Connecticut River Line (Pan Am)

From the Burlington Free Press:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/arti ... 8M-upgrade

necr3849 wrote:Seeing these cars is kind of funny. Reason being is that PAR has been getting cars like these dropped at the siding next to Route 2 and Stetson Road in East Newport, ME. I don't think they are NS, but who knows. I don't have any pictures of them personally, but I'm thinking they are for the bridge replacement project in Carmel.

CMP has a big high tension line project that will connect to Canada - the mat roads are a requirement for the contractors in any areas that might erode or be wet. Edit: forgot to add, my buddy is one of the engineers on the project and at the rate he says they are using those timbers, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple cars a week were being unloaded for that project. Pittsfield and Lewiston are two areas getting worked on right now that I know of, and a stretch up through Whitefield near VA Togus.

Not sure if this belongs here or in the Amtrak Vermonter thread so mods please move and delete as you see fit.

Work could begin as early as late this summer:

"SPRINGFIELD – Work should begin later this summer on the $72.8 million upgrade of train tracks from Springfield to the Vermont state line.

“I’m hoping that they won’t miss this construction season, which is under way,” said Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and a longtime booster of rail improvements in the region. "

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/ ... ostComment

That is awesome... hopefully they plan on bringing in NS crews to do this if they ever want the project completed. They don't have enough men and equipment right now as it is. All of that track equipment that the NS bought for the PAS is in Maine doing the Downeaster extension.

Cadet57 wrote:“I’m hoping that they won’t miss this construction season, which is under way,” said Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and a longtime booster of rail improvements in the region. "

That sounded a little less than confident about their ability to make the schedule.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

Cadet57 wrote:“I’m hoping that they won’t miss this construction season, which is under way,” said Timothy W. Brennan, executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and a longtime booster of rail improvements in the region. "

That sounded a little less than confident about their ability to make the schedule.

I don't think so. You have to remember, they initially wanted to start in the spring-and were supposed to. But thanks to PAR/PAS that, naturally, didn't occur. So now they have a new goal and are just being optimistic that they can get SOME work in before fall/winter.

The rumor is that Pan Am is scrapping everything they don't need before this work happens. There's a crew currently at Riverside in Holyoke pulling up excess rail and track material.

Jedijk88 wrote:The rumor is that Pan Am is scrapping everything they don't need before this work happens. There's a crew currently at Riverside in Holyoke pulling up excess rail and track material.

Yep! Saw them today on my way to Rucki tire. They had a variable reach forklift, a couple pickups and some welding equipment it looked like. Didn't look like Pan Am crews thou. Think it was the contractors who did the work on the crossing and interchange.

Yeah, it was definitely a sub-contracted crew. Forgot where they are based out of.

They should be putting in a runaround for the PVRR interchange soon, if not already.

atholrail wrote:They should be putting in a runaround for the PVRR interchange soon, if not already.

Probably will be done during River Line track work. No sense in doing too much work when it'll only get ripped up when the new rail is laid.

Question

With New England winters being the way they are, is it really better to start late in the season, or would be better to finish up other projects then hit this thing hard and fast next season?

gprimr1 wrote:Question

With New England winters being the way they are, is it really better to start late in the season, or would be better to finish up other projects then hit this thing hard and fast next season?

They may be attempting to do as much preliminary work as possible now in order to allow major trackwork next year to begin unhindered. New England weather being what it is they could have a dry spell and go well into December before the snow flies. This would offset any lost time in case winter happens to be particularly long or the snow melts late on the flip side of the calendar.

gprimr1 wrote:Question

With New England winters being the way they are, is it really better to start late in the season, or would be better to finish up other projects then hit this thing hard and fast next season?

FWIW I don't even understand why all track work comes to a stop in the winter. Im sure not every thing is possible but many things like rail trains could still run pretty easily with frozen ground

Rail is often laid in the summer so that the steel would be at approximately it's longest length. It's much easier to fix a cracked rail due to the rail shrinking, than to redo a large section of track/roadbed because a heat kink developed.