Railroad Forums 

  • Medford Branch "Dead or Alive?"

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #405137  by dieciduej
 
Has there been, or will there be any activity on the old Medford Branch? It’s been years since I have seen anything going on. I am not sure if the Budweiser or the storage place gets any rail traffic. Even the spur further up going to the Piantedosi Bakery has been dead. Just wondering since the area at the Middlesex Av crossing just to one side of the tracks has been cleaned up in the pass year.

JoeD

 #405716  by eotd
 
from what i remember about this area, Budweiser discontinued use of track at least 10 years ago. I remember running into someone who worked there saying that theft from the beer cars there by the employees was excessive.

Piantedosi is another lost cause. But the cold storage place (Crystal Cold) adjacent to Budweiser got service for a while and was the last to do so that I saw.
 #1461336  by gokeefe
 
Sooooo ..... Any plans for resumption of service? I saw some indications of activity around 2015 and then nothing at all.
 #1461350  by dieciduej
 
No plans as far as I can tell. Pieces of rail have been removed just as the branch goes under Rt 28, the Fellsway. It's pretty much a treasure trove of tin cans, sorry aluminum, and beer bottles.

JoeD
 #1461387  by GP40MC1118
 
Unless clearance issues are resolved, I don't see Cold Storage coming back. They want to
go to bigger boxcars, but height restrictions has prevented this. The MBTA has plans to
reroute the Western Route Mainline around the Wellington Tunnel, running on the surface.
If and when this happens, it'll be interesting if a connection to the Branch is kept.

D
 #1461417  by dieciduej
 
As far as I can tell, from the MBTA Orange Line, the switch that leads from the Western Route to the Medford Branch is still intact. The switch that would lead the tunnel bypass back into the Western Route the frog has been pulled, not sure if it is on the ground near by. So from an emergency bypass standpoint, it ain't happening. If the Medford Branch officially is abandoned then the tunnel should be daylighted for both transit and commuter rail services.

JoeD
 #1488954  by BostonUrbEx
 
The Commuter Rail main line will be relocated to the surface at Medford Jct a couple weekends from now. Just prep work for that. And that is on the front burner in order to reroute freight during GLX outages on the Lowell Line.
 #1489414  by tom18287
 
it already is located above as well isnt it? thers been a switch to bypass the tunnel forever but it never gets used. are all the tracks getting reworked?
 #1489433  by dieciduej
 
Two or three years back, as I can remember, they removed the frog on the north side switch. Not sure why but they did. I also remember when both switches were operational they would send the Downeaster over the tunnel bypass, I believe there was a height issue with the short tunnel. Once the trimmed the tunnel for the bi-levels then the Downeaster took the tunnel.
Last edited by MEC407 on Sat Oct 27, 2018 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total. Reason: unnecessary quoting
 #1490421  by BostonUrbEx
 
Expect the mainline throw to happen the weekend of the 17th/18th. The surface route is an unsignaled siding and not viable for regular use without just a little bit of work.
 #1490441  by FatNoah
 
I understand why the Orange Line has a tunnel here, but why does the Commuter Rail? I get that we wouldn't want a CR siding crossing the OL at grade, but it seems that the net effect of the tunnel is that the turnout for the switch to access the branch goes a different way.
 #1506755  by b&m 1566
 
dieciduej wrote:Two or three years back, as I can remember, they removed the frog on the north side switch. Not sure why but they did. I also remember when both switches were operational they would send the Downeaster over the tunnel bypass, I believe there was a height issue with the short tunnel. Once the trimmed the tunnel for the bi-levels then the Downeaster took the tunnel.
Are you sure about the Downeaster? I haven't followed that train much at all over the years but I'm most certain the train uses the Lowell line/Wildcat Branch to and from the Western Route, with a stop in Woburn.

Has the Downeaster ever taken a detour?
 #1506774  by GP40MC1118
 
Amtrak does detour down the Western Route more often than you'd think, especially in the past two years.
All due to the weekend shutdowns of the Lowell line for various GLX work. Or reasons were
major MW projects on weekends.

D