demolition debris to ST via the Naugatuck RR, interchanging at Waterbury.

I'll believe the Naugatuck RR when I see it!

This is the C&D customer's building as of last year. Completion work will be starting up in the next few weeks.

After that, only a matter of time.

Metro North, Naugatuck, and P&W seem to all have very similar paint schemes. Were they all part of the NYNH&H system and this is a tip of the hat to their heritage or something?

The Naugatuck's 2203 pictured above was an ex-P&W unit. The paint was still serviceable so the a quick name change was all that was warranted. It was originally Conrail. Paint jobs are not cheap, and shortlines are! While it does have some historical cachet, it is a railroad owned, not museum piece and has to be subject to the railroad's needs.

The Providence & Worcester has a distinct paint scheme from its restarting in the 1970's when Penn Central faded away. It went through a few different types of paint schemes, but seems to have settled on the current brown/red/black scheme.

Metro-north is totally different (blue/silver?) as is ConnDot (McGinnis New Haven red/white/black).

The ConnDot units running on the New Haven Division of Metro-North were painted as a tribute to the old New Haven.

The Providence & Worcester was a separate railroad which was leased to the NYNH&H back in the 19th century and was reconstituted after Penn Central because their (P&W) agreement with the old New Haven allowed the P&W to rescind their agreement & start operating on the old P&W right-of-way in 1976 (I think). I don't think there is any tribute to the New Haven in the P&W's eyes.

Metro-North New Haven Division runs on old NYNH&H track.

Hope this helps.

The Naugy's herald, though, is indeed a tip of the cap to the Herbert Matter-designed N over H herald used by the New Haven starting in the mid 1950's.

bwparker1 wrote:

CVRA7 wrote:Pan Am Southern to be accurate, not Pan Am, owns some of the the track operated in CT (Berlin-New Britain-Plainville-Waterbury plus Plainville-Southington and a few other pieces) and contracts Springfield Terminal to operate the railroad.
Now that the Conn River is in good shape, the EDPL/PLED can get over the road in several hours where it once could take 3 days.
The PL1 (local operation) generally goes to Waterbury once a week. The other days will generally switch the Canal Line customers - Amerigas being the most active customer in CT.
There are two other customers that should be starting to use rail later this year if all goes well. One will receive propane, the other will ship construction & demolition debris to ST via the Naugatuck RR, interchanging at Waterbury.

I'll believe the Naugatuck RR when I see it!

I don't believe it's out of the question for them to begin freight ops in addition to their museum ops. They used to store and interchange those ex-LIRR bilevels that sat in Torrington (I think S&NC has them now) and if I'm not mistaken I do believe I've seen them moving a transformer in a photo series on NERAIL. Personally, I have faith in Naugy freight ops.

NaugyRR wrote:

bwparker1 wrote:

CVRA7 wrote:Pan Am Southern to be accurate, not Pan Am, owns some of the the track operated in CT (Berlin-New Britain-Plainville-Waterbury plus Plainville-Southington and a few other pieces) and contracts Springfield Terminal to operate the railroad.
Now that the Conn River is in good shape, the EDPL/PLED can get over the road in several hours where it once could take 3 days.
The PL1 (local operation) generally goes to Waterbury once a week. The other days will generally switch the Canal Line customers - Amerigas being the most active customer in CT.
There are two other customers that should be starting to use rail later this year if all goes well. One will receive propane, the other will ship construction & demolition debris to ST via the Naugatuck RR, interchanging at Waterbury.

I'll believe the Naugatuck RR when I see it!

I don't believe it's out of the question for them to begin freight ops in addition to their museum ops. They used to store and interchange those ex-LIRR bilevels that sat in Torrington (I think S&NC has them now) and if I'm not mistaken I do believe I've seen them moving a transformer in a photo series on NERAIL. Personally, I have faith in Naugy freight ops.

In a region where Housatonic RR still exists, I'm pretty sure Danbury Rail Museum could provide better freight service. And they don't even run their own trains. Naugy's comparatively overqualified for this.