New customers in Littleton on Fitchburg Route

Nope. Switch at Very Fine siding still disconnected.
The bureaucracy that is MBTA and associated vendors continues to plod along.

And the daylight move FI-1 took down the Fitchburg Line and into Boston that way last week was a one time event to help out the scrap yard in Everett while keeping crew qualifications up to date.

The FI-1 event is not one-time. It will be run with overweight cars that can't come in the Lowell Line.

D

There's work going on at the Veryfine/Patriot Beverage siding. All the old rail and ties are taken up, and it looks like they've rough-graded for the length extension.

I cant tell if there's work going on around Middlesex Corporation, but it looks like they've put in some new jersey barriers and barrels in some of the parking lot, so that may be related.

rmccown wrote: ↑Thu May 21, 2020 10:59 am There's work going on at the Veryfine/Patriot Beverage siding. All the old rail and ties are taken up, and it looks like they've rough-graded for the length extension.

I cant tell if there's work going on around Middlesex Corporation, but it looks like they've put in some new jersey barriers and barrels in some of the parking lot, so that may be related.

There is an earlier post saying the Middlesex project is dead.

That is correct. Middlesex Paving siding is dead. It was predicated on them winning the contract to supply stone for the Green Line Extension project.

It will be interesting to see how fast the work gets done at Patriot Beverage. They have been waiting for a year to get the OK from Keolis or MBTA.
At some point Pan Am will have to start qualifying crews. FI-1 made some trips via the Fitchburg Route this winter in order to bring some heavier scrap metal cars to Everett. Those cars are now cleared to go via one of the jobs out of Lawrence at night.
Patriot Beverage currently transloads their plastic pellets at Fitchburg Yard.

The work extending the siding at Patriot Beverage looks like its been completed.

Yes...was put into service (at least by Bulletin Order) July 16th and officially renamed Patriot Beverage.

I drove across the King St crossing today and saw at least one, possibly two hopper cars on the Patriot Beverage siding.

There were cars on that siding today. First time in the area and saw the old Littleton Station...not bad considering all the "stuff" all over the place. I wonder who owns it...

Steve

Interesting. Looks lit up inside, yet all that junk piled up outside. Nice looking station building.

I believe the Littleton depot is occupied by a business Erickson's Antique Stoves:
http://www.ericksonsantiquestoves.com/index.html

I've driven 2A between Littleton and Ayer a few times in the past six weeks. There have been around six hoppers at Patriot Beverages. Regret not paying close enough attention to determine if they have changed out.

I'm guessing Patriot Beverage is a PAR customer, being east of CPF WL? PAR would serve it out of Ayer, which is PAS, out of convenience. So how does this all work out post-CSX? Is B&E territory going to be extended down to Tenney? Or will it still be a CSX customer?

The line between PAS and CSX (formerly PAR) is on the Stony Brook line just east of the milling and the San Vel auto facility. Which is in turn just east of the Willows. But Patriot Beverage (formerly Very Fine) is on the line to Boston, not the Stony Brook line. Unless I’m very mistaken its PAS, like the other Ayer area industries.

Yes, PAS trackage rights extend all the way out to Littleton over the MBTA. The only conceivable CSX long shot customers in the area would be if whoever owns Nortons down in Worcester decided to use rail again. Or the warehouse in Clinton that is marketed as having a dock but hasn't seen rail that I know of.