Official Valley Railroad Thread (VALE)

shadyjay wrote:Crossings shouldn't be a problem. As for "public" crossings, I can think of the one at the north end of the marina, the Haddam Meadows crossing, and Landing Road in Higganum. I could see them all being "just crossbuck/stop signs" initially. Perhaps the Haddam Meadows crossing would be first to get an upgrade as it is the main entrance to a state park.

Let's not forget that it's not 100% solved once you get to Maromas. You've still got 5 miles of track to cover before you reach the diamond in Middletown. Granted, that's P&W property (right?) / controlled. And some of that track was rehabbed some 15-20 years ago (at least), and hasn't seen a train in quite some time. There were some washouts along that stretch last time I knew, and some bridges that probably need work. It's been some time since a train headed down to Pratt & Whitney, and since the end of the sewage trains, they haven't gone south of downtown in awhile, as far as I know. Plus, doesn't the city/state still have the line ripped up along deKoven Drive for the pipeline? Or at least it did a month or two ago. There's probably just no reason for P&W to head any further south on the Valley line than they have to, but given the right circumstances, I'm sure they could put their portion of the Valley back together.

Believe the pipeline should be finished now. They packed all the Route 9 disruptions into summer and 2-week shutdown of the deKoven ramp came and went back in June/July.

CDOT owns all of this. P&W division post is at the Pratt & Whitney plant, and end of their currently operable track is the runaround by the power plant. Appears from the progression of time in Google Earth that it was subject to some brush-cutting in the last couple years.

Yeah, they've got a ways to go. Would be nice if Pratt & Whitney saw a need to ship because that would knock off another 1.5 miles of not just operable, but decently upgraded track from the checklist. But they're far, far from reliable the way UTC is always reorganizing stuff; I wouldn't even trust a rumor of new rail service until they are actually cutting checks to have new siding rail dropped on their property. And even then I don't think I'd totally trust them to not pull out..

If I get a good crew this Saturday trains will be able to go with in a couple car lengths of the marina. We are about 100 ties away.

Congrats. That is a great accomplishment! EH

While technically not on VALE property, there's road signs up saying that the Mill Rock Road East crossing (immediately south of the div post with Amtrak) is getting work done on Nov. 4, and that the road will be closed 9AM-5PM that day. Either they're removing the old spur crossing (now that the rest of the spur was removed in the last year), doing upgrade work on the actual wye crossing, or both. I also assume it's Amtrak doing it, considering they own the wye.

Could I ask a question about the christmas trains day and night, particularly to any photographers/videographers. I want to chase the trains over christmas and meet some new
people too. Can we get together if we are at the Railroad??

Where are some good places to shoot the valley railroad christmas trains??

New Video

Link to a new video, taken over the past 2 Saturdays, of Valley Railroad's Santa Special trains.
The Santa Special (the daytime train) has been in such high demand that for the first time,
two transets were operated. Two sets is the norm for the night time North Pole Express,
but new for the daytime runs.

Enjoy,
Lee


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctv0QuSfWnk

This is well worth looking at and I enjoyed it. This railroad operation is a true treasure. The ONLY exception is noted where the flagman or crew member was standing on a live track while flagging a crosing with another stopped train only a few feet from him. I think he is taking an unnecessary risk.
Noel Weaver

VIDEO: HiRail ride with the Friends of the Valley Railroad brush cutting crew, on the northern end of the line, from Mile 17.75 in Higganum to the VRR/P&WRR division post at Mile 21.67, in Middletown, CT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BS96519-FQ

Lee

needs a few bus loads of gandy dancers to bend that rail back to straight.

ebtmikado wrote:VIDEO: HiRail ride with the Friends of the Valley Railroad brush cutting crew, on the northern end of the line, from Mile 17.75 in Higganum to the VRR/P&WRR division post at Mile 21.67, in Middletown, CT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BS96519-FQ

Lee

Really cool. The one thing about a good deal of the Line is you don't get to see nearly any of it if you aren't traveling along it, particularly that upper side of the line. I can see the video making people sensitive to seasickness a little queasy, though; the camera is way too fluid in movement at times, and consequentially you sometimes you can't see some of the details being mentioned in narration. But besides that, real good!

Lee/Brendan, Excellent tour of the upper end of the old Valley line, thanks for sharing.

I hiked part of that with the national guard looking for a lost kid about almost 30 years ago. You gents have done a tremendous amount of work clearing away some monumental brush. Great job on keeping the line alive and many thanks for posting that video.

The Valley RR acquired 4 ex-CP commuter coaches from the Adirondack Scenic.
The cars were built by Canadian Car & Foundry in the early 1950s.
Three of the cars were delivered to the Valley yesterday, Jan. 26.
Here is a photo of them being delivered by P&W NH-1, at Valley RR Milepost 0, in Old Saybrook, at the top of the wye:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/33786891@ ... otostream/

Lee

Why did the VRR buy these new cars? They don't really match the current rolling stock they typically run. Going to look funny with these streamlined coaches running behind steam. I would have thought they spend time and money restoring the equipment already on hand.....i.e #97, the Lamoille valley coaches, "goodspeed", etc.

Anybody have thoughts?