Ethanol Trains to Revere

The old NHN geeps were able to make it over the Mystic with gravel loads during the Big Dig, so it doesn't seem impossible to get ethanol loads over the Mystic today. Couldn't you split a 40-50 car unit train in Somerville and make two trips to Revere?

I took a look at the Revere trackage on Bing Maps. I never knew that both Irving and Revere had spurs (at least in the past) and that there was a yard behind Global. There would be some definite rehab needed, not to mention reconnecting the branch to the Newburyport Line and reinstalling the grade crossing at Railroad St in Revere.

If plans develop further, I'm sure we'll be in for quite the NIMBY battle.

obienick wrote:

tom18287 wrote:what exactly would they be going to check? they can't get an engine on the track, adn its not like they can just stop on the main line and get out to walk it. i'm not sure what the point of it is, they should just take a car and walk the line, no?

My guess would be that they'd be trying to check timing to see if they can get through between the commuter trains.

The trick is, sending light engines compared to a 10,000 ton train is completely different. Would like to know if they reschedule this train. My feeling is they would run the train on a Saturday because of the different commuter schedule. Perhaps this next Saturday they will run it (Unless the holiday interferes then perhaps the one after).

theseaandalifesaver wrote:Honestly, I don't see this branch ever coming back into service. I would love it if it did, but I don't see it as being very likely at all.

the fact that it's gotten far/serious enough that they are running a test train, i think it may happen.

tom18287 wrote:
the fact that it's gotten far/serious enough that they are running a test train, i think it may happen.

I wouldn't get your hopes up until the test train actually happens.

It sounds just as easy to reactivate the track to the Moran Terminal and set up infrastructure to the west of the carport. Plenty of space for ships, no steep grade over the Mystic, and much more potential yard and storage space.

Also, no reverse move!

Maybe they had a video camera or some kind of vibration monitor and GPS receiver on board the extra as a request from the potential shipper. I would imagine that anyone planning on shipping fairly large amounts of HAZMATs through congested populated areas in territory that doesn't see much freight of any kind might want to know as much as they can about the route. This extra could be paid for by the company as part of a "feasibility study". Who knows, maybe they even had a company rep or insurance rep riding in the cab.

I drove by the ROW this afternoon. There's about 10 feet of brush growing on the tracks near the Starbucks on route 1A. It also looks like the rails between the Starbucks and the storage building have been removed. The storage company did a good job of making a road on the ROW and filling it in with landfill to make it all pretty and shit.

Doesn't look like it's worth putting any money into.

Doesn't Providence have an ethenol terminal? Wouldn't it make more sense to truck the product from Providence-after processing, than to go through what sounds like a huge expense to reestablish the rail link being discussed? 40 or so miles from RI is not an excessive distance to truck fuel. Also considering that if this is for automobile use, most of the filling stations are awy from the city center anyway and would still have to be serviced by truck.
The other options would be to barge it to Portsmouth or Portland and distribute it from there to the north of Boston and have Providence service the south side of Boston.

S

Yes, Providence does get ethanol, but Motiva also wants to get into Boston. They were looking at South Boston a few years ago via CSXT but it wouldn't work out well because couldn't bring many cars at one time because of the route.

Warning: Large image

http://74.8.145.20/mhd/images/environ/b ... al008a.jpg

Bottom left corner is Day Sqaure.

The yard shown is now a tangle of Rt 1A ramps, the open space with surface streets dead ahead is also present day Rt 1A. The wide main street going off to the top right corner is Bennington Street. Just under the yard would be the present day Airport Station.

It looks here as though the tracks running along Chelsea Creek ended just before they would have connected with the line crossing the Chelsea Creek.

Where's the photo from? Any idea what year?

I found this aerial and some similar ones by manipulating the numbers at the end of the URL. Not all are dated, but those that are were dated 1947-1950. So somewhere in or around that time. This photo was actually taken as a part of the planning for Rt 1A. There were some taken for I-93 planning and some other highways that thankfully never came to be.

It definitely looks like those lines are not connected in the picture.

I drive through the area daily, and though the area with the rails is very overgrown and often filled with water. When driving over the bridge nestled among the tanks in the picture, you can't even see the rails anymore, though you can still see the rails on the spur that goes through the tanks and across Chelsea street.

Do we know where the trains would end up on this line? There doesn't seem to be any room for a train of more than a few cars' length on the portions shown in the picture.

My guess is that they would be heading to either Global or Irving and not the Chelsea St terminal(I forget who owns this). Interestingly enough the Massachuetts State Rail Map shows this branch at least to Irving as still being active compared to the out of service Watertown branch. Also CSX is shown as having an out of service branch up to the vicinity of where the Chelsea creek railroad branch was on the Chelsea side. I believe this also shows up on the National CSX system map as still CSX being property also. I am curious what the final years of rail service by Conrail/CSX to East Boston were like. Did Conrail get any rights to service East Boston down the branch in question from Revere after Chelsea creek bridge was removed. How much does CSX come over to Chelsea anyways nowaday via the Grand Junction.

There is talk around the RR about Pan Am attempting another test train this coming Friday, and it "IS" all about moving a train between scheduled trains and to get an idea of how much time a train would need to get from point to point.

As far as the remnants of this branch being in disrepair, abandoned, overgrown, non-existant, etc., just remember, if there is substantial potential business here, and Pan Am can profit by it, there is nothing that will stop them from going after it. Tracks can easily be "put back", the abutters don't own the right of way. Pan Am doesn't like local freight, but they do like unit trains.