CSX Boston and Albany Line

The oil separator takes water from the ground monitor wells, and basically skims off the oil on top of the water.The soil itself would still be saturated with oil, and the only way to clean it up is to dig it up and ship it out.There would be a huge amount of dirty dirt so that is probably why they built the stub tracks to directly load the dirt at beacon park.They might put the dirty dirt through a furnace to burn it off at a facility out of state.I had an underground oil tank at a house in Milton.It never leaked, but when I wanted to sell house, I had to dig up tank and pipes and switched to natural gas.At.Conway Yard in PA ,there was creek that went under the yard and oil was seeping into the creek and flowing into the Ohio river,Conrail had their workers put oil containment booms across the creek.The Conrail workers worked overtime every day using pads to absorb the oil on top of the water.We got a trailer truck load of these pads for a better price, than buying it from a local dealer.I do not remember where the pads went.Today fueling oil racks have pans under the tracks to catch oil spills, but they have a small oil separator.

There used to be a facility in Waterbury, CT that incinerated contaminated soils like that (Phoenix Soils).

Some shots of Beacon park from riding the Framingham/Worcester line today. A huge number of concrete ties were stacked up in the former yard.
NorthEast Rail Videos and Demrailroadfilms24 caught L003 moving the dirty dirt cars to/from Beacon Park. Looks like they're running very late at night.

Also, SD23T4 (ET23DCM) 1718 showed up to Worcester, and was coupled at the end of a long cut of cars from Framingham and shut off. According to the B&M livecam log it showed up the previous day (10/14/23) on M436. Later, L048 coupled a bunch of GE locomotives to the front of it, and presumably it's headed back to Selkirk via M437 today.

According to this video from AnotherBostonRailfan, and the comments to that video from NorthEast Rail Videos:

* The CSX job into Beacon Park is now symboled Y301, and runs as-needed.
* On Monday (10/16/23), the train came into Beacon Park around or before 2AM, and left around 5AM (following commuter rail train #501 west). It left with 24 loaded cars and 2 GP40-2's leading.
* The train has also run Tuesday, delivered 9 cars, and took out 2 loads.
* The train also ran on Thursday, and arrived at CP 6 at 2:29AM, with 6219 leading again.

Generally speaking, what is the current MAS on the B&A between worcester and springfield? Based in videos, it appears to be (but i may be wring) slower than on the water level route west of selkirk. The videos I’ve seen show what I’m guessing is 40 or 50mph

I would imagine it's still a mix of 40/50, with the 30 through the station.

Eastbound from Washington to Chester-Huntington freight trains were limited to 25 MPH due to downward grade, to prevent runaway trains.Passenger trains could be at a higher limit, but not more than 40MPH.This is a good 10 miles, so at 20 mph would take 30 minutes.On Chester railcam you will notice eastbound trains going fairly slow.

The old timetable I have shows 50 for passenger, 40 for freight between Washington and Beckett/QB 137.7. There it slows to 40/30, with the 25mph for freight existing between 134 and 127 west of Chester, where it picks back up to 40 until 116.8 east of Huntington.

From there it's listed 35/35 for roughly 3 miles, 40/40 for just under 2 miles, then 50/50 from just east of Woronco to just west of W. Springfield.

It's still the same and the 25 for freight eastbound only is to prevent brake fade and runaway trains as copcars said. Westbound is good for 40 MPH but few trains can actually see that speed.

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... tts--72526

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation announced federal funding has been awarded for construction of a flyover that will eliminate two grade crossings in West Springfield.

Bridge St and First St in West Springfield? Looks like the riverbank of the Westfield River is completely inaccessible to the public for miles!

The West Springfield and Agawam locals have been screaming about this for years and years.

Funny thing is they had the chance to fund this same solution back in the 70's when the bridge was rebuilt and it was voted down by the same people now crying.

Also, yes, the northern bank of the Westfield River is mostly inaccessible from Front Street west until it meets up with Route 20. The opposite bank, however has Robinson State Park on it that gives access to the river.

Stp243 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 05, 2024 3:03 pm The West Springfield and Agawam locals have been screaming about this for years and years.

Funny thing is they had the chance to fund this same solution back in the 70's when the bridge was rebuilt and it was voted down by the same people now crying.

Also, yes, the northern bank of the Westfield River is mostly inaccessible from Front Street west until it meets up with Route 20. The opposite bank, however has Robinson State Park on it that gives access to the river.

Unless it's only people in their 70s or older complaining about lack of river access, it's more than just those who rejected a solution 50 years ago now asking for it.