East Deerfield Gawking

Took a trip out to Deerfield yesterday. Before I got there I heard POED talking about a taxi at Farley. Sure enough looking across the Millers from Rte. 2 saw a huge consist of generals stopped on 1. Looking at the consist made me think 495ED instead of POED, anyhow POED NS 8088-MEC 607-NS 6981-NS 9494-NS 9334 had their taxi show up about 0930. Over at Montague sat another POED without power on 1. Finally at the yard, I came to find out that 5 cars derailed somewhere in the R yard. ED1 with the GMTX 5000-5001, and ED4 52-77 were working on rerailing the cars. 23K NS 8303- 8362-9067-UP 4229 was sitting on the main at CPF 384, and ADX 349-501 were heading for the house after yarding their train on the Conn River runner. I heard D3 talking to EDRJ about holding at 402 for MOED, so I was off to Buckland. Unfortunately MOED got to the 112 for a tie down before I did. What I saw was one of the biggest trains I've ever seen, CN 2563-5478-CP 9612-NS 2711-MBTA 2034-2033 and well over 100 cars, probably pushing 130. EDRJ 616-CSXT 9033-7325-UP 3755 finally got going about 1000 or so, and I chased them to North Adams. At Soapstone they past a canned EDMO with NS 9673-8320 and another large train. At West Portal they met a canned 22K with NS 7318-8802-UP 5307. 22K would get recrewed around 1345, but I wouldn't catch him till Zoar. Chased him back east. They were to hold at the 112 bridge, for AD1 to pull in 1 train length ahead of MOED. AD1 had 504-501-349 and 10 cars. Back at Deerfield around 1600 ED4 was testing EDBF. AYED came in around 1630 with 614-601-608 and 54 cars. They had to back in at 384 onto R5. 22K was through about 1730. EDBF was on duty at 1700 with the 307-3003. They hadn't come out of the house by my departure at 1800 though. Nothing was in the pit. NS 6736 was sitting outside the engine house. Yard was filled to the max, and a monstah RJED was sitting on the Greenfield Industrial without power.

With these large trains lately, are car loads up? Seems like a lot more to move lately.

Some awesome power at East Deerfield today.

EDMO CN 5478-2563.

RJED CN 2530-5774.

NS 6981-2711 were in the pit.

495ED canned at Farley wit over 100 cars. NS 9763-BNSF 7247.

I should probably know the answer to this question but does E Deerfield Yd have a receiving yard for inbound trains as Selkirk Yd has? Or are in-bound D3 trains simply parked on main track 1 east of CPF-383 or west of CPF-384 until the hump switcher is ready to handle them?

The reason I ask is on Monday, I encountered an eb autorack train (14T?) moving slowly on main track 2 at Farley Rd west of Erving. The train stopped for a few hours at the signal at mp 371.8 for reasons unknown to me. At the same time what looked like a POED train was crewless at Millers Falls on main track 1 for the approximately the same time duration (I think) awaiting access to EDY (I think). Meanwhile 23K was headed west from the Fitchburg area. I don't know where 23K would have passed 14T - perhaps at Athol unless POED was re-crewed and moved west of CPF-381 where 23K could have overtaken POED, in which case 23K could have met 14T at Erving. I'm confused by this RR's movement decisions.

Thanks for any clarification.

johnpbarlow wrote:I should probably know the answer to this question but does E Deerfield Yd have a receiving yard for inbound trains as Selkirk Yd has? Or are in-bound D3 trains simply parked on main track 1 east of CPF-383 or west of CPF-384 until the hump switcher is ready to handle them?

The reason I ask is on Monday, I encountered an eb autorack train (14T?) moving slowly on main track 2 at Farley Rd west of Erving. The train stopped for a few hours at the signal at mp 371.8 for reasons unknown to me. At the same time what looked like a POED train was crewless at Millers Falls on main track 1 for the approximately the same time duration (I think) awaiting access to EDY (I think). Meanwhile 23K was headed west from the Fitchburg area. I don't know where 23K would have passed 14T - perhaps at Athol unless POED was re-crewed and moved west of CPF-381 where 23K could have overtaken POED, in which case 23K could have met 14T at Erving. I'm confused by this RR's movement decisions.

Thanks for any clarification.

There is an R yard, tracks R1-8 that both East and Westbound trains yard on. Eastbounds also depart from there. Westbounds can depart from there but usually depart from the class yard (the West yard) Tracks 1-18.

The movements would confuse anyone, including crews. There are very few competent people in operations.

From MassLive.com:

MassLive.com wrote:The state Department of Environmental Protection announced it has fined a Billerica-based rail company nearly $12,000 for failing to properly notify the state agency of a fuel spill in the East Deerfield rail yard in July, officials announced.

The agency fined Pan-Am Railways a total of $11, 937 following the July 22 spill of about 20 gallons of engine oil from a locomotive engine.

According to DEP officials the fine is not the result of the spill itself but of the company's not formally notifying the agency until the following day.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/ ... lways.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Read about this this morning : http://www.recorder.com/home/16443452-9 ... -reporting" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's a tough break. Spills are supposed to be reported within 2 hours of discovery if it is more than 10 gallons. I can see where it might be difficult to tell a 10 gallon from a 20 gallon spill if it is across a wide area.

With their reputation though, they surely don't get the benefit of the doubt...

HarmonicRock wrote:With their reputation though, they surely don't get the benefit of the doubt...

Sounds more complicated than that. The issue seems to be "formal" notification. It's possible MA DEP was made aware but PAR hadn't filed the formal notices as required, hence the fines. That could have been a strategic decision on their part as they wanted to be absolutely sure this was a spill that was large enough to be considered reportable before they sent in the paperwork.

EDPO 607-512-606-MBTX 2019-2028-2038-2039 with a decent train departed around 1300 chased them to Athol.

Power in the pit... 502-77-52-501-8955-610-604-3476-3489-3470-3471-3474-2964-307-508-608-603-614-UP 6802

Haven't seen that much power here in a loooonnnggg time..

Sounds like the makings of a "big push" to get the railroad running at maximum capacity. I remain mystified by the apparent aversion to bringing on more help in Waterville. They seem to feel that it is not in their best interests to have resources available "in house" to maintain their fleet up to the highest possible standards.

The NS units were supposed to go back by May 1. Dunno if that happened.

ST 55+77 supposed to go get MOED at West Portal with two dead engines. Second time they've changed their minds they probably will again.

They must finally be caught up from the winter log jam. Yard looked rather empty this morning. No more CSX run through power on EDRJ/RJED. Today was the last day. EDRJ CSXT 5314 +1 and 44 cars. EDPL went south around 0600 with the 352-350 and 19 cars.

Yep been ~400 cars in the yard lately, which is a good number and down from 1000+ lol.

9 amtrak gons on poed with 132 ln rail in them. Looks either new or barely used. Dunno of it's for Conn river or what.