East Deerfield Gawking

[GU1001]

Standing on the Greenfield Rd bike bridge, looking west towards the Conn River bridge, I can see 3 covered hoppers on their sides. Not on the main, but on the Montague industrial(?). Looks fresh. There are workers around looking at the mess & I can hear activity around the bend that sound like rerailing-creaking wood & at least 1 engine.
Anyone have any more info? What train? When?

[johnpbarlow]

Photo taken by B. Moore on 10/14/18 posted on NERAIL photo web site:
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... rder=new99

[Safetee]

Those must be the new side dump ballast cars that they are experimenting with.

[RenegadeMonster]

Returned to my home town to visit Family over the weekend and got to stop by East Deerfield and see the yard.

I also took a walk on the rail trail / bike path starting at East Deerfield and headed north towards Turners. What row as that trail originally? The B&M or the New Haven? Loved crossing the Connecticut River over the 1880 Rail Bridge.

[newpylong]

Originally New Haven but then B&M once their bridge washed out. The original B&M turner's branch stub is now the WTE Recycling "upper" track across the bridge from Deerfield.

[Plate C]

Might have missed some changes to traffic and wondering if someone can fill me in. Posting here with ED as a reference point. Noticed "more" double stacks at ED, maybe the yard is more empty showing what's regularly been there or are they getting a dedicated IM train again now? There was (is?) a train that used to come in with NS power that would stop outside the yard and either recrew or drop the power and recrew some time later on, have not seen that train in a while. Someone mentioned they thought that might be RJED and that the train was changed to RJAY?

[newpylong]

The double stacks are loaded trash from Ayer destined to the NS.

RJED (when not combined with 16R) still runs. However, 16R power continues to Ayer after dropping its Deerfields and picking up PAS eastbound traffic.

So essentially from Deerfield east you have the PAS train 16R (Gardners, Fitches and Ayers) and the PAR train EDPO (Lowells, Nashuas, Lawrences, Rigbys).

[Plate C]

Thanks for that info. I never got my train symbols down for PAS, 16R is/was mixed freight and those blue garbage containers, correct?

Reminds me too- is there still a train coming out of CSX West Springfield that is taken from there to ED by PAR? I get thrown off because I've occasionally seen a line of freight left on the Connecticut River line by CSX and I feel like when they're putting it together in W SPG it maybe has a CSX train symbol that becomes a PAR/PAS symbol when they move it to the Conncticut River line. I might be confused because I sometimes pick up the PAR dispatcher on the radio in SPG and maybe I'm hearing them refer to something going on elsewhere on the line.

[newpylong]

The Blue containers are also C&D but mostly go to CSX at Rotterdam but someone can correct me on that one.

There hasn't been a train from CSX or even Conrail to the B&M in my lifetime from West Springfield that I am aware of. That interchange is only used sporadically for special moves, it is not available to route normally. Back in the 80s they used to run an EDSP or CPSP but that was all CP-Conrail traffic coming down out of Wells River.

[Plate C]

Misspoke and edited my above.

[johnpbarlow]

Here are 2 scans of color prints of the same good-sized GRS train backing into W Springfield on the Conrail B&A main at the Amtrak station. I don't recall exactly when I took this photo - I suppose it could have been in that couple of year window between the D&H being declared bankrupt by GRS (1988?) and then being acquired by CP in 1991. For some reason when I scanned these prints, I labelled the train as EDSP.

[newpylong]

Those are great photos, serious keepers.

Judging by the fact that all the engines are in Phase II paint (1995 on), it likely is much later than that the bankruptcy era. I will ask to see what they could have been doing there during that era - it's quite a few years after the Holyoke traffic dried up, so not likely that. So I could be wrong and there was regularinterchange at that time for some reason. Those cars look awfully like Conn River customers.

The whole Springfield/Holyoke history with the B&M and early GTI years is fascinating. Holyoke had 3 yard jobs right up to the early 90s and a pig ramp.

[HarmonicRock]

I seem to remember a pretty regular run over the river to set-off and pick-up in West Springfield for EDPL, mid to late nineties anyway (man it was a long time ago now ).
I caught them on numerous occasions at the station platform in Springfield or doing their shuffle in the yard - as seen here in the late summer of 98'...

[roberttosh]

I'm fairly certain that when CR moved the interchange from Rott Jct to Barbers back in the early 90's, at least for a time all West end traffic was moving over West Springfield, except for a limited amount of traffic to and from the Rotterdam/Scotia area, which still moved via Rott Jct.

[Ale Rider1]

I was actually out and about watching trains from 1992 ish to around 2000. I am pretty sure EDPL or PLED would pick up and drop cars in West Springfield. I'll see what I can find in my archives....