Saint-Gobain in Worcester

Just curious. now that I live in Worcester, is there still rail activity at the plant ? I've driven by numerous times, but have never been able to see any cars there. Granted, site lines are very limited.

P&W does indeed still serve them. Comparison of recent Google satellite views shows cars more likely to be spotted towards the back, near the Stores St./Abrasive Way intersection.


I'm not sure what P&W job usually handles that one...whether it's tacked onto the back of the interchange run to Gardner, or if one of the southern locals pokes north at the end of its run. WOGR is a normally reliable bet to head northbound right after morning rush hour.

...thought Guilford retained rights to then-Norton-and-now-St.Gobain with service by AY locals...

That's correct. The plant is a Pan Am customer, not a P&W one. They were an existing B&M customer when the Gardner Branch was sold to the P&W, and rights to serve the plant were part of the terms of the sale.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:P&W does indeed still serve them. Comparison of recent Google satellite views shows cars more likely to be spotted towards the back, near the Stores St./Abrasive Way intersection.


I'm not sure what P&W job usually handles that one...whether it's tacked onto the back of the interchange run to Gardner, or if one of the southern locals pokes north at the end of its run. WOGR is a normally reliable bet to head northbound right after morning rush hour.

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out!

iirc Pan Am does about a car a month at the Shore Drive facility.

there was a post on the Pan AM page about FI -1 servicing the plant this week. (note either FI -1 or AY- ? are the locals that service the plant)

Back in the 90's Norton had a couple of 80T GE's at that facility, any idea if they stayed on with St G?

FI-1 with one car for St Gobain tied down at the Burncoat siding this evening. Two other bad order cars are on the siding as well.

I wasn't aware F-1 and AY locals worked the south end of the Worcester Main. Does anyone know with what general regularity PAR locals make it down to Worcester? How many PAR-served customers? I figured CSX/P&W covered all of the switching in and around Burncoat jct/Barbers..

Just that customer and as needed, infrequently. They also have a rail served warehouse in Clinton but unknown the last car in there.

svobronco wrote:Back in the 90's Norton had a couple of 80T GE's at that facility, any idea if they stayed on with St G?

There's at least one engine in there; all the times I was in that facility, it was in the same spot.

Where does Pan Am spot the loads? none of the sidings look serviceable.

The yard at St Gobain (and the factory switcher) hasn't been used in a number of years. They used to receive coal cars there not too long ago.
The sole remaining traffic is a siding off the south side of the PW branch heading to Gardner. It is a south facing point and goes down the embankment to a switchback to where the car is set. Therefor, PanAm uses the Greendale siding to put a loaded car on the south (west) side of the engine before going down to barbers and onto the Gardner branch, where it pulls the car onto the siding, then pushes it into place after the switchback switch.

The engine and several of the boxcars on site were for sale sometime last year.

D