Salem Action Alert

railfan1988 wrote:LA-4, powered by PAR MEC #517, came to Peabody twice this week, today and on Tuesday. Early Tuesday morning, the train was sitting in the North Street Yard, with seven cars, until it went to Eastman sometime later in the day. It returned from Eastman at around 6:30 in the evening with six cars (I watched it going through Peabody Square). The train had to stop in the middle of the square for a few minutes, as there were vehicles stopped on the crossing on Central Street. Once they moved out of the way, LA-4 continued on. And regarding today, I am not sure when LA-4 arrived at Eastman, however, I saw it returning at about 7:30 tonight with five cars. For about a half hour, it was idling between Peabody Square and Wallis Street, why, I don't know. After watching it cross Wallis Street, I drove over to Flint Street, in Salem, and saw it come through there. Just to note, Flint Street is the only crossing on the line to Eastman that has flashers, although it does not have gates. LA-4 was on the mainline, returning to Lawrence, at around 8:45 tonight, about fifteen minutes before an outbound MBTA Commuter Rail train from Boston arrived at the Salem Station.

I'm told that Eastman is busier now than it's ever been, which is mesmerizing to me. For a while, every train that serviced Eastman consisted of only three or four cars. I'm glad that they're doing a lot of business and that they're getting more rail service. Hopefully, that will continue. It won't surprise me if PAR decides to start maintaining the track to Eastman, given that it's being used more frequently. It's in pretty bad condition and I'm amazed that there has only been one derailment on it. The derailment occurred in Salem, either at the North Street Yard or right near it.

One more interesting thing to note; I have observed that the crossing on Flint Street is preemptive. The crossing sits very close to the intersection of North Street, which is controlled by traffic lights. And the light for eastbound Flint Street always turns green when a train is approaching, to move queues of vehicles off the track before the crossing flashers are activated and the train arrives. Given that the crossing is only used once or twice a week, I find it strange that PAR and whoever owns the traffic lights, either the City or MassDot, would feel the need to make the crossing preemptive. Does anyone know if Flint Street crossing has always been preemptive or if that is something that was done only recently?

" For about a half hour, it was idling between Peabody Square and Wallis Street, why, I don't know."

Dunkin' Donuts is right there on the tracks and is a regular stop for LA-4 crews.

highrail wrote:The station at the other end of the tunnel, that was built in the 50's and was below grade may have been functional for trains, but not people. It never gained acceptance as a good station. It was dirty, unsafe, and generally not user friendly. It was typical of the low priority thinking of mass transit in those days. People would avoid waiting downstairs at the platform if at all possible. When the waiting room was open upstairs it would be crowded with passengers waiting for the trains. A bell would ring signaling an arriving train and we would all rush to the platform. There was a freight elevator, which is still there on the south side of the station. The station is now some sort of business.

25 years ago, when the new, current, station was planned, they had planned to include a multilevel parking garage...they are still talking about it, and parking is still terrible.

Several years ago, when the Beverly Bridge burned, the wye was still intact and was used extensively for the service that terminated at salem. In fact one of the sidings in the yard along Bridge Street was re-built to accommodate passenger car sets that needed to lay over. As I recall the neighbors were not happy with constantly running engines, so I am not sure how long that lasted.


I was standing on the platform once in the late 70's when a derailing freight coming out of the tunnel scared the heck out of all of us as it ripped up rails and ties and finally stopped abou 100' inside the station area. Even less people waited on the platform after that.

Another bit of trivia...during a water break, probably again in the 70's, the station filled up with water right to the top of the tunnel. There is probably a photo around somewhere. It was quite a sight.


Steve

Do you recall an incident in which a woman tried to commit suicide by stepping in front of a train at the old Salem station during the morning rush hour? It probably happened in 1980 or 81. Apparently, after she was struck, several people who were there reached under the train and pulled her back onto the platform. I remember my dad telling me about it, as he was there when it happened. The woman survived, although she later succeeded in killing herself in some other fashion.

Wow, that was an old post of mine! Look! the new garage that I referenced is actually happening !

I do recall the suicide attempt. Unfortunately there was more than one there.

Steve

highrail wrote:Wow, that was an old post of mine! Look! the new garage that I referenced is actually happening !

I do recall the suicide attempt. Unfortunately there was more than one there.

Steve

Yes, in another incident, a woman hid behind the staircase that led down to the station and jumped in front of a Boston-bound train as it emerged from the tunnel. The train's engineer never saw her until she was in front of him. I believe that incident happened in the late 1970s, while the one my dad witnessed happened in the early 1980s. I wish I could the dates of both incidents so I could look them up on the microfilm at the library.

isn't there a better way to kill yourself that doesn't involve horrifying people?

Out of curiosity how much work would it take to fix the track to reach the warehouses at the of the line? Theres a big US food service warehouse at the end of the line and sysco just bought them out.

Tracer wrote:Out of curiosity how much work would it take to fix the track to reach the warehouses at the of the line? Theres a big US food service warehouse at the end of the line and sysco just bought them out.

Probably not much if there were a reliable paying customer signed on. The last 1.5 miles of the line is completely intact including all 3 grade crossings, and almost completely tangent so there are no derailment-happy curves. If there are no hazardous loads involved they would only need to get it to operable Exempt status to make a go of it. That's a big reason why they've kept this as an OOS hold for so long while nearly every other line that fell into similar disuse got expunged. Barrier for reactivation--and reactivation on Watertown-quality track--is very very low if they only get a reliable commitment from a customer.

The bigger issue is the same as they're facing now with Rousselot's increased carloads: the more times they run and the longer trains they run, the more intolerable those Peabody Sq. grade crossings become. If this is the new normal--and it looks like it is--then something's got to give and somebody has to install lights and gates through the Square. Within the next couple years. PAR can keep its S. Peabody Branch track in as crud condition as they want, but getting to/through the Square in one piece is critical. That includes shoring up the washout-prone track on the MBTA's portion east of the Square, and possibly scraping together some used flashers cannibalized from elsewhere (like the state donated recently to G&U) to outfit Wallis, Galler, Howley, or Grove Streets with some modicum of active protection. Some of those crossings today don't even have pavement markings, or have missing or obstructed crossbucks that were never replaced.

There are a couple of washouts that would have to be fixed. There were two bones off Bridge Street this morning.

John, the guy in the white car with the wing on back

Those 2 cars have been there since last week.

One of the washouts, near Summit Street, was repaired, but I do not believe that the tracks were re-connected. That is the only one that I know of.

The US Foods plant...does it have a siding? There used to be one to the old SS Pierce plant, so I was not sure if that was the same building as the US Foods, or if they built a new plant.

I do believe US Foods was sold to Sysco Corp. last week and will become a food service giant. Time will
tell if there's any plans to do something on the branch.

There has been no service to Eastman this week, due to almost the entire track being covered in about six inches of snow (maybe more). You'd think that today's mild weather would have melted a lot of the snow, but when I drove by the crossing on Flint Street, earlier tonight, that didn't appear to be the case. Earlier in the week, the snow froze on several sections of the track, making it impossible for a train to run on it. Eastman will probably get behind this week, meaning that the next train to run there will probably be relatively long.

FYI, US Foods,(I guess now Sysco) bought out SS pierce in the 1980's, and it is the same building that SS Pierce built in that decade.













us

Thursday evening...the local was in servicing the Peabody link

Thanks for the info re US Foods. The connection to the building has not been used in years, but maybe, if they stay there, it might be of value.

par 505 dropped off 4 loads at north st., picked up the 2 loads that were already there and
continued to the plant in peabody. They switched out the plant and returned to north st. with
the empties. Then they left for boston leaving the original 4 loads at north st. very strange!!

US Foods leaving Peabody for Seabrook, NH? Interesting....

http://www.salemnews.com/business/x1221 ... o-Seabrook" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;