Fitchburg Line Upgrade Discussion

BostonUrbEx wrote:

cpf354 wrote:

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

leviramsey wrote:Perhaps not directly related to the upgrade, but driving across the King St. crossing in Littleton yesterday, saw some work being done on the switch for the old Veryfine plant.

Probably being ripped out, as Ocean Spray closed the plant last year.

No lineside freight customers from the Willows to Boston now, amazing.

I think this was intentional. If the Fitchburg Route was PAS instead of PAR, they could have feasibly served it.

The original PAS map appeared to show that Veryfine would be served by them, but maybe not in reality. I guess there were some operational challenges serving them, especially when it was single track. I recall the local freight either had an engine on each end to reverse the move back to Ayer, or if not, went to South Acton to run around the train.

Trinnau wrote:

cpf354 wrote:Does the new interlocking east of Belmont station have a name yet?

Any new interlocking has to have a designation of some kind when placed into service. The name for the new interlocking is Horgan.

Thanks!

cpf354 wrote:
I recall the local freight either had an engine on each end to reverse the move back to Ayer, or if not, went to South Acton to run around the train.

When I worked the Ayer switchers in 2001, I would shove back to the Willows on the tank cars and then do a run around! I never went to South Acton. And the switch was not removed.

Saw something interesting yesterday Saturday 6/11 in Lincoln. I spent the night there and went to the Baker Bridge area to watch the first inbound of the day (~7:25AM). It didn't come. Just as I was leaving (about 20 minutes after the expected time) I heard an outbound. This train stopped a little west of the bridge and after a pause turned on the headlights on the inbound side and started rolling inbound. It switched to the inbound track and proceeded. I presume that there was some sort of issue west of Lincoln and this was the relief train.

Haven't been in that section of track since around the Carter administration. There is a small parking area off 126 near the bridge for what I think is a community farm. Back in the seventies you could see the tracks from Baker Bridge Road but the trees have extended.

Looks like the signaling on the Fitchburg line in that area are now approach lit. I went to Lincoln station in the fall; it was strange seeing all the red lights on the light tower east of Baker Bridge.

Lincoln78 wrote:Saw something interesting yesterday Saturday 6/11 in Lincoln. I spent the night there and went to the Baker Bridge area to watch the first inbound of the day (~7:25AM). It didn't come. Just as I was leaving (about 20 minutes after the expected time) I heard an outbound. This train stopped a little west of the bridge and after a pause turned on the headlights on the inbound side and started rolling inbound. It switched to the inbound track and proceeded. I presume that there was some sort of issue west of Lincoln and this was the relief train.

Haven't been in that section of track since around the Carter administration. There is a small parking area off 126 near the bridge for what I think is a community farm. Back in the seventies you could see the tracks from Baker Bridge Road but the trees have extended.

Looks like the signaling on the Fitchburg line in that area are now approach lit. I went to Lincoln station in the fall; it was strange seeing all the red lights on the light tower east of Baker Bridge.

That was a relief train you saw sent out to cover the station stops from Lincoln to Boston for the late inbound, #1400, which was running about 30-45 minutes late. The farm belongs to the Food Project, a sustainable agriculture charity based in Lincoln.

As of Monday June 13, 2016, ballast was being spread on the tracks at Westminster layover yard - looks like all yard tracks are constructed. Also note that the new track that exits the throat of the yard to run parallel to the PAS mainline (about whose purpose we have previously speculated as MoW equipment storage track) appears to be built and heavily ballasted. Progress continues on CPF-33 construction - looks like main 2 to main 1 wb turnouts and switch machines may be installed. Lastly, Rail heater to install de-stressed CWR is off the tracks but ready to be called to duty when the platform track is built (and maybe the rest of main 2, as well).

Here are two photos of ballast work going on at the Westminster layover facility. Ballast regulator or broom works the track next to the Pan Am Southern mainline. Mini ballast train is dropping ballast on yard tracks while tamper (?) works in the background. Looks like yard track work is just about done but the yard connection to CPF-333 has yet to be built.

Looks like Wachusetts train service will start September 30, 2016: http://www.telegram.com/news/20160711/s ... il-project

I'm guessing the additional $19M will mean the pace of track laying, bridge work, interlocking and signal work, and station work may be picking up a bit now?

Well, Choo-Choo Charlie's been in the Commonwealth's corner-office seat for a year-plus now, so there should -- wait, let me italicize that -- should be no surprises for him or us. One of the indices of managerial competence is the ability to walk, talk, chew gum, and engage in higher-level thinking pretty much simultaneously.

(I spent some time in the dentist's chair today, so whatever minimal supply I had of the milk of human kindness kinda got spoiled.)

25.7% cost overrun. Sounds like they are pointing fingers at MART

"It is not a story that anyone should be proud of," Pollack said. She said, "It is not a process I would recommend repeating."

Pollack said that if the project did not have such a hard deadline she would recommend taking longer and spending less.

"What are the lessons learned in this fiasco?" asked MassDOT board member and former Worcester public works chief Robert L Moylan Jr. He said, "We always seem like we're the ones cleaning up the mess, so what have we learned?"

To my eye, the biggest issues appear to be:

1. Pan Am bridges: These were not inspected properly or have deteriorated so rapidly that they have to be replaced.
2. Slow rate of progress: There was no organizational will in the MBTA nor MART to move this project forward quickly enough. Now they're paying the price by needing double-pay work to finish the thing.
3. Contractor issues: The original contractor, as alluded to upthread, flat out went out of business. It took time to find a replacement.
4. Community opposition: the town of Westminster (really just one guy with an axe to grind) spend a lot of time and money delaying the layover facility.

What's up with all the construction on the south side of the main between Alewife & Hill Crossing? Remediation of the old trackbed?

Some new upscale high-rise is going up on Fawcett St. closely abutting the ROW. I have no idea why the track had to be ripped out and trackbed barricaded with jersey barriers, unless there simply wasn't enough room in the constrained space behind the building to work the construction cranes. Hope they're at least planning on putting things back together when they're done. The reconfigured interlockings preserved the switches to the old West Cambridge yard leads for a reason. That siding might be needed if PAS gets a second crack at the East Boston ethanol trains that almost happened 3 years ago before local opposition stuffed Global Petroleum's plans. Those were supposed to be 30+ car trains routed overnight down the Fitchburg Line, which would've probably necessitated refurbing that whole track as a parking spot in case they couldn't make the round trip in one shift and needed to can the train close to town. It's also one of the few potential dumping grounds not excessively far from BET for storing excess work equipment. Alewife yard across the tracks is bursting at the seams, and while the West Cambridge lead is out in the open outside MOW's security fence it's at least monitored by human eyes from across the tracks all day long.

I think we might be thinking of different projects - there's equipment on the ROW as far west the junction with the old freight cutoff, just east of Brighton Street. At least some of this area used to be occupied by the main before they smoothed out the curves last year, which leads to my remediation hypothesis.

This has something to do with Eversource and a pipeline I believe. No.2 Track goes out
of service most of the day and even into the early evening (after the rush hour).

d