B&M Gawking (District 2 Sightings)

Wrenches. The crews aren't stocked with enough wrenches. Seriously.


I take it nobody thought to call or walk to the big Aubuchon Hardware or auto parts store 6 blocks down Washington St. from where the engine stalled and ask if they had a right-size wrench.

Ridiculous that every engine doesn't have one along with spare knuckles of each type and different length air hoses themselves. ShoRT money to avoid aggregation and delays.

The crew expressed their dismay at the lack of tools and spare hoses on the engines to D2, indicating that, in the future, they would just stop and wait for someone to bring them the tools they lacked. I heard them approaching the arch last night as I arrived home. Then I heard a whoosh of air, followed by the screeching of brakes. As I walked in the house, D2 was being advised of the situation. They found a hose pulled apart 10 cars back. Unable to get air to the rear of the train, more inspection found another hose damaged about 14 cars back. That one needed the tools and new hose. I have wrenches up to 4' in my garage, but civilians going onto railroad property is frowned upon these days. It sounded like DOBO's crew came to the rescue with NHN's tools, which were then left in a bucket east of the arch for DOBO to pick up later. Aubuchon would have been a good idea, but the crew would have needed a Pan Am credit card.

New text added to help-wanted ads for ST conductors:

"Must have your own tools."

Next they'll start hiring through temp agencies?

When part of the requirement for engineers is to "supply own lube oil," then the spirit of Fink 1.0 has been revivified.

Photo by Gary Knapp:

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/586370/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The MBTA is doing major work on the Haverhill Merrimac River Bridge beginning Friday night (9/9)
and continuing through Saturday and Sunday. MBTA will be busing between Haverhill and North
Wilmington. Downeasters will be busing between Haverhill and Boston, with no Woburn service.
I have seen nothing official, but it seems likely there will be no PAR trains operating between
Lowell Jct. and Haverhill over the weekend...

Not quite, I'm sure they ran some local activity out of Lawrence, and they could always run a freight from Lowell to Lawrence to stage. This project has a series of outages, so there will be more of this.

My friend spotted tonight held up at the state line in Atkinson 6 engines and he estimates 40-50ish empty shallow gons heading west. Would that be a part of the LOSA job you think? Kinda sounds like a double LOSA train. I never heard where the gons originate or end up besides Boston and Lowell

Yes that's what they are for

The typical cycle is this:

1. Originate from somewhere on CSX and make their way to Selkirk Yard.
2. End up on CSX Q426 from Selkirk to Worcester.
3. Run-through on Pan AM as SEPO from Worcester to Rigby Yard.
4. Switched out to POED.
5. PAR POED runs from Portland and sets out the gons in Lowell.
6. Sit around in Lowell with about 200 other cars.
7. Eventually pulled out for a LOSA and brought straight to Everett via Yard 8.
8. A switch out of Wynn and a runaround and good to go.
9. Run back to Lowell usually still symboled as LOSA, occasionally SALO.
10. ???? Picked up by SEPO in Lowell ????
11. SEPO handed off to CSX in Worcester as Q427 and brought to Selkirk.

So you must have seen a bastardized version of #5. A POED or extra acting as a POLO.

3. Run-through on Pan AM as SEPO from Worcester to Rigby Yard.
4. Switched out to POED.
5. PAR POED runs from Portland and sets out the gons in Lowell.

Um..WO to LO via PO??? Why would they do that?

eustis22 wrote:3. Run-through on Pan AM as SEPO from Worcester to Rigby Yard.
4. Switched out to POED.
5. PAR POED runs from Portland and sets out the gons in Lowell.

Um..WO to LO via PO??? Why would they do that?

Because its less efficient to tie up crews pulling cars that arent preblocked in the middle of commuter territory than it is to run them a class yard, block them and haul them back down to LJ.

That said, if the cars come in preblocked, and they have room in Lowell, they will drop them.

String of gons just passed through Dover headed west in the wake of 685.