Fitchburg Line Upgrade Discussion

A curious detail I noticed afterwards in one of my own photos:
That's the station track just west of the station. It looks almost like some kind of...switch? But what possibly for?

Could be a split point Derail.

That's an excessive amount of hardware for a derail. More likely they want to tie in the remnant spur tracks immediately south and west of the station. Anyone know if one of the businesses there is looking to resume rail service?

The switch/turnout is for the spur to serve Omnova Solutions. You may recall Omnova Solutions agreed to swap some of their land, which is now part of the parking area, for construction of a spur into their facility. This deal/arrangement was disclosed during the initial announcement of the Wachusett extension 8-9 years ago. At that time Omnova Solutions indicated they expected exponential business growth if the could ship via rail rather than via highway.

Once again, this brings the subject of rail/roadbed/right of way ownership to the forefront. Which entity owns the rail/roadbed/right of way from just west of Fitchburg commuter rail station to the Wachusett layover facility? MART/MBTA/MassDoT never announced acquisition to my knowledge.

The EGE wrote:Wachusett station opened on schedule this morning. Four of us hardy souls rode the 6:30am outbound from Boston; about 20 politicians and other folks (including at least one other RR.net member) got on at Fitchburg. A lot of Pan Am and Keolis staff looked very nervous the whole time.

...

The train kept between 50 and 55 mph until about a half mile from Wachusett, then crawled into the station on time. Once the crossovers and station track are fully ready, it could easily be 5-6 minutes timetabled.

I got to Wachusett a few minutes after the train departed from Wachusett. I most likely walked by you, then.

It is interesting how the emergency exit is an emergency exit to nowhere...

Abe Froman wrote:Once again, this brings the subject of rail/roadbed/right of way ownership to the forefront. Which entity owns the rail/roadbed/right of way from just west of Fitchburg commuter rail station to the Wachusett layover facility? MART/MBTA/MassDoT never announced acquisition to my knowledge.

At present, everthing west of Fitchburg Station is owned by Pan Am Southern......

Lets hope there's enough room for PAS to work that new switch,there're no flipable edges on that platform.

by The EGE » Fri Sep 30, 2016 8:07 pm
...A lot of Pan Am and Keolis staff looked very nervous the whole time.

The usual first-trip unease mighta been magnified by the knowledge that a POED with units that wouldn't load and 100+ cars had stalled on 1 west of, in, and east of CPF-330. To compound things, FI-2 would be tying down at Gardner and unavailable for help.
Per radio, POED did get moving at 0650, making the 1-2 move at 330 possible for the not-much-afterwards Keolis.

Backshophoss wrote:Lets hope there's enough room for PAS to work that new switch,there're no flipable edges on that platform.

Omnova's a chemical company, which would suggest tankers. As long as they don't need Plate F cars, switching them past a full-high won't be any problem. PAS would just have to drop the rest of the cars on the main before switching them over the station turnout.

Omnova's tracks are not visible on Google Maps because of the foliage (or because they didn't exist at that time), but if you use Google Earth and fly to the same location as this:
https://goo.gl/maps/bb5ueWCAn632" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
...then you'll see the tracks.

The EGE wrote:Service will start Friday with two (mostly useless) round trips. Schedule here. Wachusett departures at 8 am and 5:22 pm; North Station departures at 6:30 am and 3:30 pm. No weekend service yet.

Hmm, no weekend service? Does that mean that they'll still only operate the trips with the bike/ski car on weekends to Fitchburg with shuttles picking up the ski passengers there, as they have done in the past?

Can see the "remains" of that track,along with a "switchback type" move to a neighboring industry.
How much farher to the layover yard from the new station?

I'm estimating about 1.5 miles between the layover and the station. The station is probably about MP 333.5 and the layover might be about MP 335.

diburning wrote:Hmm, no weekend service? Does that mean that they'll still only operate the trips with the bike/ski car on weekends to Fitchburg with shuttles picking up the ski passengers there, as they have done in the past?

November schedule revisions will have much more service. September 30th start date with limited service was to meet Fed deadline for funding. I'm assuming November schedule will have weekend service.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:Omnova's a chemical company, which would suggest tankers. As long as they don't need Plate F cars, switching them past a full-high won't be any problem. PAS would just have to drop the rest of the cars on the main before switching them over the station turnout.

If so, PAS may have inadvertently created an operations or dispatch problem assuming Omnova Solutions and the paper facility require switching on the same day.

Several presumptions in this possible scenario-1. Loads/MTs from Newark America, or whatever the name of the paper company served via spur just beyond Wachusett Station, currently insignificant, increase slightly. This switch and spur runs from the parallel main track into the paper facility. 2. Omnova Solutions, at least initially, expects several multi-car loads/MTs requiring switching. 3. The current N. Station-Fitchburg schedule, when extended to Wachusett, will have 17 arrivals and 17 departures starting at approximately 5AM through 2AM. Depending on the time of day it would be unusual for a commuter train not to occupy a portion of the track between the layover yard and Fitchburg Station, where it again enters a siding. 4. PanAm continues with daily EB/WB freight movements plus FI-1 local service. 5. PanAm will remain, for several more months, essentially a single track main line from Fitchburg to Gardner as track, roadbed and bridge renovations continue. While runaround is available to FI-1 in the immediate vicinity of Wachusett Station, doing so closes (at least temporarily) both main tracks. The alternative is to temporarily close the single track section beyond the layover yard or leave the train east of Wachusett and perform multiple run around movements, which close both main tracks.

The roadbed and track on the spur serving the paper company are in poor condition and it would be problematic for FI-1 to execute a reverse move while remaining coupled to cars destined for other customers in the paper company to clear the main. Somewhat similarly, any switching movement into or exiting Omnova Solutions must be accomplished very rapidly to clear both the station track and the main to eliminate any potential schedule disruption (in either direction) of commuter rail. Holding EB freight movements at Gardner or WB movements at East Fitchburg or Hill Yard in Ayer is counter-intuitive as doing so prevents PanAm from realizing potential improvement in operations in the 22+ track miles between Ayer and Gardner.