Pan Am Worcester Main Line

How did that happen? Did the driver just ignore the lights?
I know when they bumped up the track east of Waterville the MOW department was posted at the crossings to flag them. However after seeing a few videos on the Worcester Main, it was only a matter of time before this happened.

newpylong wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 7:21 am The whole thing will likely be 40 except the reservoir if they choose to keep it at 25.

I believe the test train hit a vehicle coming back north.

I recall from the stb docs that csx had a deal with Mwra and the state of Mass to maintain the reservoir section to class 3 but limit speeds to 25, so csx may be stuck with a short section of 25. Agree the rest of it should be 40 given how they have rebuilt it

Was the line ever 40 during the conrail era?

CPF66 wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 7:35 am How did that happen? Did the driver just ignore the lights?
I know when they bumped up the track east of Waterville the MOW department was posted at the crossings to flag them. However after seeing a few videos on the Worcester Main, it was only a matter of time before this happened.

The line has been a tree tunnel for decades

The problem often is when railroads don't keep up with row trimming neighbors freak out when they try to catch up on maintaining safe sight lines by cutting whole trees.

Lancaster can always bust the municipal budget and add crossing gates to its many- six primary ones at least-tree enclosed crossings.
I think think local government is responsible for those, but I could be mistaken

Been a bit + since I've been there -- is Mill Street gated or just flashers?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnRTCT0HPTM

recent video of mill st. crossing
train looks like it is moving at a full 25mph.

F74265A-
Tnx. Flashers-only, at least recently. If it was a beemer, I'll leave it to others to do the snarking.

Pretty much the entire Pan Am system is/was a tree tunnel.

F74265A wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 7:35 am

newpylong wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 7:21 am The whole thing will likely be 40 except the reservoir if they choose to keep it at 25.

I believe the test train hit a vehicle coming back north.

I recall from the stb docs that csx had a deal with Mwra and the state of Mass to maintain the reservoir section to class 3 but limit speeds to 25, so csx may be stuck with a short section of 25. Agree the rest of it should be 40 given how they have rebuilt it

Was the line ever 40 during the conrail era?

I would need to find my old old Springfield Terminal timetable to confirm but in my PAR TT #1 (which carried over many of the speeds from the ST TT) lists it as 30 MPH MAS from Shay to Harvard except for a short section of 25 in Lancaster. When I was there they cut DCS back from Shay (New Bond roughly) to Burncoat because there were incidents of CSX crews recrewing the train at New Bond and leaving for home rails without calling clear of DCS so they couldn't release the Form D. Maybe they will put it back to Shay now and cut out another mile of restricted speed. Around this same time they also cut DCS back on the northern half of the line from Harvard to old MPX-25 to give trains headroom in Devins yard.

Then 40 will probably be the highest mas on the line since at least the 1970s

Coincidentally a really nice series of 9 videos on You Tube from Roger Hagopian of Guilford freight action in the 90's started showing up recently. Here are 2 covering the Worcester Main---Intermodals, auto racks and meets at Clinton. You judge the speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZtutuJ ... WL&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUVqWU_ ... WL&index=1

I vote 25mph

My copy of ST ETT #4 (from 2004) shows an MAS of 30 from Shay (MP X3.30) to Harvard (MP X25.70) with a short section of 25 between MP X19.0 and X20.5 in Lancaster.

The next TT back in my collection is a B&M one from 1957, which shows a passenger train carded from Barbers (MP 2.92) - Clinton (MP 16.76) in 19 minutes (average speed of 44 MPH) and then from Clinton - Ayer (MP 28.01) in 14 minutes (average speed of 48 MPH), so we know higher speeds were certainly allowed at one point.

Overall MAS was 60 (passenger)/40 (freight) with restrictions shown in the attached image

F74265A wrote: ↑Thu May 02, 2024 3:57 pm I vote 25mph

Some 25, but definitely at least one job going 30 in those vids. Namely the Conrail units through Clinton in the first video and two GTI 6 packs in the second one. Speeds were decent until the Conrail split and most of that traffic started going out the West End and got worse after the Ford yard closed.