The Guilford Wreck Train... Photos & Questions

Guessing the steel just N of the wreck train is internal structure from the no-longer-there roundhouse damaged a bit back by a windstorm.

johnpbarlow wrote:Very interesting flyover of E Deerfield yard! I wonder if CSX has any interest in Pan Am's fleet of snowplows? Also it looks like there is an awful lot of debris/scrap piled in the yard - is this in the process of being cleaned up by Pan Am?

Thanks for posting the link!

Most of the plows are out of service due to a myriad of issues. CSX may keep the two spreaders, but the plows are scrap fodder. In recent years CSX has cut up the majority of its snow fleet. But I am sure some bean counter at Jacksonville will argue that its somehow cheaper for trains to get stuck in drifts, locomotives to burn out traction motors, and the MOW department to take weeks to clear up on blizzard with regulators, rather than running one plow extra which could get everything opened up. But hey thats PSR for you...

When was the last time Pan Am ran a plow? In recent years in my neck of the woods, they've relied on the Downeaster to be the de facto plow train.

CPF66 wrote: ↑Sat May 28, 2022 10:19 pm

johnpbarlow wrote:Very interesting flyover of E Deerfield yard! I wonder if CSX has any interest in Pan Am's fleet of snowplows? Also it looks like there is an awful lot of debris/scrap piled in the yard - is this in the process of being cleaned up by Pan Am?

Thanks for posting the link!

Most of the plows are out of service due to a myriad of issues. CSX may keep the two spreaders, but the plows are scrap fodder. In recent years CSX has cut up the majority of its snow fleet. But I am sure some bean counter at Jacksonville will argue that its somehow cheaper for trains to get stuck in drifts, locomotives to burn out traction motors, and the MOW department to take weeks to clear up on blizzard with regulators, rather than running one plow extra which could get everything opened up. But hey thats PSR for you...

They operate in areas (Buffalo namely) that get hit with Lake Effect storms which at times make Noreasters look like snow flurries. They'll have the equipment in place (whatever it may be) to handle it. Can't argue with the PSR bit though, it's the devil in a red dress.

Usually, a new outfit comes in, wants everything to be tidy. Later regrets scrapping something. Or, if they have the space, they leave the OOS snow plow hanging around and eventually fix it & press it back into service. Of course Global Warming is making Boston feel like Miami, but we are in New England and if you don't like the weather wait a minute and it will change....

The last plow train was 2019, but prior to that they normally ran about 2 per year.
CSX recently scrapped the two spreaders and the two wedge plows based in the Buffalo area in 2019 after a series of mild winters with few blizzards. As luck would have it, that winter they got pounded with several back to back storms. The snow ended up getting deep enough that the regulators couldn't keep up and they had to use a locomotive to break a trail. I have a friend of mine who left Pan Am the year prior and worked on the section gang out there. He figured that the two regulators in his section never shut off between the first of the year and the end of February with the exception of when they were being refueled or repaired.

The disposal of the former Pan Am wreck trains of both Waterville Maine and East Deerfield, MA has begun and it seems that most items will be preserved by a number of different heritage railroads and railroad museums. Speaking as a member of the Railroad Museum of New England board of trustees we are obtaining the former troop sleeper - B&M mail-express car and the flat car with the caboose body. Sorry, I don't yet have numbers for these cars.

Alex L Morocho posted a sequence of photos of PL-1 lugging the 3 cars labelled for NAUG through Bristol CT on Thursday 5/18/23 on the CSX Northern New England (Pan Am) railfans Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PanAmRa ... 964440554/

249 is the sleeper, 77 is the caboose flat.

Dunno where the rest of the wreck train is bound, but ironically AD-1 with 3401/509 went on the ground with it in tow at CPF 384 last night.

Classic Guilford

The recent group of cars has showed up at Eagle Bridge, stenciled for the SC&H.

The cars arrived on the Batten Kill today for restoration.

Was this the wreck train being spoken of, or is this something else? I took these 10 years ago on the Warren Ave. branch in Portland, adjacent to the Scrub-A-Dub car wash (so, just compass-east of the Forest Ave. crossing). It just took 10 years for them to show up as a Facebook memory for me to find and post them. Note the PTM reporting marks!

I've got photos I took of 40209MW and the PTM boom idler car in the yard at Old Town three
years ago and it was still there last week. It's not part of the wreck outfit- it is a work crane used
to move material at construction jobs, rail and tie projects, ditching with a clamshell bucket, etc.
Similar cranes I'm familiar with typically had a capacity of about 25 tons. I remember one incident
on the MEC years ago when one was being used with a clamshell bucket to clean ditches and the
operator grabbed a clump of bushes and attempted to uproot them. Proving stubborn he gave them
a harder yank and without the outriggers extended put the crane over on it's side!