Fitchburg Line Upgrade Discussion

sery2831 wrote:Seems as though the double track will not go all the way to the Willows. Looks like they want to fix the bottle neck at Acton then let it go back to single track.

Apparently, the town of South Acton was not at all pleased with the design of the new station. So the design for that area is undergoing changes.

With the stimulus money now available a lot more of the single track could be double tracked; but the limits are still a little undefined.

DAW

I am glad to see that the Town of Acton is involved with the design. They seem to care having a big town parking lot plus town bike lockers. I don't see any other towns providing these amenities to the community at large.

Does anybody have a map of the area proposed to be double tracked?

On a similar, but separate note, does a map exist of the entire MBTA commuter rail system showing single track areas?

jamesinclair wrote:Does anybody have a map of the area proposed to be double tracked?

On a similar, but separate note, does a map exist of the entire MBTA commuter rail system showing single track areas?

http://www.dbperry.net/mbtacommuterrailnetwork.pdf

This is now 16 years old so is likely rife with inaccuracies (not to mention the Old Colony lines are in some degree of pre-restoration or purely theoretical track alignment as depicted here), but it's a start.

I saw three truckloads of ties this morning. They were all parked on the former Westbound ROW just past the King Street crossing.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

jamesinclair wrote:Does anybody have a map of the area proposed to be double tracked?

On a similar, but separate note, does a map exist of the entire MBTA commuter rail system showing single track areas?

http://www.dbperry.net/mbtacommuterrailnetwork.pdf

This is now 16 years old so is likely rife with inaccuracies (not to mention the Old Colony lines are in some degree of pre-restoration or purely theoretical track alignment as depicted here), but it's a start.

Notice that the line out from South Acton is shown as double track. Either the map maker was visionary or else the map is old enough to show the original double track. In either case, we can only hope that some day reality matches the map and there is double track

ThinkNarrow wrote:

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

jamesinclair wrote:Does anybody have a map of the area proposed to be double tracked?

On a similar, but separate note, does a map exist of the entire MBTA commuter rail system showing single track areas?

http://www.dbperry.net/mbtacommuterrailnetwork.pdf

This is now 16 years old so is likely rife with inaccuracies (not to mention the Old Colony lines are in some degree of pre-restoration or purely theoretical track alignment as depicted here), but it's a start.

Notice that the line out from South Acton is shown as double track. Either the map maker was visionary or else the map is old enough to show the original double track. In either case, we can only hope that some day reality matches the map and there is double track

I like how Newburyport draw is still depicted as in-service too...just waiting for NH to scrape together enough extra cash to bring Eastern route commuter service back to Portsmouth.

It's been almost a month since last post. Any updates?

Well, another fleet of trucks was spotted at the King Street crossing in Littleton, dropping off what I presume to be ties.

Yes, I recently saw a big flatbed full of ties pull right off the road down the ROW heading towards the Littleton/495 station right in front of me the other day.

With all the traffic in the Boston area it is a shame there is no other option besides fleets of trucks to deliver bulk items like railroad ties.

There is...the tie train. I am unsure of why they are being dropped by truck...maybe they're coming out of Maine and the MBTA could not get any gondola's to put the ties in because PAR has them all in tie service out of East Deerfield.

Lincoln78 wrote:With all the traffic in the Boston area it is a shame there is no other option besides fleets of trucks to deliver bulk items like railroad ties.

ST214 wrote:There is...the tie train. I am unsure of why they are being dropped by truck...maybe they're coming out of Maine and the MBTA could not get any gondola's to put the ties in because PAR has them all in tie service out of East Deerfield.

Nah you can see them loading trucks up in the mornings at BET from the tie storage area. The only thing I can think of is they don't want to load them twice as the storage area is just out of reach of tracks so they cannot quite so easily load a train directly from the storage. It's also possible I suppose that they don't want to have a train running slowly along the single track areas where they have been working.

They shipping any equipment or materials out there by rail now for the construction? I was crossing the Walden St. bridge earlier this afternoon and saw an MBTA loco heading inbound with two empty flatbed cars in tow and a yellow caboosy-looking trailer of some sort.

The MBTA/MBCR has their own gondolas, flatcars and sidedumps for distribution
of track materials. We are not using any gondolas from PAR. Doubt they would
have any to spare anyway given they are virtually all in tie train service
for the NS/PAS track projects. Most of the ties you see are probably going out by
truck because its faster or the Work Train has been tied up doing power wash duty.

The Work Train seen Sunday at Walden St was the return of trip of any extra
that was working out to Lunenberg at MP43. Spent the weekend dropping hay
bales for future construction of a new interlocking. Had two flat cars (MBTX
100 & 101, the two ex-intermodal flats and the MBTX Flanger (which was used
as a shoving platform in place of the MBTA Caboose C-1).

D