Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

It is amazing, chances are if you notice something, someone was probably there with a camera...
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So have I just been having amazing luck lately, or has this line been seeing a lot more freight traffic lately?

I've been seeing freight trains all the time. I catch Tighe in Winchester all the time, tonight I caught Tighe in woburn too. But beyond that, I seem to catch lots of traveling freight trains up and down the line too. I saw an MBTA double-decker coming and going on the back of random freights. I've been seeing lots of what look like cement hoppers, even though the cement place on the woburn/wilmington line is closed. I've also been seeing lots of tankers lately too! Where are those going?

Tonight I also noticed a long line of very clean looking hoppers that say "massDOT" on them, parked behind Anderson station.

Also tonight, based solely on horns and signals, it seemed like there was a freight train parked down in the area of Winchester center, well South of Cross Street (not Tighe switching). Anyone know what that was all about? There was nothing I could see at the Winchester High School siding or the little Woburn Loop spur.

Nothing out of the ordinary....LA-2 was doing the mainline work as usual.

The cement cars go to Everett (Ciment Quebec), the tank cars go mostly to
Rouslett in Peabody with an occasional one or two for Univar in Salem.

The Mass DOT MW hoppers came up yesterday and are for ballast service. Can't
say right now why they are there, but this might be a semi-regular thing going
on here.

The MBTA coaches on LA-2 are either coming or going for/from rehab.

D

I saw a downeaster today that had a double decker observation car on it! What is up with that? I think I saw pictures of it on nerail recently too but I wasn't sure if it really was a downeaster I was seeing.

You are a bit out of the loop on the Downeaster Dome Car.

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Dick H wrote:You are a bit out of the loop on the Downeaster Dome Car.

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Oh that's cool.

Let me just tell you fellow train nerds, Wilmington train station is a really neat place to watch freight trains go by. Not that there's a lot of them, but it gives you a neat view of the ones that do. I got a really close up view of the gravel train tonight, it was pretty cool. I've always seen tons of Down Easters there. The wildcat branch that crosses Rt 38 is elevated a bit above the parking lot, so the views are very clear.

Anyhoo, I saw a panan freight tonight down by mishuwam. It has about 6 or 8 cars, something like that. But it also had one other interesting quality... it was hauling ass. I'm not saying it was speeding, I don't know what the speed limit is nor can I gauge speed with my eyeballs. But commuter rail trains don't stop there, so they go through at full track speed. And even compared to that, this freight train was REALLY moving. It must have been going full freight track speed. Usually freight in this area are crawling on by. Not this one!

I saw a boxcar behind Atlantic Plywood tonight. I haven't seen anything parked behind there in a very long time. Maybe a year or more.

Also I saw the best freight train tonight. I wish I had taken a picture but as it was coming, I was expecting nothing special, and didn't dig my phone out. It was two Guilford painted locomotives pulling one single MBTA double-decker car! This was at Wilmington station, pulling on to the Wildcat. It was such a hilarious looking setup!

I hear there will be no downeasters this coming weekend between Boston and Haverhill due to track work. Anyone know what track work specifically, and where?

There are actually two things going on preventing Downeaster operation. MassDOT is working on the Route 28/Main St. bridge right at Andover Station and MBTA/Keolis is cutting over the new interlocking at CPW-WJ.

Last night LA-2 pulled one empty from Atlantic Plywood and four empties from Tighe/Rothstein. The five were then dropped off at Tighe/Montvale (for pick-up later? re-loading?), and LA-2 continued with eight loads they had from Lawrence to Boston.

Last night LA-2 spotted a load at Tighe/Rothstein and did a bunch of switching at Tighe/Montvale. Loads for BO-1 and empties from Montvale were brought into Boston. LA-5 ran lite down the NH Route last night, en route from Lawrence to Salem. DOBO could be spotted on Track 4 at Anderson, getting out of the way for a meet between 3804 and a PTC Test Extra, in addition to the aforementioned freights all moving at the same time.

Gah I wish it were nicer out so I could get out more and spot some of this stuff myself!

Hello,
I take the Lowell line in most weekdays. This morning I saw a few tank cars and centerbeams loaded at the entrance to iron horse park. There was some mow equipment on the siding at west Medford. Lots of new surveyors stakes for the GLX. No loads at altantic plywood, haven’t been for a couple of weeks. A MEC widecab behind BET, I think 510. I’ll try to keep updates coming.

This evening 13 boxcars at Tighe in Winchester. One boxcar at Tighe in Woburn. Cars still at same spot at iron horse. There where 4 tanks and 4 center beams.

Cars gone from iron horse lead, engine waiting by the switch couldn’t catch the number. No cars at Tighe in Woburn. 8 cars at Tighe in Winchester. 510 still behind BET.