Salem Action Alert

Trinnau wrote:To be clear, officially the Danvers Industrial (former Danvers Branch) runs from Northey Point on the Eastern Route in Salem to Peabody Square, and used to bear right to Danvers. The left-hand turn is the South Reading Industrial (former South Reading branch) which is in service to a point just east of Summit Street in Peabody (just beyond Rousselot). A portion of the South Reading was sold by the B&M to the state which is where Route 128 now resides. If you follow the South Reading to the apparent ROW end it's at the 128/129/1 interchange in Peabody. Follow 128 south to where it hooks a big right-hand turn northward near Market Street in Lynnfield to get around Lake Quannapowitt. The ROW bears to the left there and is evident again going south of the Lake, and tying in at Wakefield Junction to the Western Route.

Thank you for that extra detail! Indeed when I wrote "long-inactive branch to Danvers" I meant the Peabody Square to Danvers route that was embargoed when the Waters River bridge burned. (I secretly hope before I die to see service restored to Topsfield, but I know that's almost certainly never going to happen.)

Saw my first Salem freight since about June, today just beyond Grove St. on the way to Rousselot's.
Yup, the PAR 376 was light engine, probably heading just to to pick up empties at the plant.

3001 went back to Boston this afternoon with seven empty bones and seven empty acids.
John, the guy in the blue car with the wing on back

There are four acids and three bones resting off Allen's Lane.
John, the guy in the blue car with the wing on back

BO-1 with GMTX 3001 back to Boston with 8 acids and 7 bones
John, the guy in the blue car with the wing on back

Was stopped at Allens Ln. at 5 PM last nite . The yellow leaser 3001 was shoving many loads (maybe 10) into the plant.

3001 was switching out Rousselot today when it ran out of fuel. Was blocking a crossing so the trackmobile pushed it out of the way. When I left around 4:45 tonight the crew was still around (I assume waiting for a cab) with the dead engine.

Ran out of fuel!? It seems someone dropped the ball getting a fuel truck out to it.

b&m 1566 wrote:Ran out of fuel!? It seems someone dropped the ball getting a fuel truck out to it.

One would think a single glance at the fuel gauge at any point on the outbound trip would've raised an "Uh-Oh!" with the crew to radio for assistance that they had par odds of not finishing the delivery.

Thank heavens PAR saves us the effort of having to ascribe logic to their actions! Thinking is work!

Mebbe the 3001 also got pulled into a heated enclosure, but a water-dump seems -- assuming everything was working the way it should -- like it shoulda happened, too.

Read a post on FB that the 3001 might have had other issues besides fuel, I only heard the crew mention fuel was the issue over the radio at the time

Either in the last of the B&M days or early Guilford days, engineers would pound
on the fuel tank with a rock to determine the fuel level in the tank, as the fuel
gauge was either inoperable or unreadable. This was at Dover yard.

MEC 345 came to salem today to do yesterday's work. Switched out Rousselot, left empties off Allens ln, then shoved the dead 3001 back to salem.

Is 3001 pretty much the mainstay unit for the area?

The 3001 was just like any other unit assigned to a local freight. Usually gets rotated out, but
in this case the 3001 had a mechanical failure and was replaced by the 345. The 3001 is now
down at 3rd Avenue Somerville awaiting pickup by the next LA-2.

D