B&M 1227 wrote:The South-Deerfield-Deerfield segment may be the N Main St Bridge just north of South Deerfield. I wonder if it'll be included in the engineering study for double stack clearance on the West End.
Conn River will never be DS (and Greenfield-Northfield probably can't be improved at all), but it would be good to at least be able to get Deerfield-Springfield contiguous 19' 6". Seems like such a small obstruction to solve if that is indeed the only bridge doing it.
eastwind wrote:fogg1703 wrote:Double Stack 20'2"
Rack 19'6" AutoMax 20'2"
So Plate H for Double Stack and AutoMax, Plate F+ for Rack, yes?
There's so little Plate H systemwide. Double stacks Danville Jct.-Portland I think I can understand, but double stacks Waterville-NMJ?? This is theoretical, right?
I thought it was a nice touch to color the Plate E (15'-6" clearance) tracks around Boston in MBTA purple.
--eastwind
Engineering study's funded and underway for getting the Hoosac to full DS. Massachusetts got stimulus for it, and they're assessing all the bridges as well. It's the highest-priority freight project in the state now that CSX DS is finished. Tunnel is first order of business. I don't know how many bridges would have to be outright raised vs. undercutting the trackbed. Probably not too many since it's a sparser-populated and less grade-separated corridor than the B&A was. So it's a 100% certainty that DS's will trudge east first to Deerfield then to Ayer.
Ayer-state line is next up for DS, then NH to Portland (let's just assume that PAR is going to be paying most of its own way in NH because that state never lifts a finger). So eventually they will go all the way to Danville with DS's and 286K's. It just might be 10 years on the clearances going all the way because Deerfield and Ayer are the all-in projects of utmost priority with the ongoing public funding and NS swinging the big stick to make it happen.
Boston is probably a permanent restriction. They don't use the Fitchburg east of Willows or Western south of Wilmington Jct. for anything, and those routes are already blocked by high platforms for wide freights. Veryfine and the Medford brewery + cold storage aren't exactly producing more than rusted sidings these days. And there are too many damn bridges on the Lowell Line because of its grade separation and the number of bodies of water it crosses en route. Somerville is a particular bear on height with how many old overhead bridges there are.
286K is also going to be extremely difficult and financially infeasible. They can get the Wildcat and down to Tighe in Winchester uprated fairly easily if need be and run heavyweights out of Lawrence or Lowell Jct. I'm not sure there are any undergrade bridges whatsoever between Lowell Jct. and the Cross St. overpass past Tighe, just small culverts. If there are any, they're stream crossings only a few feet long. If going 286 requires anything more than spot work I'd be surprised, so Tighe and the Wilmington customers could certainly be beneficiary on bottom-hanging fruit grounds for the uprating ease. It's little more than a paper barrier. But south of there the Winchester Viaduct is a big blocker and the Bleachery-Wilmington segment is blocked on weight by river bridges. Billerica would have to land a hell of a big customer to justify upgrading the Concord River and Shawsheen bridges, and high clearance to Billerica is out of the question if Boston clearance is out of the question because there'll never be enough traffic. The BS&G job and Everett Terminal jobs will definitely never have the luxury of tall clearance or heavy loads, and there isn't nearly enough else south of Tighe or up to Peabody to merit the investment.
That's still a whole hell of a lot of 286K territory spanning the network, and an entire mainline up to the SLR interchange that'll be going DS. Get the mainline done and they are set on nearly every part of the system that's worth a damn. And could get better if MA fixes that tiny Barbers-Worcester gap on the Gardner Branch, or state of CT can fund rehab of the big Springfield Line river crossing and get Amtrak permission for 286K to Hartford Yard. P&W can do every-other-car 286K on both its mainlines and is aiming for full capacity, and CSO and CNZR can do 286 on all their branchlines blocked only by inability to receive heavy cars from Springfield. Every interchange except MMA, the Irving lines, Pioneer Valley, BKRR, M&B, MERR, Naugy, and Housy will be able to interchange heavyweights with them by decade's end (NHN is getting the upgrades, although it won't benefit the BS&G job). CSX, NECR, P&W (Gardner branch slated for clearance work well down the line), and SLR will be able to interchange 19' 6" or better with 12-15 years. That's anybody who's anybody save for MMA/Irving. They're working towards a very good thing here with high return on investment, since their work is all 98% on the mainline.
