Manchester-Lawrence still in use (Freight Discussion)?

[l008com]

I've been looking at some photos on massroads.com
Do they still use a short section of the line in lawrence for freight. Over the river and cross 28 and up a ways? It looks like it but I have yet to see any actual photos of trains on the track. I know they stopped going into Salem 10-15 years ago.

[doublebell]

The last move to Salem, to Key Plastics, was about 4 years ago. Now it goes about a half mile over the river.

John (the guy in the white car)

[l008com]

Cool i didn't realize it was still in use at all. Those trains must seriously f'up traffic on 28

[consist]

The dead (or dying) line from Lawrence to Salem doesn't go to Manchester. Manchester is reached only via the Nashua branch which emanates from the mainline in North Chelmsford.

[l008com]

The dead (or dying) line from Lawrence to Salem doesn't go to Manchester. Manchester is reached only via the Nashua branch which emanates from the mainline in North Chelmsford.

Well it certainly doesn't now, but it DID back in the day. I think i read that passenger service thru derry ended in the 60's but I'm not sure on that.

[Rockingham Racer]

That's about right, or maybe late 50's. Can't remember exactly when, since I lived up near Pelham. But I do remember seeing a gas-tubine passenger car come north from Lawrence station, connecting from a mainline commuter train; thru "downtown" Methuen at about 6PM.

[NHN1757]

There is a customer in N. Lawrence that usually has a covered hopper loaded with plaistic pellets.

If you go into N. Lawrence up to like Haverhill St and cross the ML at grade you will usually the that car there.

The route 28 crossing of the ML is protected by gates.

The route 28 crossing of the Lawrence industrial track going up to Lowell Hill has no protection and must be flagged. I happened to catch LA1 going up there one day and there was a truck on one side fouling the tracks and a car on the other.

Took them 15 minutes or so to find the owner of the truck, the owner of the car came out and moved it.

They brought 4 covered hoppers or so out to the hill.

Merrimack Paper which has a siding off of the ML in S. Lawrence, right near the river no longer gets service.

[b&m 1566]

The dead (or dying) line from Lawrence to Salem doesn't go to Manchester. Manchester is reached only via the Nashua branch which emanates from the mainline in North Chelmsford.

Well it certainly doesn't now, but it DID back in the day. I think i read that passenger service thru derry ended in the 60's but I'm not sure on that.

If I recall correctly, in a book writen about Salem, NH history the last passenger train rain on the line in 1952 with only a few passenger extras for the Rockingham Race Track and Canobie Lake Park passed 1952. The last thru frieght train was in 1984 after a number of derailments took place in the Derry, NH area. The line since then has been closed little by little to the point where only a mile or so of it is still in use.

[djlong]

If it matters, the I-93 widening (from the NH/MA line in Salem to Manchester) is supposed to have built into it an accomodation for a rail right-of-way. It's one of the environmental 'mitigation' items that was supposed to help get the thing approved.

[Meyblc]

The rail corridor that is to be built into the I-93 project is to be for light rail use only, Interurban subway cars, that type of stuff. The industry standard for freight operations now is 6 axle EMD locomotives, 286,000 pound freight cars and double stack deep well container cars. I would think that you'd need to build the roadbed differently to handle the excess weight and what about the overpasses and heigh issue's? I know that Guilford does not maintain it's track nor it's locomotive fleet to this standard, but if you're gonna do it, do it right from the start.

[NHN1757]

Guilford wouldn't use or have anything to do with a rail corridor along route 93.

They were talking light rail but I think that would be a mistake. The grades aren't anything that a passenger train can't handle so use standard equipment, jump on the former ML now owned by the T at the state line and have a one seat direct ride to Boston.

Going via Nashua does have the advantage of including Merrimack and Nashua, and using the NH division which is double tracked from Lowell to Boston so it have much more capacity than the Haverhill line to Reading with it's single track from cpf-as to Reading.

I don't know what the delay is but I think they should double track the line right down to the double track already in Reading.

[b&m 1566]

Don't count on seeing a train running along 93. What will happen 20 to 30 years from now is extend passenger service from Lawrence to Salem and that's about it. Guilford (if the company is still there) may service the customer in Salem that they just left hanging back in 2001. Well the company new it was coming but still. The ROW north of Salem is a mess and in some areas it doesn't even exist anymore. In all some parts of the ROW is a road, parking lot, ATV trail, paved bike path, and a runway for the Manchester Airport. A lot has taken place in 20 years since the line started closing down. Windham is in the process of making the ROW a paved bike path, Salem has also shown in trust in the bike path but Guilford still owns the tracks but is looking to sell it. However NH has this thing; any ROW for sale the state gets the first say in it; if they want to buy it or not, but NH has been slow at getting back to Guilford on the issue.

[l008com]

Where was/is the train station in Salem NH? I know where derry and windham depot are, but i was thinking about salem, I can't ever remember seeing a station anywhere in salem.

[Rockingham Racer]

It's right in downtown Salem [LOL! ] There's a traffic light there on Rt. 28, and the cross street is Rt. 38, I believe. Anyway, it was just up there on the left where the railroad tracks were.

Speaking of the race track trains, I can remember seeing two or three of them parked at the track on some Saturdays. They were known as Rockingham Racers, and I think one came down from Manchester, too.

[b&m 1566]

It's right in downtown Salem [LOL! ] There's a traffic light there on Rt. 28, and the cross street is Rt. 38, I believe. Anyway, it was just up there on the left where the railroad tracks were.

Speaking of the race track trains, I can remember seeing two or three of them parked at the track on some Saturdays. They were known as Rockingham Racers, and I think one came down from Manchester, too.

You are half correct about the road next to the depot. It's the intersection of 28 and (97), 38 loops around the mall and terminates at the Rockingham ParkBlvd. The intersection of 28 and 97 and the area around it, is also known/called “Salem Depot”. About the Rockingham Racer Trains, I'm almost positive that trains came both from the South and the North and may have been the same for the Canobie Lake train as well. I believe the train coming from the north originated in Concord, NH though.
Click on the links to see the pictures of Salem Depot
http://www.lightlink.com/sglap3/newhamp ... lempgl.jpg This picture was taken just 4 years after the last train pasted by the station. There was a little company about a mile north of the Station that was a rail customer till 1993/94 it was a Potato Chip company (not sure of the name).
http://www.lightlink.com/sglap3/newhamp ... alemRB.jpg
This picture is just north of the station. Dodge Grain was at one time a railroad customer but I read somewhere that they last used the railroad in 1957. http://www.lightlink.com/sglap3/newhampshire/salemf.jpg

The link to where I found the pictures http://www.lightlink.com/sglap3/