CSX Track Upgrades & Infrastructure of Pan Am

There haven't been active shops of any kind at Billerica in years. In addition, the land and buildings were (I believe) sold to the state when all the rest of the MA property in the commuter zone was. What's left of the tracks is used to serve a few customers, so it's not going to be pulled up, but I wouldn't expect a major investment in the area other than what the MBTA chooses to spend.

Well someone has been improving Billerica. Note the new orange membrane, tracks and switches that have been recently installed.

Gilson Rd., Littleton crossing is scheduled for replacement Wednesday October 11.
Info--https://www.littletonma.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=166

video from today, Oct 4, of active construction work on the VO connector

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1yhaoXBTKU

Dropping ballast at Keag.

https://youtu.be/IRMEzvv7Mfw?si=4VFDmy7iC25iS9V4

I have never seen ballast dropped so fast in my life. Then again, I have never really seen Herzog cars dropping either.

Not sure if it was covered but the 'official date' for the reopening of the Mattwamkeag Line and interchange is November 1st.

From the looks of this recent video from Old Town heading west, the track is in better shape than before, but still 10 with a lot of old stick rail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_URpFnx2fQ

With some restrictions here and there, track speed Waterville to Keag increased to 25 at midnight.

Video of GREX rail SPS unit (Self Powered Slot) picking up old rail in Clinton. Traveling excavator on top of gondolas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G73L8nh ... WL&index=4

Apparently GREX is part of LORAM.

BlueFlag wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2023 3:40 pm With some restrictions here and there, track speed Waterville to Keag increased to 25 at midnight.

Does that include the areas within yard limits/other than main track as well?

No. Other Than Main track is Restricted Speed for the entire movement and Yard Limits are explicitly 10 MPH per TT on the New England Division and even if it was raised to 25 per Rule 93 the head end still has to pass through at Restricted Speed.

neman2 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2023 5:23 pm Video of GREX rail SPS unit (Self Powered Slot) picking up old rail in Clinton. Traveling excavator on top of gondolas.

Neat! The power unit has a single EMD Blomberg truck — and probably a pair of EMD traction motors.

newpylong wrote: ↑Tue Oct 10, 2023 7:09 pm No. Other Than Main track is Restricted Speed for the entire movement and Yard Limits are explicitly 10 MPH per TT on the New England Division and even if it was raised to 25 per Rule 93 the head end still has to pass through at Restricted Speed.

My maps show 112.5 track miles from waterville to keag. Significant portions, but not all, are now reported to be 25. Is it realistic for a single crew to make a WA to keag turn in 12 hours? Seems like a close call since they would do switching in keag.

Don't forget that the sections through Northern Maine Jct and Bangor are identified as Yard Limits, which will slow things down a bit as well. Depending on the amount of traffic, it might make more sense to run things as an "up one day, back the next" operation, at least for now, and perform switching along the way.