CSX Boston and Albany Line

Have noticed the DPU's in regular use now in these parts. Guess it is due to longer trains but thought part of the issue was also old locos that couldn't handle the work getting out of MA. Lot of radio traffic I've heard for departing trains starts or ends with "good luck" these days.

The DC motors don't pull as hard as the AC's, so you need more of them. In years past if you any any kind of real train you'd have an all AC consist. They might get down to 1 MPH at the steepest part, but they would keep pulling and you would not stall. Now you never know what kind of mixed bag of power you're going to have. Even the 8800 (SD40-2's) and 8700's(SD60 widebody) are showing up out here often. They are from a totally different era when they ran small trains and are total garbage out here now.

Understood. Was in W. SPG about 2 months ago watching a stopped 427 try to get out of town. For a moment it looked like it might do something cartoonish like bend up between the power and the cars as the train struggled to get moving forward. Saw 425 leave yesterday w/o DPU's so don't know if it's only certain trains or depending on length/weight of the day? I was at Selkirk this week, and in Chicago last week, did not see a lot of DPU's, is this mainly a B&A and River Line deal?

I'd say its more of a test. It does depend on weight on 424/425 as dealing with the DPU's basically involves some switching and takes some time. No point in doing that if the train isn't heavy enough to justify it. I think only 004/003 on the river line are using DPU's. 004 is usually close to 15,000 feet long.

This may create an interesting operational advantage. Wonder if anybody is trying to use DPUs as an efficient precision railroading practice. For instance, say two trains run as one Selkirk to Worcester. Then at Worcester the train is split at the DPU and half the train goes up to Portland via Ayer and half the train goes to Framingham or Readville. This seems like a sensible concept but I haven't heard of it actually being utilized.

Combining those two trains would be a mess...

Ironman wrote:I'd say its more of a test. It does depend on weight on 424/425 as dealing with the DPU's basically involves some switching and takes some time. No point in doing that if the train isn't heavy enough to justify it. I think only 004/003 on the river line are using DPU's. 004 is usually close to 15,000 feet long.

Didn't CSXT run DPUs for a period of time on Q437 out of Framingham in the mid 2000s? I remember seeing a few go by, but it didn't last too long.

Yes, I think around '08-'09. Didn't last long due to having to switchout the DPU's on both ends of a short run. Caused more problems than the perceived benefit.

Ironman wrote: Caused more problems than the perceived benefit.

No surprise there! Typical CSXT fashion.

New CSX Local out of Worcester to Ayer ma. And return.

B728 on duty 18:00 runs 7 days (2 off days spare)

bostontrainguy wrote:This may create an interesting operational advantage. Wonder if anybody is trying to use DPUs as an efficient precision railroading practice. For instance, say two trains run as one Selkirk to Worcester. Then at Worcester the train is split at the DPU and half the train goes up to Portland via Ayer and half the train goes to Framingham or Readville. This seems like a sensible concept but I haven't heard of it actually being utilized.

NS 310 when tonnage warrants has a mid train DPU and it is set off at Gang Mills with the set off and the balance heads to final terminal Bing.

If you go to West Boylston, MA on GEarth and then head to 42°21'53.35"N/71°46'46.91"W, you'll get within a horseshoe's toss of the cemetery/MP X8.5 site where Q427 has tied down at least a coupla times.

jaymac wrote:If you go to West Boylston, MA on GEarth and then head to 42°21'53.35"N/71°46'46.91"W, you'll get within a horseshoe's toss of the cemetery/MP X8.5 site where Q427 has tied down at least a coupla times.

I saw them doing that to, is there any reason for leaving it out in the middle of nowhere like that? Why not tie it down at barbers like they used to. I was also curious how this “local” gets around since sometimes the trains are parked all over the place so I’d assume they’d need a taxi.

I saw a 70 car freight train come down from Guilford through Union Station in Worcester yesterday at 10:30. It then started to back up onto the southern main track of CSX. What was the operation there? Is CSX combining the Guilford and P&W into a massive westbound train each day?

Yes - CSX has combined eb and wb P&W and PAR interchange into a single train pair running Worcester-Selkirk.