Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

[b&m 1566]

Is there a link to the STB filing?

[johnpbarlow]

https://www.stb.gov/filings/all.nsf/ba7 ... 246073.pdf

Kind of a housekeeping filing - here's an excerpt:

NET obtained new financing from a Boston-based real estate development company, GFI Partners ("GFI"). GFI and
NET have entered into an Operating Agreement that establishes a new entity, Wilmington Woburn Intermodal, LLC ("WWI"), that will own and operate the
facilities that were to be constructed and acquired by NET. Under that new arrangement, NET and an entity established by GFI, Eames Street Member, LLC
("Eames"), will each own 50% of WWI. While GFI will provide financing through Eames, both parties will share in the management. Neither GFI nor Eames
owns any other railroads or entities subject to the jurisdiction of the Board. Pursuant to 49 CFR § 1117 .1, Eames and NET request that the Board
substitute WWI as the Petitioner in FD 34797 Sub. No. I. This substitution will not result in any substantive change to their proposal or any of the transportation or
environmental issues associated with this docket. The only change will be to insert the entity providing the financing for this project into the ownership of the owning
and operating entity.

[zski128]

Some action on the spur to Willington Cold Storage, the scrap dealer has cleaned up at lot of area and the chain link fence surrounding the property has come down. Really good view of the old D&H box car now. 504 is the new power parked behind BET.

[l008com]

I've been keeping an eye on the wilmington cold storage branch. And while the sketchy lot that is getting service has cleaned up their front a little, I can't find any work at all that's been done on the spur. Unless they are parking the cars very back of the lot, right up against the mainline. I haven't climbed back there so it's possible they cleared that up. I'll take another peak Thursday night. Here's the spot in question if anyone wants to take a closer look from space: https://goo.gl/maps/LwhbCKDgaVr" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Also, unrelated to Wilmington, but related to this thread in general, does anyone know why Winchester's transfer station doesn't use rail? It literally could not be better positioned. There's even an unused spur that goes right to the ROW adjacent to their property. Freight services comes by every night. It seems like a no-brainer. Here's a link to that: https://goo.gl/maps/654xdwpTc4T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Note that the track work you see is just regular maintenance and that the imagery is several years old, even though it has a 2018 copyright on it.
From what I understand, Winchester has no trash pickup. So you either bring your own trash to the transfer station, or you have private trash pickup that you pay for.

[zski128]

Center beams loads for Iron Horse Park this morning and last Thursday morning. Finally a new car at Atlantic plywood, it’s been empty for a while. Not much going on on the Wilmington cold storage spur. The scrap dealer has done a bit of cleanup a while back but no new activity recently. GLX is moving along, tree clearing is complete and some grading is starting to take place along the line. 504 and 514 have been behind BET.

[newpylong]

If that transfer station is just for Winchester, they do not move anywhere near enough volume for rail service, just look at how small that facility is. Waste and C&D facilities that can economically use rail accept from multiple sources.

[zski128]

507 with loads for Iron Horse yesterday morning. Empty loads on the lead during the evening. There was an NHN engine behind BET. It was gone this morning.

[zski128]

Busy week at Iron Horse. 507 spotted again this morning with a couple more loaded center beams and a bunch of box cars.

[zski128]

Tighe in Winchester has at least 20-25 cars at the doors and on second track. The yard 8 lead of the Lowell main is gone and the first rails and a switch (that I can see) have been laid down for the glx. GRS 319? Is behind BET.

[GP40MC1118]

Those aren't GLX rails, but likely track panels for a temporary track shift for the rehab of
Washington Street bridge. It's going to be done in two halves with the east side first.
The Lowell main will be shifted over to the west side (where the 4th Iron was) for the
duration of construction. Once done, the Lowell main will revert to its final alignment
on the east side.

D

[zski128]

Interesting, that will be a tight turn to to realign back to the main of the swing the tracks over. It’s odd then that a right hand switch is being placed almost on top of the western side of the bridge. Also noted that an industry on inner belt road had a siding cleared. New customer or just cleaning up? The building is southwest of Boston paperboard.

[newpylong]

Gonna be a lot more empties accumulating at Tighe/Montvale now. Can't bring plate Fs into town until Yard 10 lead is connected so gotta run around them on the main and drag them north.

[zski128]

509 and 514 behind BET this morning along with PAR1 and 2. Long freight at iron horse last Thursday. All is quiet at Tighe in winchester

[zski128]

307 passed through North Billerica station about 7am this morning with about 10 boxcars headed toward Lowell.

[l008com]

Last night I saw a lone gondola hanging out at "montvale yard".
And there was a boxcar at Atlantic Plywood, I haven't seen that in a while.
And a downeaster went by with a second mini downeaster stuck to the bottom.

Are there more trains on this line these days than there used to be? I feel like back when I started this thread, I'd sometimes see a few trains on Thursday nights. But these days, it seems like I ALWAYS see lots of trains. Often times they will be running back to back in both directions.