Guilford Rail System Boston Opperations

I know we all talk about different trains some GRS and others comming in and out of the Boston area. I know of the NHH Gravel Train aka DOBO or BODO, but can anyone out their help me with a list of trains that are arround the area, on the Fitchburg, Haverhill and Lowell CR Lines ive seen alot of GRS Action, not to mention the flury of slight activity iin Lawrence Yard

Thanks!

Not much action and a lot of that happens at night.

Somerville:
BO-1 goes to work at 7AM. Since there's not much left
for them to do anymore, the work day is rather short.
Usually goes to Salem twice or three times a week. The
rest of the week is spent bumming around Somerville
doing Everett scrap or maybe the odd car for the Medford
Branch. Sometimes they will do Newlywed Foods on the
Watertown Branch.

Lowell:
LO-1 comes down in the morning to Billerica Shop and
spends most of the day there. Back to Lowell mid-afternoon.
See road freights for additional info.

Fitchburg Route:
One of the locals will come from Ayer and switch Veryfine in
Littleton once or twice a week. No other business left on the
entire route except for Newlywed Foods on the Watertown Br.
Very hard to predict this move, which is basically once or twice
a month. Both AY and BO-1 have switched the line.

Reading/Haverhill
No business left between Malden and Wilmington Jct. Only
freight you'll see here is a diversion of LOSA/SALO or DOBO/BODO
from the Lowell mainline. This is very rare and is generally
frowned upon for various reasons.

Medford Branch in Malden is switched as need by BO-1

Road Freights
Both jobs run at night and go to work at 7PM.
DOBO/BODO is the NHN sand train and is usually down around
Wilmington Jct at 10PM or so.
LOSA is a glorified local freight. Switches what little industry is
left between Wilmington and Somerville. Usually somewhere
behind DOBO. Never goes to Salem anymore - rarely did to
begin with.

Dave

Thanks GP40MC 1118, that would explain why ive seen DOBO in Lawrence at arround 9:00PM on nights before and why the lone GRS Engine is always sitting behind the BET

On a related note I know several years ago they were beginning to clear some of the yard trackage at the rear of the Billerica Shops just west of the Lowell line for car storage. Did they ever complete this and are they in use now?

Where is Everett Scrap? Having trouble placing it.

speaking of the Medford branch, looking from the route 16 bridge the other day, I thought I saw shiney rails. Any action there lately.

Same place the auto fluff loads come out of on the waterfront...

Medford Branch

BO-1 went out there yesterday...

GP40MC1118 wrote:
Reading/Haverhill
No business left between Malden and Wilmington Jct. Only
freight you'll see here is a diversion of LOSA/SALO or DOBO/BODO
from the Lowell mainline. This is very rare and is generally
frowned upon for various reasons.

Isn't there still one customer in melrose? A lumber place or something. I had a thread about it somewhere after I noticed some boxcars on google maps

Nope...Deering Lumber no longer gets rail...hasn't in about a year.

Dave

D:


Any idea if their is any "book" or anytihg that has a somewhat up to date overall view of GRS. I know that their was some "GRS Railfan Book" someone prints out in MA i think. Anyways thats just what I was wondering.

Bernie-

It's been sad to watch the utter decline of rail service in and around the Boston area in my lifetime. It was going downhill for years, but Guilford's neglect of the Boston and Salem operations in the post-strike years was the kiss of death. Even during the end of the independent B&M era in the early 1980's, it was still possible to see numerous locomotives in and around the Somerville yards and I would periodically see a major freight powered by multiple GP38's and GP40's heading up through Medford in the early evening. I had sort of hoped that Guilford would perhaps sell the operations to Boston and Salem to a shortline who could do something with them, but the traffic is too far gone now.

Jim D.

To be perfectly honest, you can't really fault the big G for not serving Boston. Boston, Cambridge, Somverville, etc. are not keen on keeping the types of industries that rail serves around. Throw real estate prices into the mix, and it's more profitable for Guilford to NOT run trains to Boston. Northpoint anyone?

Perhaps, but at best they didn't put up much of a fight for their rights to serve the area. Contrast this with Conrail/CSX's efforts to keep Beacon Park yard - the city and Boston University have been dying to get their hands on that property for years, but the railroad wants to make sure they maintain an operating presence. Granted the CSX line has lucrative intermodal business compared to the merchandise freight B&M was hauling to Somerville, but if a forward-thinking management existed at Guilford they could have built a true intermodal terminal there to compete with Conrail. Or used that real estate to promote logistics-related industries that could have shipped via rail or intermodal as railroads have done elsewhere.

Jim

GP40MC 1116 wrote:Any idea if their is any "book" or anytihg that has a somewhat up to date overall view of GRS. I know that their was some "GRS Railfan Book" someone prints out in MA i think. Anyways thats just what I was wondering.

Yup, here it is:

http://www.oxfordjunction.com/grs002.html

Gillette used to be between WJ and LJ; do they get switched, or did they ever get switched?