Haverhill Line Train 225

Train 225 is the last weekday outbound, leaving North Station at 10:55pm and getting to Haverhill at 12:04 am.

My question is, what happens when this train gets to haverhill? Does it turn around and head back to Somerville without stopping? Or does it spend the night in Haverhill?

The last train of the night on the Lowell line seems to come back down like clock work. And it turns around really fast.

I ask because I'm always looking to catch more trains for my youtube channel and I'm often in Reading/Wakefield after midnight. But it seems like I almost never catch anything going by after midnight. The line is a ghost town. Is it just bad luck or does the train I'm looking for never come?

My best guess is that Train 225 goes back down to Bradford Station. At Bradford, there is a location used as storage and layover for the Haverhill Line.

The image below shows the layover space.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/531213718553656716/

It used to be the last Haverhill trains would always deadhead back every night. But under the current schedules, train 225 always puts away at Bradford and trains 1215 and 2215 will deadhead back to BET.

And the Haverhill deadheads come down the Wildcat. So you won’t see them in Reading or Wakefield

Currently this train puts away in Bradford. Traditionally the last Haverhill train always deadheaded back as mentioned above. It would operate the Wildcat unless there was some work on the NH Route.

Why would it deadhead on the wildcat? If it's the last haverhill train of the day then the singletrack isn't going to be an issue returning to somerville?

Fewer speed restrictions on the NH Route means a much faster trip.

What speed restrictions are there on the haverhill line?

Track speeds are lower through Reading, Wakefield, Cedar Park and Wyoming, and IIRC overall the line maxes out around 60 mph (maybe less). Most of those restrictions are due to congested station areas with frequent grade crossings. Much of the inner Western Route is speed up for a couple miles, then slow back down again.

NH Route south of Wilmington is grade separated (except for West Medford) and mostly stays at or near 60-70 mph the whole way in. Especially for non-stop passenger movements (expresses, Downeasters, deadheads) there's not nearly as much to slow you down versus the Western Route.

It's strange that we call the Haverhill line the Western Route when the Lowell line is farther west and the Fitchburg line actually goes west.

It comes from the old B&M names for the lines. The Western Route was the primary Boston-Portland route, and carried that identifier all the way through to Portland. It's the Pan Am (now CSXT) main through NH and Maine.

Eastern Route was today's Newburyport Line, which continued all the way to Portland as well, as it was originally a separate railroad later merged into the B&M. (Even worse, there are placed in southern Maine where the two cross, so the Eastern Route was actually west of the Western Route.

The Lowell Line was always the New Hampshire Route, since while all three did go to NH, the NH route is what served central NH and the major cities (Nashua, Manchester, Concord, etc.

Pedant point - Technically the Lowell Line is the "New Hampshire Main Line" (and on the MBTA's software the codes for the stations are prefixed NHML, with WR for "Western Route", ER for "Eastern Route" and GB for "Gloucester Branch")

The official designation is New Hampshire Route.

l008com wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 2:51 am Why would it deadhead on the wildcat? If it's the last haverhill train of the day then the singletrack isn't going to be an issue returning to somerville?

The real reason the train returns via the NH Route is because in terminal it can get to BET without having to cross onto the draws. The Eastern/Western routes have no direct access to BET from Tower A without clearing the front ladder. Unless you are lite power, you have to go on the bridge. Coming from the NH Route can get into BET between the back and front ladder. Making the move between the ladders is just better operationally.

I have timed it, Deadheading takes about 10 mins longer going the Western Route in normal conditions. After a long day, trust me those ten mins are nice to have.