CSX Fitchburg Secondary Discussion

Vehicle vs Train in Leominster

https://www.wcvb.com/article/leominster ... -autopilot

Train crew OK, driver injured.

A person is hospitalized after a freight train hit a SUV in Leominster on Thursday.

From WCVB:

Just before 7 p.m. on Thursday, a CSX freight train collided with a SUV on the track at Marguerite Avenue in Leominster.

CSX said there were no injuries to the train crew and first responders said the driver of that SUV is in the hospital with unknown injuries.

Leominster Police Department responded and is investigating the crash in collaboration with the Massachusetts State Police reconstruction team.

Clinton run around track has been OOS at least this week, so they've been going up to Leominster every day. I personally witnessed a number of near misses at Marguerite so I'm not shocked there was an accident. Glad the crew is ok.

Any particular reason for the oos Clinton run around?

It's been removed as part of work in process to raise the grade for the bridge raising.

Wow
Not the answer I expected

Makes it simpler if they only have to reconnect one track right away, and taking the siding out of service first means they can do additional prep work before taking the whole line out of service.

To be clear, the removal looks to be temporary, to facilitate the construction.

Here are views from 11/14/24 of the rebuilt Rte 9 grade crossing in Framingham. 136 lb rail was used.

Now they need gates and new lights and the crazy concept of having the cars stop for the trains instead of having the train stop for the cars.

Near Moncton, New Brunswick there are a couple of railway crossings at grade across the Trans-Canada Highway. Utterly bizarre to see such a thing on a divided, multilane 110km/h highway which is the equivalent of an Interstate in the US. Both of those crossings have multiple crossing flashers mounted on both sides of the road and also on gantries above the road, and there are big yellow advance warning signs and flashers about half a kilometer before each crossing too, but neither of the crossings are equipped with gates. I guess in conditions like that, and like Route 9 even with its slightly slower speed limit, gates are just something that's gonna be broken so often and are so pointless and ineffective to stop those truly determined to win a Darwin Award, why bother?

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2024 9:39 am Now they need gates and new lights and the crazy concept of having the cars stop for the trains instead of having the train stop for the cars.

Although it would be a lot safer for the crew and motoring morons, I don't believe the volume of rail traffic would justify the expense in CSXT's mind. IIRC, those lights are manually operated. If the state is worried about malfunctions, I that should not be a big issue.

Many years ago, the Fitchburg line had gates where it crosses US 20 in downtown Northborough. The track circuits failed and activated the signals and gates so often, that CSXT ended up removing the gates as traffic would be gridlocked for hours before the signal maintainer would arrive to disable the crossing. My guess with CRW in place in Northborough, the number of failures and broken/vandalized rail bonds causing false signal activations will be much lower in this segment.

Someone help me out here please...
I'm interested in the local that runs the Ag Branch. but I don't know much about it, not even the symbol.
From observation it would appear they build out the train and depart Framingham sometime between 12:00 and 1:00 pm.
I've seen it transiting through Southboro Jct (do I have that right?) around 1:30-45.
I'm guessing there must be some switching that happens between there and Berlin because he usually doesn't make Berlin until after 3:00 ... sometimes close to 4!

So can someone who's familiar with this route help me fill in the blanks? Thanks!

Cosmo.

Last I knew, your Framingham departure times are about accurate.

L004 was running with mostly empty waste cars and loaded lumber for the north end of the line, stopping in Marlborough and Northborough for a quick switch on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday, they generally had cars for the south end of the line switching Safety Kleen at Marlborough Junction, Ken's Foods and on rare occasions Mass Container in Marlborough, and NewCorr in Northborough. On these days, they generally cross the Rt. 20 Grade Crossing in Northborough late afternoon or dinner time.

All of this may have changed recently with the bridge work and the Clinton run-around taken out of service for the Fitchburg Running Track bridge raising project in Clinton.

I'm not sure what current operations are. Over the last couple of years, there has been times where they have run on Sundays. There has also been overnight running so as not to interfere with daytime MOW activity. The last few times I have caught them in the Berlin/Clinton area this fall, they have been still heading north later than 4pm. It has generally been more like after 6pm. I have not caught them recently to see if that has changed.

As Knucklehead2 has mention, I think the Clinton run-around still is OOS so they run to Leominster everyday they run.

I can tell you that a work limit derailer has been in place at Bolton Station Road area since at least Friday morning related to the Clinton bridge raising project. I just posted a picture on the Worcester Main thread that shows the work over the weekend.

Now that's what I call "community support"!!
Thanks guys, that's the info I was hoping for.

Cosmo