Mass Coastal Railroad (MC) Discussion

malbojah wrote:

Falmouth Secondary to Otis wrote:

Falmouth Secondary to Otis wrote:

Falmouth Secondary to Otis wrote:

Falmouth Secondary to Otis wrote:

malbojah wrote:Figures it would be early in the day. 10:15, I should be finishing up in Falmouth (or Hyannis, depends on which way I run my route) heading to Semass.

Sent email to UCRTS Board of Managers to see if they were taking online comments also about the transfer station reactivation / reuse for those that could not attend meeting. Will post info if I get a reply from them.

Update 8/1/17 Comments on the reuse / reactivation of the UCRTS Transfer station can be sent to Catherine Laurent who is the Chairman of the UCRTS Board of Managers. Email comments to [email protected] which will be included in the public meeting minutes discussion of the UCRTS reactivation tomorrow.

Update 8/2/17 A final agreed upon contract with Cavossa Disposal was presented today at the public meeting. A final vote will be held next Wednesday August 9th 10:00 am at Mashpee Town Hall in the Waquoit meeting room. Anyone who supports the reopening of the UCRTS facility and the use of the Falmouth Secondary Rail line to service it, show up at the meeting to voice your support! Also you can send in comments by referring to the previous post info.

Update 8/10/17 yesterdays meeting was rescheduled for unknown reason to Monday 8/21/17 at 10:30 am to vote on the final contract with Cavossa Disposal to lease the UCRTS facility to ship waste off Cape by rail.

From what I've heard, it's going to be mostly C&D being shipped by rail and not MSW. Sucks for me (I'm on the MSW truck riggt now)

I have read conflicting reports on what is going to be shipped out by Rail. Some say C&D and MSW while others say starting out with MSW then expanding into C&D later on along with recyclables as well. Seeing that Cavossa's business is both I don't see why he would only do one and not the other. Will have to wait and see until after the contract is finally signed off and an official business plan is put out there to see

UCRTS Board of managers voted 3-1 in favor of reopening the transfer station. See article for more info !

http://bourne.wickedlocal.com/news/2017 ... operations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Falmouth Secondary to Otis wrote:UCRTS Board of managers voted 3-1 in favor of reopening the transfer station. See article for more info !

http://bourne.wickedlocal.com/news/2017 ... operations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is great news for rail service on the Cape.
It should be easier to design the bike path extension now — on a route that does not include the active railroad right of way between the railroad bridge and North Falmouth.

BenH wrote:

Falmouth Secondary to Otis wrote:UCRTS Board of managers voted 3-1 in favor of reopening the transfer station. See article for more info !

http://bourne.wickedlocal.com/news/2017 ... operations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is great news for rail service on the Cape.
It should be easier to design the bike path extension now — on a route that does not include the active railroad right of way between the railroad bridge and North Falmouth.

Additional news on UCRTS transfer station as to what is to be shipped out by Rail. MSW to be shipped in the immediate future, with the intention of expanding to C&D waste within the next few months.

https://www.capenews.net/falmouth/news/ ... 80b66.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MECFAN wrote:Any chance someone could post some photos of this work for us folks not close by?

Do a Facebook search for Mass Coastal Railroad Maintenance of Way. Plenty of photos, including crossing installations installed today in Assonet.

Also N. Precinct St in Lakeville on the Cotely-Middleboro line

D

MC MOW was busy this weekend. New photos of their crossing replacement work. . .

Beechwood Rd., Assonet on Fall River Branch
Before: https://goo.gl/maps/TzxuRGgTrF32" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
After: https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=5A12FAD7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(^^note newly-poured signal base for installing crossing protection)

N. Precinct St., Lakeville on Middleboro Secondary
Before: https://goo.gl/maps/5BU67oFyQPT2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
After: https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=5A2C9F15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I threw this thought under the "New Jersey Railfan" section under the "Dundee Passaic Freight service Thread regarding recycling company Atlantic Coast Fibers.

The thought was could anything that Cavossa is going to ship off of the Cape by rail also travel by rail to Atlantic Coast Fibers for processing.

They appear to recycle a wide variety of items. Figured it would make sense to post it here too as it's the other "side" of my thought which may provide more discussion.

New Haven 1 wrote:
The thought was could anything that Cavossa is going to ship off of the Cape by rail also travel by rail to Atlantic Coast Fibers for processing.

.

I can ask Carl if I see him today. Right now when I see him all I say is "Can I dump in Falmouth yet? " Been asking for about a month.

malbojah wrote:

New Haven 1 wrote:
The thought was could anything that Cavossa is going to ship off of the Cape by rail also travel by rail to Atlantic Coast Fibers for processing.

.

I can ask Carl if I see him today. Right now when I see him all I say is "Can I dump in Falmouth yet? " Been asking for about a month.

Last news article I read had Cavossa stating that he hoped to be up and running by September 18th. Drove by the UCRTS site on 9/3 and it's still boarded up with a new gate installed at the entrance. Haven't seen any Mass Coastal activity on the Otis spur yet as overgrowth needs to be cleared and track repairs made for rail activity to commence.

Fall River Herald News posted online (not sure if in print edition) that the state plans to restore tracks in Fall River to the state line.

http://heraldnews.com/news/20170906/fal ... inactivity" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The NIMBYs are out. There has been a lot of encroachment and development along the waterfront near the tracks. There have been articles already about people losing their gardens, landscaping and pools. A lot of those folks already know something is happening from the brush clearing and and surveying. The article references a neighborhood meeting. It only mentions Gold Medal as potential customer but I have seen activity round the site where Saltine Warrior plans to unload barges to rail. I am not sure what potential use there would be in going all the way to state line unless that is to provide future Newport connection.

Yep....Not surprised at all. Shame on the state for not keeping tabs on their right-of-ways.
They should be running a weed-whacker once a year down their inactive tracks just to put
these people on notice.

And how did they get away with paving over the Mount Hope street crossing? Like Easton
filling in that bridge just south of North Easton station...

D

Is there a runaround track buried in the weeds at the tank farm at the state line? That would be the most logical reason for pushing across Mt. Hope Ave. all the way to the state line when that tank farm isn't likely to be a new customer anytime soon...instead of just restoring service to Gold Medal and the adjacent dock and going no further. It's literally 2500 ft. from GM's fence to the state line, and there's a pre-existing electrical hookup for flashers at the Mt. Hope crossing that just requires replacing the assembly to gain active protection at a reinstalled crossing. It may indeed be near-par on expense to just dig out the existing tracks to the tank farm siding rather than install a completely new runaround by Gold Medal for changing ends or try to awkwardly shove all deliveries from the very cramped runaround track downtown.

GP40MC1118 wrote:Yep....Not surprised at all. Shame on the state for not keeping tabs on their right-of-ways.
They should be running a weed-whacker once a year down their inactive tracks just to put
these people on notice.

And how did they get away with paving over the Mount Hope street crossing? Like Easton
filling in that bridge just south of North Easton station...

D

To be fair, the state's only officially owned this line for a little under 5 years now. It was CSX who let the encroachment go completely to hell and gave permission for Mt. Hope crossing to get paved over. At least this whining isn't going to hold anything up because it's just a reactivation-from-OOS that only requires due notice to abutters, and is otherwise federally protected from an Operation Chaos. The worst damage the NIMBY's can inflict is demanding state-of-the-art crossing protection at Mt. Hope or creating some fake time-waster diversion about a quiet zone at a crossing where there's too little potential train traffic to legally meet the minimum filing threshold for a QZ application.

CSX let the Mount Hope crossing thing happen? That's surprising!

D