CSX Framingham Line questions

Hello there,

I've been doing some research on your forums, and I'm a little overwhelmed. I recently purchased a house with a railroad line running very close to the property.
We've seen/heard trains moving through at different times of the day/night. I'm wondering if based on the location in the attached picture (I live inside the red circle)
if it would be possible to tell which trains use that line, and how often they can be expected to come through the area? If that's not possible, any information that
folks can share about what line it is, etc. that would be great. Thanks in advance for your expertise, and assistance.

Andy

Deuceman927 wrote:Hello there,

I've been doing some research on your forums, and I'm a little overwhelmed. I recently purchased a house with a railroad line running very close to the property.
We've seen/heard trains moving through at different times of the day/night. I'm wondering if based on the location in the attached picture (I live inside the red circle)
if it would be possible to tell which trains use that line, and how often they can be expected to come through the area? If that's not possible, any information that
folks can share about what line it is, etc. that would be great. Thanks in advance for your expertise, and assistance.

Andy

That is the CSX Fitchburg Secondary, a minor freight-only branchline that goes from the junction behind the Framingham commuter rail station up to Leominster. CSX does a single round-trip on it every day to serve customers out to Northborough, and a few days a week out to Leominster. I think it's a midday and not nocturnal job. The line is pretty lightly used with only that daily round trip and no passenger traffic. You will hear them blow the horn pretty hard and long at the nearby Route 9 grade crossing, which is flashers-only with no gates. Other than that it's a pretty slow and meandering 10 MPH trip on rickety old track to/from Northborough.

You may, depending on the weather, be able to hear the activity 2 miles away on the Worcester Line and the two active freight yards--North Yard on the shores of Farm Pond, and Nevins Yard just west of the commuter rail station. Those yards do see overnight freight when the daily job out of Framingham heading south on the Framingham Secondary returns from its Walpole-Mansfield-Attleboro-Middleboro-Braintree run in the wee hours of the morning. And they do blast the horn crossing Route 135 on that trip because that's another flashers-only ungated crossing. Worcester Line sees some lightish overnight traffic in the vicinity, including MBTA non-revenue moves. And of course very heavy freight and passenger traffic during the day.


It's quite likely you are hearing the mainline and the yards instead of the Fitchburg Secondary. It's not unusual at all for the sound to carry like that. It's all about the air pressure on a given day's weather. Some days you'll hear trains, car traffic, and other noises from miles away. Some days you'll hear nothing.

The train that uses that line, CSXT B724, goes on duty somewhere around 10:00 AM now (used to be 8:00 AM). Due to federal regulations, the crew can only be on duty no more than 12 hours. There are times when the crew runs out of time (otherwise known as outlaws) before the train returns to its base of Framingham. In those cases, a "fresh" crew is called to finish the work on the line and take it back to Framingham.

I have heard the train blowing for crossings all hours of the night when the original crew outlaws, which lately seems to be about half of the time.

Additionally, as F-line stated, you will hear the horns from trains on other lines throughout the night.

Just an FYI - there has been talk on and off for decades about the possibility of using that line as a commuter rail branch. Latest thinking is that it is cost prohibitive to do so, but it does serve some important commerce center areas as well as intersects with I-495 in the Marlboro/Southboro area and I-290 in Northboro. I don't see it happening in my lifetime, especially given the transportation infrastructure debt, but the idea occasionally rises from the ashes like a Phoenix...

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

Deuceman927 wrote:Hello there,

I've been doing some research on your forums, and I'm a little overwhelmed. I recently purchased a house with a railroad line running very close to the property.
We've seen/heard trains moving through at different times of the day/night. I'm wondering if based on the location in the attached picture (I live inside the red circle)
if it would be possible to tell which trains use that line, and how often they can be expected to come through the area? If that's not possible, any information that
folks can share about what line it is, etc. that would be great. Thanks in advance for your expertise, and assistance.

Andy

That is the CSX Fitchburg Secondary, a minor freight-only branchline that goes from the junction behind the Framingham commuter rail station up to Leominster. CSX does a single round-trip on it every day to serve customers out to Northborough, and a few days a week out to Leominster. I think it's a midday and not nocturnal job. The line is pretty lightly used with only that daily round trip and no passenger traffic. You will hear them blow the horn pretty hard and long at the nearby Route 9 grade crossing, which is flashers-only with no gates. Other than that it's a pretty slow and meandering 10 MPH trip on rickety old track to/from Northborough.

You may, depending on the weather, be able to hear the activity 2 miles away on the Worcester Line and the two active freight yards--North Yard on the shores of Farm Pond, and Nevins Yard just west of the commuter rail station. Those yards do see overnight freight when the daily job out of Framingham heading south on the Framingham Secondary returns from its Walpole-Mansfield-Attleboro-Middleboro-Braintree run in the wee hours of the morning. And they do blast the horn crossing Route 135 on that trip because that's another flashers-only ungated crossing. Worcester Line sees some lightish overnight traffic in the vicinity, including MBTA non-revenue moves. And of course very heavy freight and passenger traffic during the day.


It's quite likely you are hearing the mainline and the yards instead of the Fitchburg Secondary. It's not unusual at all for the sound to carry like that. It's all about the air pressure on a given day's weather. Some days you'll hear trains, car traffic, and other noises from miles away. Some days you'll hear nothing.

Thanks for starting this thread. I have been meaning to start one about operational changes on the Fitchburg Secondary for a couple of months now. I live north of Clinton near this line. For the longest time, you could count on the train coming through in the mid afternoon going at least as far as the pressure treated lumber plant. They get cars close to daily and at this time of year it is not uncommon for them to get four or five cars every day. It definitely remains a M-F operations. It is extraordinarily rare to see anything on the weekend. In any case, in the last three or four months the train often shows up this way in the 5pm to 7pm area heading north. Sometimes it goes all the way to Leominster after dropping cars at the PT lumber plant and other times the crew may back up to the runaround track in Clinton center. I do see the power tied down in Clinton at least once a week. In those cases it can be heading north or south. I have also seen the power tied down on the scrap yard spur in Clinton. I have recently heard the train come from Leominster at 4am . Here is a first for me. I have lived at my current location for twenty plus years and this job typically runs with two units. The power was tied down in Clinton this morning. CSX must have sent a second train north today and it joined the tied down train. The train went by about 7 pm with four locomotives heading to Leominster.

What has caused this job to go from very predictable to all over the map in the last three or four months? The line has been 10 mph forever so I don't think it is deteriorated track conditions. I was thinking it might be related to the realignments with the closing of Beacon and move to Worcester. Even the late start time does not explain the outlaws coming like they are.

FR10 should outlaw everyday if it is going all the way north to Leominster! I can't believe Bubba is paying a second crew to re-crew it though.

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

The street I live on runs parallel to the mass pike. The houses across the street from me have the track running behind their back yard, between them and the pike.
The trains rattle my house as they roll by. I can definitely hear the horn blowing before (or after) they come through. A few years back, they put up a sound barrier wall for the mass pike, on the eastbound side it starts just after the reservoirs and rail bridges. I think this does wonders for the pike noise, but it probably reflects some of the train noise back towards our street.
It's really cool to be able to see the trains so close, without even needing to go outside!
Thanks again for all of the information!

Was told in "the good old days", the local never outlawed on that line and on occasion, 2 freight runs were done on that same line. I recall there's only 1 customer left in Leominster, plastics cars. IMHO the track these days leaves a lot to be desired...


J

Deuceman927 wrote:Thanks for all the replies, guys.

The street I live on runs parallel to the mass pike. The houses across the street from me have the track running behind their back yard, between them and the pike.
The trains rattle my house as they roll by. I can definitely hear the horn blowing before (or after) they come through. A few years back, they put up a sound barrier wall for the mass pike, on the eastbound side it starts just after the reservoirs and rail bridges. I think this does wonders for the pike noise, but it probably reflects some of the train noise back towards our street.
It's really cool to be able to see the trains so close, without even needing to go outside!
Thanks again for all of the information!

Bad track certainly doesn't help the rattling. CSX puts almost no maintenance into that line, and with speeds so low the locomotives have to work pretty hard to keep it moving. Hence the rattling. If it were 25 MPH track or welded rail you wouldn't notice nearly as much.

In summertime they sometimes also blow horns when approaching the reservoir trestle, because kids like to sit on that and set up their fishing poles.



I'm shocked nobody's thought to gate Route 9 yet. Flashers and a tied-in traffic signal only...on that speed trap of a state turnpike with trains working the line every day at near-peak traffic hours. One of the most daunting-looking crossings in the state. I would've thought 2 uses every weekday over a highway like that would be more than enough cause for a gate install.

Rt. 9 was gated many years ago, along with the crossing gate shack that used to be there, and the switch tower. I recall while living in Framingham back in the 1980's, the gates were removed due to complaints about the gates malfunctioning, and traffic concerns. Last time any "real" track work was done on that line was in the 1990's when Conrail did a major tie replacement project. Speed then was much better then the 10mph of today...

A unique rail repair seen in Clinton a while ago:



J

frrc wrote:Was told in "the good old days", the local never outlawed on that line and on occasion, 2 freight runs were done on that same line. I recall there's only 1 customer left in Leominster, plastics cars. IMHO the track these days leaves a lot to be desired...


J

FR10 ran all of the way to Fitchburg in the good old days. The track was upgraded in the late 1970's I believe do the fact that they were hauling a ton of haz-mat on the line (propane and vinyl chloride). It was 25 MPH for a long time, with a stretch of relay welded rail between Marlboro Junction (near Safety Kleen) and the old Toys R Us warehouse in Northborough. It had several slow orders on it, and was again upgraded in the 1990s. The line looks to be in horrible shape now if you get a real close look at it. There was a welded rail train that did some work on the line in the Clinton area a few winters ago - I believe they replaced one section of rail on one side only....

After FR10 was north of BORO (downtown Southborough), a yard job out of North Framingham would switch "Fayville", the former Framingham Industrial Park (the area that Genzyme is gobbling up).

FR10 occasionally did outlaw, but I can remember seeing the train heading south in what "appeared" to be in excess of the 25 MPH speed limit of the line in order ot make it back to Framingham in time.

frrc wrote:Rt. 9 was gated many years ago, along with the crossing gate shack that used to be there, and the switch tower. I recall while living in Framingham back in the 1980's, the gates were removed due to complaints about the gates malfunctioning, and traffic concerns. Last time any "real" track work was done on that line was in the 1990's when Conrail did a major tie replacement project. Speed then was much better then the 10mph of today...

A unique rail repair seen in Clinton a while ago:



J

That is not really unique it is what is known as a "compromise joint bar" which is used to join two different sizes of rail.For instance there may have been a strecth of 100 lb. rail that was replaced with 115 lb. rail, this type of joint is necessary to match the two differences of the size of the rail. It is widely used in railroad construction.

Knucklehead wrote:FR10 occasionally did outlaw, but I can remember seeing the train heading south in what "appeared" to be in excess of the 25 MPH speed limit of the line in order ot make it back to Framingham in time.

Of course that was when the max speed was 25mph. Back in 2007/2008 they dropped the entire secondary to 10MPH, including the welded rail stretch. Another contributing factor to then vs now in regards to outlawing or not is the fact that there is no longer a brakeman on the job.

Was there ever a connection between PC/CR and B&M in Clinton?

fogg1703 wrote:Was there ever a connection between PC/CR and B&M in Clinton?

Yes there was a connection at the Clinton Station, on the CSX side opposite the station heading down towards the Bigelow Mills on the Pan AM side.

fogg1703 wrote:Was there ever a connection between PC/CR and B&M in Clinton?

If you look at Bing maps it shows this as an existing track in the SE corner even though it just the roadbed and the track is gone.

When looking at this location on Bing Maps in "Birds Eye View" you can actually see the CSX local train.Also if you stay in "Birds eye view" and follow the track back towards Framingham you will see the CSX train switching the scrap metal siding.

This link will get you to the map,then go to birds eye view and zoom in:
http://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LmNsaW50b ... kxMTY5NzM4