CSX Track Upgrades & Infrastructure of Pan Am

If you check Google Earth you can see how they reconfigured the ladder at the south (RR west) end. There has been some work done in the north end too but not as dramatic.

Looks like they cleared out the OOS tracks in the yard

That was done in the spring. I believe that the rail was sold to Maine Track Maintenance. They used a bunch of 100 LBS relay for the new grain terminal on MNR as well as for the LPG terminal at NMJ. They also built two spurs at Augusta for Clarks Scrap. If you didn't hear, Clarks will be closing the Livermore Falls yard sometime in the next two years and will move operations to Augusta. I imagine it will be the same amount of outbound cars which are normally filled with specialty scrap.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d3 ... b24575d09d

As part of the new Three-Year Work Plan from MaineDot:

Investments from the Industrial Rail Access Program (IRAP) to maintain and improve the state rail network to support heavy rail cares and double-stack clearances - $76 million.
Improvements to the CSX line between Gray and Waterville through a Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Grant - $35 million.

Speeds going up in some parts of D1 to 40MPH

https://www.northyarmouth.org/sites/g/f ... crease.pdf?

Another 10 miles and they will be in Auburn! Good progress

CSX is getting ready for springtime work , a pile of ties and rail was recently dropped off at Town Farm Rd. crossing in Westford. I assume this is for this crossing, but they have stockpiled material here before and then taken it to another location.

Sorry about the rotated picture but I've wasted enough time getting it right, happens every time I post a picture from my phone here.

Plop them wherever people complain less about the creosote fumes?

In addition to Town Farm Rd. crossing, ties have been dropped at Depot Rd and Brookside Rd. in Westford, plus School St. in Chelmsford. It looks like CSX will probably do a tie job on the whole branch to finish up the low budget job Pan Am did in 2016. I don't think the crossing 's are that bad so these ties may be for the main line. We shall see.

Edited at 21:42

From Progressive Railroading:

Progressive Railroading wrote:Now called the CSX New England Zone, the former Pan Am system will receive additional investments and extensive work again this year, said Ed Sparks, CSX’s chief engineer-bridges, design and construction, in an email.
. . .
Much of the work is associated with a $17.5 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure & Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program grant the Maine Department of Transportation obtained to help CSX fund infrastructure improvements. A majority of the work this year will be focused on 75 miles of mainline track between Yarmouth and Waterville.

Crews will install 400,000 lineal feet of new CWR; upgrade 47 crossings; replace 25 mainline switches; extend an existing passing siding by 4,800 lineal feet; modernize signal equipment in three existing interlockings; install three new control points; add additional wayside locations to extend a signal system by 16 miles; replace 441 timbers on eight bridge decks; and replace surfaces at 42 private crossings.
. . .
Other work planned in the CSX New England Zone in 2024 is designed to help improve reliability and increase train speed. Crews will construct six additional miles of a second main line track between Wells and North Berwick, Maine; enhance the clearance on the Worcester Subdivision between Worcester and Ayer, Maine; [sic] install 13.3 miles of relay CWR on the branch to Portsmouth, New Hampshire; install nine miles of relay CWR in Rigby Yard in South Portland, Maine; and perform tie and surface work in the Portland Subdivision between Lowell Junction and Ayer, Maine. [sic]

Read more at: https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... 024--71330

So worc-Ayer will be double stack cleared by the end of the upcoming construction season! That great for the future of the Worcester main that this is proceeding

But less good for the B&E lines which don’t seem to have all that much traffic

9 miles of relay CWR for Rigby. Would that cover most of the yard?

No it would not, but will help. The yard is pretty long, some tracks are half a mile, most 3/4 of a mile.

F74265A wrote: ↑Tue Feb 27, 2024 8:42 am So worc-Ayer will be double stack cleared by the end of the upcoming construction season! That great for the future of the Worcester main that this is proceeding

But less good for the B&E lines which don’t seem to have all that much traffic

I would not assume it will get done in one construction season.

This will not effect B&E beyond the already known NS IM jobs moving over.