Portsmouth Branch Activity

A new entry in my blog chronicling the construction of the new Sarah Long Bridge, for those following along.

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Did the get the old bridge to come down and lock in place??

The old bridge is locked in the up position.
It will never be lowered again for traffic.
They will probably lower it, if they can, in
order to dismantle it. But, they must keep
the river open as much as possible.

It was stuck in the down position. Problem with the mechanicals in the south (RR. west) tower. They somehow got it working and raised it. River traffic has right over highway traffic, so it will remain in the raised position until it is lowered when it comes time to dismantle it.

It still works, but nobody knows how many more cycles it will survive. The issue is that one of the sheave axles got skewed. It sounds like one of the journals gave out. The demolition schedule will be accelerated. Expect to see the center span removed in early October.

So,is there any RR equipment stuck on the "wrong side" of the bridge?

No PAR equipment. Just some DODX cars that weren't going anywhere until the new bridge is finished

DO-1 516 with 1 box and 1 propane sitting in Portsmouth at 14:30, no crew on board. Looks like it is ready to go west to Rockingham.
Last night DO-2 3109 came in with 1 box and 3 reefers for Highliner. A trip past Highliner this afternoon found 1 reefer outside the plant so they must have put 2 in last night or today. Good to see cars for Highliner haven't seen any for awhile.

Last night DO-2 came into Portsmouth with 374 2 fish cars 1 box for Boise and 8 gons loaded with ties. After work today I went down to the yard and found the 8 gons being unloaded by the high rail boom truck. He was working on the fourth car and stacking everything on the ground next to the cars. So are the ties for the Sea-3 expansion, 8 cars worth is probably way to many. The new bridge, wouldn't the tie plates be anchored to the concrete deck??? Or a tie job on the branch to bring it up to class II for the Sea-3 upgrade, Any scoop people??
Also 3 fish cars and 6 propanes at the west end of the yard looks like outbound traffic no engine around, fish traffic is up lately!

My guess is to get it to Class 2. I was wondering when they would be back to do that. Looking forward to your reports and photos of the progress once they start installing the ties!

Sounds like an upgrade/Class II in the making to me. They're sending ties and doing extensive self-funded work all across the system. Interesting to see it.

When is the Sea 3 expansion supposed to start?

gokeefe wrote:Sounds like an upgrade/Class II in the making to me. They're sending ties and doing extensive self-funded work all across the system. Interesting to see it.

Class 2 on the Portsmouth/Newington Branches is a requirement for the whole Sea 3 customer sign-on. This has been in the works ever since signatures got put on the dotted line, and was publicized extensively in the local media back when the deal was announced. Round 1 of branch upgrades were (2?) years ago IIRC. This is Round 2 to finish up.

Yes I recall Class II as being promised but given that the customer hasn't come online yet I was wondering what the status of the project as whole was. In general its good to see.

gokeefe wrote:Sounds like an upgrade/Class II in the making to me. They're sending ties and doing extensive self-funded work all across the system. Interesting to see it.

Extensive is a relative word. Extensive for them, yes but not anyone else.