Railroad Forums 

  • Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #1520184  by craven
 
Update 14 Sep.

Four bricks of Ties in the Hopedale Yard.

Grader has worked the row and welded rail dropped from the bridge to Green St.

Looks like a new switch being installed in the Hopedale yard.


John, You are correct...I meant Hopedale Yard in the above mentioned post.
 #1520602  by johnpbarlow
 
Here are a few photos showing the continued development of the G&U around Hopedale:

New turnout being constructed to connect the mainline to one or more future yard tracks
G&U New switch Hopedale 092119 small.jpg
G&U New switch Hopedale 092119 small.jpg (350.69 KiB) Viewed 3018 times

Ties in place for a new siding
G&U ties for new siding Hopedale 092119 small.jpg
G&U ties for new siding Hopedale 092119 small.jpg (241.71 KiB) Viewed 3018 times

Rail strings dropped east of Hopedale St bridge. Rail strings are also dropped along RoW from this location to Green St although stone and ties have yet to be put in place
G&U west view of RoW east of Hopedale St bridge 092119 small.jpg
G&U west view of RoW east of Hopedale St bridge 092119 small.jpg (513.53 KiB) Viewed 3018 times
Progress is being made!
 #1520692  by johnpbarlow
 
Trainman14: yes increased transload traffic has caused G&U to expand its yards at N Grafton, W Upton, and now Hopedale. And G&U ownership has aspirations to re-establish the original south end connection to the MBTA track at Milford, MA presumably to access a few more customers at Milford and Forge Park.
 #1521110  by johnpbarlow
 
My info sources for the traffic increases leading to yard expansions along G&U come from public sources such as news articles and eyeball observations of the line over the past 5 years. Links to these news articles are published in earlier entries in this forum. And eyeball observations of G&U's installation of track/crossbucks at road crossings between current end of track at Hopedale and Milford a few years back plus a slow build-out of new track are pretty compelling evidence that G&U wants to reach the MBTA at Milford.
 #1521117  by b&m 1566
 
Why and how does the MBTA own trackage in Milford? Sorry for going off topic but taking a look at the map, it appears both ROW's heading east and north out of Milford appear to be severed (ROW property sold off), so there's no direct commuter rail route for Milford coming/going in the direction of Boston. I know there's no future plans for commuter rail in Milford, so my question is, did the state get suckered into buy up a line that's completely useless to them in terms of commuter rail, or was it necessary for them to purchase it in order to keep freight service active on the line?
 #1521126  by bostontrainguy
 
The MBTA runs commuter rail to Franklin which is a few miles short of the end of line in Milford. Once G&U extends it's tracks to the MBTA/CSX tracks just south of Milford Center it will be connected at that end.
Last edited by MEC407 on Fri Sep 27, 2019 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total. Reason: unnecessary quoting
 #1521127  by pumpers
 
155 acres would be one heck of a yard - that's 1/4 square mile. G&U is thinking big!
So it could be 2 miles long and 1/8 mile (220 yards , about 2 football field lengths) wide.
Does anyone know how that compares to other yards, such as the old Beacon Park?
 #1521131  by bostontrainguy
 
Playing around with Google Earth, Beacon Park looks to be about 3100 feet / 1,000 yards long and 750 feet / 240 yards wide excluding the leads.
Last edited by MEC407 on Fri Sep 27, 2019 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total. Reason: unnecessary quoting
 #1521147  by johnpbarlow
 
b&M 1566 - I don't know with authority the ownership of the current track in Milford (MaDOT 2018 Rail Plan says it's owned by CSX) but the only operator of trains into Milford AFAIK is MBTA who runs a periodic inspection trip to the end of track across Depot St. CSX no longer has any freight activity in Milford since Ardagh Mfg closed in spring 2018. And the track work that has been done in terms of relocating what should become the G&U connection switch and rebuilding the S Cedar St grade crossing was all done using MBTA equipment. So I'm guessing MBTA / MaDOT is the owner? And I believe MaDOT owns the CSX former Framingham Secondary track over which CSX runs freight traffic to Walpole/Mansfield/Readville etc.
 #1521159  by MaineCoonCat
 
According to "Oliver", "New York Central Lines, LLC" in MIlford.. At the Hopedale town line it becomes "Pennsylvania Central Trans Co." Note that "Oliver"'s ownership data comes from the local municipality's Assessors..
.
Milford MBTA/CSX ROW - Oliver
Milford MBTA/CSX ROW - Oliver
milford CSX ROW.PNG (619.64 KiB) Viewed 2120 times
Milford MBTA/CSX ROW #2 - Oliver
Milford MBTA/CSX ROW #2 - Oliver
Milford CSX ROW 2.PNG (773.22 KiB) Viewed 2107 times
Attachments:
Milford MBTA/CSX ROW #3 - Oliver
Milford MBTA/CSX ROW #3 - Oliver
Milford CSX ROW 3.PNG (461.19 KiB) Viewed 2107 times
Last edited by MaineCoonCat on Sat Sep 28, 2019 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1521164  by MaineCoonCat
 
ADDENDUM TO ABOVE
In Bellingham, "Oliver" does not have the ownership data..
ROW, Bellingham - Oliver
ROW, Bellingham - Oliver
Milford CSX ROW 4.PNG (325.75 KiB) Viewed 2106 times
  • 1
  • 230
  • 231
  • 232
  • 233
  • 234
  • 257