Haverhill Line Upgrades (Western Route)

Good. Get the damned project done, already.

I saw an item that some trains actually got cancelled this weekend.
Did anything visible happen?

Not that I saw, although workers on the line are a daily occurrence now. I also dozed off on the ride in this morning so didn't do a good job of checking. I'll try harder on the way home.

Unless I've really been asleep in the mornings and this happened over the weekend, it looks like Andover was visited by the ballast train today. Fresh ballast dumped all the way down to where they're working on the Essex/Pearson crossing. Still has to be lined & tamped, but progress none the less.

No idea what they were working on over the weekend - nothing I can see from a moving train only riding as far as Andover. It's possible they were working on the new interlocking at Vale (or McCauley) as there have been plenty of signal crews there. Or maybe it was doing some of the digging at Andover for the crossing and drainage.

Regardless, stuff does appear to be moving for once.

There's also a lot of site clearing around the Route 28/North Main St bridge in Andover, but that's related to the bridge replacement by MassDOT. They've dug an access path to the ROW on the west side of the tracks, just south of the bridge. I suspect this is to allow work to relocate some power lines out of the way of the bridge work. Full bridge replacement is to start this fall.

And...does not appear to be any changes to the switch replacement and interlocking upgrade at Ash St in Reading. Still sitting.

They apparently did some work at JK interlocking for the second crossover which required both tracks - Amtrak ran through the yard at Lawrence. And yes, they ran a stone train ran yesterday. I'm hearing the drainage is going well and they'll be installing the new crossing this weekend, which means the track will be connected. If that's the case this is getting very close. I wonder if there's anything on the highway sign about the road closing this weekend that can confirm?

I'll try to look tonight on the VMS signs. Sometimes hard to do as I'm either just sitting down, or getting ready to get off as we pass them.

They're fully dug out up to where the crossing for the new track will go, and it looks like they've poured concrete in the ground for whatever new underground drainage structures were needed. After the track goes it it looks like it'll be on to the surface work (repaving, installing sidewalks along both streets, etc.).

Pictures from Sunday:

The traffic signs at the Pearson/Essex street crossing indicate the the RR Crossing will be closed June 25 to June 27.
There are two track panels sitting on the new track; one next to Pearson Street and the other next to Essex Street.

morgan28k wrote:The traffic signs at the Pearson/Essex street crossing indicate the the RR Crossing will be closed June 25 to June 27.
There are two track panels sitting on the new track; one next to Pearson Street and the other next to Essex Street.

I missed those this morning. I walked down the other way, and saw the other signs on Pearson and on Main St still showing the daytime closure info.

Regardless, they look very close. There was a substantial crew there this morning assembling the two panels. As I was waiting for 208, several pieces of track machinery (first one appeared to be a regulator) were working their way down the new track from Lawrence. It looked like yesterday they made an initial pass over the new track from Andover east, getting it about halfway to where it needs to be to match the existing track. Uneducated guess is they'll likely need at least one more visit from the ballast train to get it fully finished.

Down near WJ (actually just east of the I-93 overpass, east of the junction) a crew was moving ties and looked to be starting the process of removing the last remaining siding that's still connected (the one closest to I-93). Still no sign of work on the retaining wall, but there are a couple backhoes parked near WJ, along with some staged material. Given the start of the state fiscal year on July 1, could be a that a contractor will be starting on that more substantial earth moving soon.

Nice to see so much activity (since my normal commute on 202 means I sneak out of town before anything starts up for the day).

Per the PAR forum the Lowell Branch renovation blitz is now underway, so size of the LJ tie pile should be in constant state of wax and wane for rest of the summer as Pan Am plows west towards Willows.

A look Friday night showed that PAR had already replaced the ties on the curve at Lowell Jct. Even picked up the scrap ties picked up!

Haven't been able to get a good look or photos, but the crossing installation at Essex/Pearson in Andover has been going full-tilt all weekend. Yesterday afternoon they had the whole "trench" for the track dug out and looked close to ready to lay the track.

When are they planning to extend the current end of double track (McCauley??) through Ballardvale station down to LJ? It's ironic that with the Merrimack River bridge more or less single track for the foreseeable future, even when they do finish this double track project there will still be that single track bottleneck.

The work train is scheduled to bring 7 loaded ballast hoppers to Andover on Monday morning 6/27, we'll be leaving Boston at 9:15am via the Wildcat Branch to dump at Pearson and Essex.

roberttosh wrote:When are they planning to extend the current end of double track (McCauley??) through Ballardvale station down to LJ?

There is no timeline and no plan, simple as that. It is expected and partially constructed, but there is timeline for even tackling Ballardvale and/or Andover stations which must be modified to accommodate. I'd honestly expect to sooner see the Merrimack River Bridge restored to full operations before Vale to Lowell Jct sees fully operable double track.

>The work train is scheduled to bring 7 loaded ballast hoppers to Andover on Monday morning 6/27

Sitting at Lawrence station as of 6:00 AM

Trackwork through the crossing looked substantially complete as of Monday morning. Viewed from the departing train, it looked ready (or close to ready) for paving work today.

There are areas either side of the crossing which look like they require more ballast and tamping to bring the new track completely into line. Prior to the start of ballasting, this track was in a substantial gulley, so it's taken a good bit of rock to bring it up to level.

Link to photos in Twitter as rr.net doesn't seem to like them this morning: https://twitter.com/octr202/status/747372919291011072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;