Grafton & Upton Railroad (G&U) Discussion

It looks from the shadow on the ground that the conveyor has it’s low end under the car and the high end away from the track, which is what lead me to think it’s unloading.
I think the cullet operation is inside the building.
Regardless, the G&U certainly has picked up a lot of business in the last few years. The list of customers must be getting pretty large now.

Interesting tidbit in this MassLive article of 12/2/22: "MassDOT, Amtrak, CSX seek $108 million in rail improvements between Springfield and Worcester"

Relevant excerpt:

"...The railroads [MassDOT & CSX] also plan to build a side track in Grafton that will improve the efficiency and capacity of freight interchange with Grafton & Upton Railroad and minimize freight train interference with passenger service..."

https://www.masslive.com/news/2022/12/m ... ester.html

surprised that this didn't make the chat, major derailment at the G&U with a CSX drop off XMas Eve early morning

i cant find any derailment in grafton mass on xmas eve but cn supposedly had a pretty big im train derailment on 12/24 in grafton ontario.

quite the debacle, CSX L002 with 87 cars, at 340A, shoving off loads located on their tail end into the G&U, onto the ground....also pulled a draw bar/ broken knuckle on the 62nd car at Parmenter Road xing

From the Grafton fire dept Facebook page:
“At about 4:00 am on 12/24/22, Grafton Fire Department responded to a reported CSX train derailment at 40 Westborough Rd. On scene the fire dept worked with CSX and Grafton and Upton RR staff to assess the damage. In all 12 empty cars derailed. There is no hazard to the public or the environment. Railroad personnel will be working over the next few days to re-rail the cars.”

In retrospect, running trains through towns named Grafton, was risky business on Christmas eve this year.

I guess we could really use that "side track" mentioned above for easier interchange.

Using bing maps you can see how much clearing has been done in Hopedale so far.

https://www.bing.com/maps/?cp=42.147985 ... .9&style=a

I just saw this on the STB Filings site:
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 306142.pdf

MBTA seeks to acquire interests in a total of approximately 8.86 miles of track consisting of: (1) an 8.4-mile segment of railroad track generally known as the Milford Secondary Line (the “Milford Secondary”) between milepost QVG 0.0, at Franklin, Norfolk County, MA, and milepost QVG 8.4, at Milford, Worcester County, MA; and (2) a 0.46-mile portion of the Franklin Industrial Track (the “Franklin Industrial”), contiguous with the Milford Secondary, extending between valuation station 1456+00 and valuation station 1480+40, all within Franklin, Norfolk County, MA (collectively, the “Assets”). MBTA will acquire the Assets subject to one freight common carrier service easement that will be retained by CSXT (the “Easement”). CSXT will operate over the Franklin Industrial pursuant to the Easement and the Grafton & Upton Railroad Company (“G&U”) will operate over the Milford Secondary via assignment of CSXT’s retained easement over that portion of the Assets.

The MBTA has been floating the idea of extending the commuter rail to Milford. I guess they are serious about doing it with this purchase.

Or at least they're trying to get a jump on CSX putting roadblocks in the way since once the state owns it, they control it.

In a footnote of the filing, there's a statement:

In order to secure Board authorization to acquire from CSXT the CSXT-retained easement on the Milford Secondary contemporaneous with MBTA’s proposed Assets purchase, G&U soon will be filing its own notice of exemption pursuant to 49 C.F.R. part 1150, subpart E.

Q1: on the 0.46 mile "Franklin Industrial" for which CSX retains exclusive freight rights, are there any customers currently/recently served by CSX (eg, Franklin Paint Co?). If not, why does CSX retain this segment? To keep G&U from advancing further east toward Walpole / Mass Coastal interchange?

Q2: Does CSX serve any customers on the Southern New England stub that terminates near the Georgia-Pacific Packaging store? Note that the Franklin & Bellingham Rail Trail Committee has ambitions to extend the Southern New England Trunk Trail northeast on this line from its current Grove St trailhead to downtown Franklin.
https://www.franklinbellinghamrailtrail ... -franklin/

Q3: Will MBTA be upgrading this currently G&U freight-only track between Milford and Franklin?

Both Q1 and Q2 refer to the same piece of track - the Franklin Industrial is the stub remainder of the former New Haven Midland Division route to Blackstone, Putnam, and points beyond, now (incorrectly) known as the "Southern New England Trunkline". The actual (unfinished) Southern New England Railway came nowhere near Franklin.

The map exhibit in the filing indicates the CSX freight rights ends at Union St Franklin. Google Earth aerials (don’t know vintage) suggest there’s track still in place from Union St to Grove St. It’s that track that Q2 references.