Connecticut River Line (Pan Am)

The attached image was taken late yesterday afternooon at milepost 20.9 in Hatfield (near the corner of Dwight and Bridge streets.)

Note the new signal mast and signal house. The ancient manual switch stand controls the turnout for an industrial siding at this location. A replacement turnout is sitting in weeds, waiting to be installed. CW rail has been installed to the north and south of this location as far as the eye can see.

Have they made it to Holyoke yet, or crossed the river in to Chicopee?

Cadet57 wrote:Have they made it to Holyoke yet, or crossed the river in to Chicopee?

I spent most of the afternoon on Sunday down by trackside. The CWR and Pandrol clips are installed as far south as Gatehouse Road. The NS crew is skipping the portion of Holyoke between Gatehouse Road and the river for the time being, because they have to wait for PanAm to replace the switches and crossings. They should be in Chicopee today or possibly they've gotten into Springfield. I was told that they plan to reach Springfield by Thursday (tomorrow). The Ns crew is responsible ONLY for replacing the rail, while PanAm is responsible for switches crossings and such.
Peace,
Jonathan

whatelyrailfan wrote:

Cadet57 wrote:Have they made it to Holyoke yet, or crossed the river in to Chicopee?

I spent most of the afternoon on Sunday down by trackside. The CWR and Pandrol clips are installed as far south as Gatehouse Road. The NS crew is skipping the portion of Holyoke between Gatehouse Road and the river for the time being, because they have to wait for PanAm to replace the switches and crossings. They should be in Chicopee today or possibly they've gotten into Springfield. I was told that they plan to reach Springfield by Thursday (tomorrow). The Ns crew is responsible ONLY for replacing the rail, while PanAm is responsible for switches crossings and such.
Peace,
Jonathan

Figures. Waited all summer to see them and I missed it.

Seems their has been no updates in a week. Anyone have anything to report?

theozno wrote:Seems their has been no updates in a week. Anyone have anything to report?

I believe that new CW rail has now been installed from Greenfield south to a point between Wason and Liberty streets in Springfield - except for the track in and around the site of the new stations in Northampton and Holyoke. I suppose that these sections will be installed by Pan Am forces in the coming weeks.

Norfolk Southern's "camp train" pulled out of Northampton last Friday, from what I hear. Where it went I do not know.

It may be that a small number of NS crews are still working in the area. I did see a white NS truck on the road in Northampton today and some NS track equipment would appeared to be parked on the side track near Exit 18 on I-91. I could be wrong about this.

The Damon Road railroad crossing in Northampton is scheduled to be replaced this weekend.

I ride my road bike in/around Hatfield at times, and have observed the newly installed CWR from several road crossings.

If ever there were a vanilla roadbed to upgrade, this has to be it. Putting economics to the side for a moment (dangerous!), from an engineering standpoint most of this territory it flat, straight, and dry.

Which brings me to my question: what are the vertical and horizontal tolerances for this kind of upgrade? I am sure the rail as installed is fine for 79 mph, but despite being new it does not (to my eye) have the "dead straight, dead smooth" look of track on the NEC or some European corridors I have been to. Nor do I expect it to exceed the needs for 79 mph running, but since they spent the money to have the gang out there, how much more work would 110 mph track have been? 125 mph? Not interested in signalling and grade separation, just the track. Are we talking 50% more? 100% , 200%?

I would imagine the lateral deflection I can see to the left and right over a run of say 500 feet from a road crossing (small, but clearly visible) has to be almost totally eliminated as track speeds increase. Ditto with small relative height discrepancies between the tops of the two rails (not talking deliberate superelevation here) and areas where the grading itself has "low spots?"

Again, it's a big improvement as installed, but short of my (admittedly over-optimistic) mental picture of "new CWR."

They have not replaced all the ties, ballasted or tamped it yet. The only thing you see is new rail slapped on ties. It should look a lot better when it's all dressed up.

Damon Rd finished.



Rich

Lunch time at the Rt 9 crossing today. Looks like brand new machine.



Rich

This from Masslive.com According to Pan AM most everything is done except for a few bucket list items. Amtrak will be running by the beginning of the year if the author got the facts right.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/ ... cart_river" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Did not look finished behind Taco Bell today. I crossed with my bike. The new rail is still laying where it was deposited some months ago. The new turnout assembly is till unmoved. I posted a photo of the turnout some months ago and it still in the same place.

Rich

superwarp1 wrote:This from Masslive.com According to Pan AM most everything is done except for a few bucket list items. Amtrak will be running by the beginning of the year if the author got the facts right.

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/ ... cart_river" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By my approximation the have a pretty big if not impossible punch list. My office looks out on the soon to be greenfield station, I see the cut in's are done but that's it, no track no platform not so much as a sign that says " this way to the train". It seems like an awful tall order for the next 4 months, especially considering they don't even have plans drawn for the platforms yet.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the plan is to initially operate the service without stopping at places like Greenfield.

Rockingham Racer wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the plan is to initially operate the service without stopping at places like Greenfield.

Correct. I think the only stop it will make is Northampton. Holyoke and Greenfield will be 2015.