New Mass Coaster Railroad? (NOT Mass Coastal)

There's talks on the Bay Colony Yahoo Group about official word from Mr. John Kennedy concerning passenger service to Hyannis/Falmouth. The parent company, CapeRail Inc., will create a new subsidiary called "Mass Coaster Railroad" to handle this service. Anyone else know anything on the subject?

Isn't most of the Falmouth line a bike trail by now?

You mean Mass Coastal? http://www.masscoastal.com/

Believe it or not it looks like "Mass Coaster" was not a typo on his part. This is what was posted earlier today on the Yahoo forums:

I had the pleasure of an invitation to attend Caperail, Inc's annual Christmas party yesterday and what a nice time it was! I got to meet several great old friends who worked for Bay Colony and Cape Cod RRs who I have not seen for quite a while and are now working for Caperail Inc.

One part of the gathering was a "powerpoint" presentation done by President John Kennedy which reviewed Mass Coastal RR and Cape Cod Central RR's activities over the past year. In short, the Cape Cod Central had their best year ever, financially. The brand new Mass Coastal RR ended up doing more business than had been projected. The management team was really excited to see how well the year went overall and they expect business to grow in 2009, even in a down economy. They have gotten very creative in putting out their financing of new business for their railroads.

A new railroad under the Caperail Inc.'s corporate umbrella has been created and will handle the passenger feeder service from the Middleboro/Lakeville MBTA station to the Cape. It is called the Mass Coaster RR and John and his team are in very serious negotiations with the State EOT right now. He said the State has set out several conditions for Cape service and the Mass Coaster RR has met all of the conditions required.

However, the is one big change in plans that were originally thought to be the way this service operated. Gone is the idea of using Buddliners for passenger traffic. The new plan is to use former Budd CB&Q RR double-deck gallery coaches which are now available from Ozark Mountain Railcar Co. Pictures of these cars, which are in beautiful condition, are shown in the links below: http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/met ... abcars.htm - cab car http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/sta ... ommter.htm - coach

I believe John said they would start by purchasing two coaches and one cab car for passenger service to the Cape. Naturally, they would need only one locomotive to be used in running this consist as a cab car would handle the service in one direction, as the MBTA does now with their trains. I think that their contact with Ozark Mountain Co. once worked for the old CC&H RR back in the eighties.

A new spur track would be installed off of the mainline before the station and it would run up to and along the opposite side of the current MBTA platform. This would result in a six step, cross platform transfer to the Mass Coaster's waiting train from the T's commuter rail coaches.

A lot of new trackwork is now being done in several places, with the Falmouth branch from Canal Junction to the spiked switch in North Falmouth running into Otis, now receiving a big upgrade with new ties and ballast. I was told that John would also like to be able to run scenic passenger type service down to North Falmouth on the Falmouth Line next year. This could include private chartered and railfan trips, as was done back in the eighties and early nineties;... pre-hurricane BOB!

So, that is the latest news I have about railroading on the Cape.

Paul

From the Barnstable Patriot (http://www.barnstablepatriot.com/home2/ ... &Itemid=30)

Kennedy is weeks away from filing a plan with the state transportation office to run daily trips from the Buzzards Bay station to Middleboro/Lakeville, where riders could cross the platform to board a Boston-bound train. The time from the canal to South Station would be less than 90 minutes.

Does anyone know what they will use for locomotives? they will need a locomotive with HEP to run with the Bi-levels.

Or they could run an HEP generator car between the loco and the passenger cars... or they could equip the passenger cars with small individual generators.

Also on Ozark Rail car is an HEP equiped ex AMTK FL9! How great would that look at the helm of this train? http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/emdfl9-484.htm

A FL9 would look nice, but check this out

http://www.ozarkmountainrailcar.com/emdf40418.htm

yea thats the same unit that ran with the RDG 2100 in tacoma, wa. i think the fl9 is a better buy though. it was rebuilt last year thoroughly by FEC. It also is $7500 less. and it has a separate HEP unit rather than a alternator like the F40 has. I think both would work fine. But i would prefer the FL9.

Plus, an FL9 would literally be right at home on the Cape Main. New Haven tracks, New Haven Loco. Its a no-brainer
My question about the Gallery Cars is height-- They look to be about the same height as a superliner, and there's atleast one overhead bridge on the line that might pose a problem.

We're picking out locomotives? I have some "friends in high places" who cast serious doubt on this whole project. What has been done to make this a reality beyond a statement? Connections with MBTA were mentioned, are they even aware of the pending project? I want to see rail come back, but so far, I'm not convinced...

Im no CEO but in order for this to become a reality it would need a few items and I believe those to be:

1- Upgraded track on the Cape Main area and possibly a few siding's to let freight pass the scheduled passenger trains

2- Passenger or Commuter Rail type coaches, cab cars and locomotives preferbly HEP equiped for lights, HVAC

3- Whichever stations are on the route, upgraded or new platforms and ADA compliant accessability for those

4- I would even go as far to say upgraded engine house facilities in Hyannis. As it stands now, a one track disel house is not enough room I dont think. I dont know if is capabile to handle 2 locomotives at once in order to do 92 day inspections on them. Not to mention, if cab control coaches are used, they must meet the same 92 day inspection as a regular disel locmotive. So already you have 6 locomotives and whatever new rolling stock that is purchased.

With all this said, I would love to see the train up and running. To go even further I would gladly patranise this and it would be a great way to head to the cape for viisting!

Well. Mass Coastal has reactivated the sidings at, Sandwich and Sagamore, so this makes active sidings at; West BArnstable, Sandwich, Sagamore, Buzzards Bay, and Rochester. That seems like more than enough sidings to me. Also, MC has been tirlessly working on the track. The majority of the Cape MAin is atleast 30mph and some spots are 40. I clocked the energy train in West BArnstable just east of the station at 45mph a few weeks ago! The shop they have is small, but they do great work there. They can get 2 locomotives in there at the same time aswell. I have no idea about the ADA stuff. Clearences are OK. The bi levels are the same height as an F40. F40's came to the Cape all the time in the 90's so these new cars should fit. Also the part from Buzzards Bay to Middleborough is already welded rail!

GP40MC 1116 wrote:Im no CEO but in order for this to become a reality it would need a few items and I believe those to be...

Those things are all fine... but how about money? And lots of it?