Fitchburg line refurbishment

T's MOW KSF 940 went through Lincoln MA at 205 pm today.
Not sure what it does, but it has an ear-piercingly loud horn,
which is good, because it does not trigger the crossing
gates until it's in the intersectons!!
Saw operator stop at 3 crossings and blow his horn, and
then the gates started coming down. Not sure how
safe that is for the operator....

Gary

Ah, sorry - it was headed east.

Gary

Found a picture at nerail:



Knox Kershaw KSF940 in ballast regulator mode

An MBTA Knox Kershaw KSF940 sits on the industrial siding of the former Solo/Sweetheart plastic factory in North Andover.

Photographed by Rod Dauteuil, October 24, 2016.
Added to the photo archive by Rod Dauteuil, January 9, 2017.
Railroad: MBTA.

Saw track crews working on the Fitchburg line at the Rt117 crossing.
A LOT of equipment stretching from west of 117 to east of Old Sudbury Road,
on the 'inbound' track, heading east (I think - crews stationary when I went by).
Could smell the creosote of the new ties, which I like.

Gary

Dang! Forgot to mention the time!
This was at noon on Thursday, Oct 20.

Gary

What town are you talking about, Lincoln ?

Yes, Lincoln - sorry, should have mentioned that.

Speaking of which: I just passed through there (8 pm, Thursday),
and all the ROW machines are lined up by Donelan's Supermarket
(about where the old siding used to be) on the inbound line!

I would not have noticed them if an inbound (#428, I assume)
hadn't made a single horn blast well before the crossing at
Lincoln Road (i.e. the Lincoln stop).

Gary

GaryAF wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:31 pm
Saw operator stop at 3 crossings and blow his horn, and
then the gates started coming down. Not sure how
safe that is for the operator....

Gary

It is safe because the track equipment came to a stop. What you described is exactly what is supposed to happen. It is not a train, the gates are not going to be down for it.

Bumping this thread with a question: how actively used is the Westminster layover yard these days given the MBTA is not operating rush hour schedules these days? The yard was very empty Monday AM 7/24/23 with just a half dozen cars sitting there - no locomotives.

Looks like they're probably basing three trainsets at Wachusett based on the timetables. You can usually make a rough guess by looking at the morning schedules.

Weekdays, 400, 402, and 404 all depart before the first outbound (401) arrives, so they'd need those three to come from the layover yard. Starting with 406, there's an outbound arriving shortly before each inbound. Conversely, at night, 427, 431, and 433 look like they lay up at Wachusett, as there's no inbound right after their arrival.

Weekends looks like they use two sets.

Certainly a well future-proofed facility with six tracks available now, and if it ever needed it, could probably squeeze a couple more in to the north side of the yard.

Even in the busiest of times, layover yards are empty during the day. The trains are in Boston (where the people are) during the day and away from Boston (where the people are) overnight.

Where abouts is this Wachusett yard located? Does it connect to the line that goes by Pratts Junction?

No, it's on the PAS main (ex-Fitchburg Railroad), about 2 miles west of Wachusett station: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.5630243 ... a=!3m1!1e3

Here's a photo of the Westminster layover yard on Monday morning 7/24/23 - it looks like some of the track space that was previously assigned to storing train sets is now storing unused cars.

Certainly layover yards should be empty on weekdays during the daytime but after the pandemic, the small Needham Heights layover facility that formerly hosted 2 or 3 train sets overnight has been unused for the last 3 years. I'm guessing that the T's move away from morning and evening rush hour service every 30 minutes or so to hourly service throughout the day has somehow reduced the # of train sets stored overnight at outlying layover yards.