Haverhill Line Upgrades (Western Route)

Why are the "telegraph" (railroad signal wires) poles on the left and the signals cabinet on the right?

Those "telegraph" wires are the old 550v signal power and some of the old comm lines. Back before all the work in the area,the signal huts were on the same side of the tracks as the pole line. As far as I know the pole line is supposed to be eventually taken down, I don't think that's happening until they cutover LJ and WJ.

My understanding (from the last picture) is that the wild cat line will be moved from it's existing spot and be re-routed under the new signal bridge (far right signal). You can see a new track bed (if your coming from Reading, east bound) already set to move the wild cat tracks under the signal bridge.

From there the existing main line will be centered under the bridge, center signal, with a interlocking switching for the third rail far left signal for the new easterly route track. They started laying the interlock switches just after the southbound side of RT93.

The old wild cat switch will be removed once all track work and signal work is completed.

The old Wildcat switch will remain and go to a MOW siding.

Regarding the B&M Andover station platform, I believe the station was sold in the B&M era, while passenger trains still stopped there on active double track. So if the pattern elsewhere was followed, the B&M would have retained an easement to use the passenger platform, possibly requiring the owner to do snow removal etc. Perhaps the MBTA formally abandoned that easement, but it wasn't done in a number of other places. I agree there isn't much room, particularly if a mini-high is obligatory.

Franklin St crossing at Melrose Highlands fully replaced this weekend. Two more prepped-and-ready track panels are also sitting trackside between Broadway St and Albion St in Wakefield.


I realize these aren't directly related to the topical project, but it seems the most fitting thread....

BostonUrbEx wrote:Franklin St crossing at Melrose Highlands fully replaced this weekend. Two more prepped-and-ready track panels are also sitting trackside between Broadway St and Albion St in Wakefield.
I realize these aren't directly related to the topical project, but it seems the most fitting thread....

How direct/indirect might the connection be? These are both places with double-track stick-rail. Are the new panels a prelude to new CWR or something to tie in with ARRA double tracking?

I think if anything, these crossings are being accelerated in preparation for more traffic during the GLX project, where all Western Route trains (including the Downeaster, and perhaps freight) will operate entirely via the Western Route instead of the Wildcat Branch. The Ash St and Woburn St cut-overs are definitely being accelerate for that reason, in order to ease the pain of increased traffic on the Single track segment between Ash St and CPW WJ.

Also, the reason the GLX work will require this change of traffic is because there will be long-term temporary single track from somewhere in South Medford (a new, temporary interlocking is expected to be called Tufts) all the way to the Back Ladder of Tower A.

They should go ahead and do the crossings in Reading while they are at it and finally double track through the station to increase flexibility of stopping either side since the platforms already exist. Surely that would also help the pending situation.

The problem with double tracking Reading is it is unclear if it would trigger ADA upgrades, particularly where the vacant No. 1 track would have not even a mini-high platform. It likely would pull the trigger for the MBTA to make Reading a pair of full highs -- not that it isn't a good idea, but it is a cost they may not be able to cover right now. Ash St is designed to eventually have a pair of universal crossovers, and CPW WJ is also being built to be able to handle double track from all directions.

> will operate entirely via the Western Route instead of the Wildcat Branch

How much will having to slow down as they go through all those stations inside 128 affect their OT performance?

How much will having to slow down as they go through all those stations inside 128 affect their OT performance?

Why would they have to slow down? Trains can pass platforms at speed.

The schedules will likely be modified, to protect OTP. It will be slower due to a increase in schedule conflicts, lower overall speeds, and lack of bi-directional signalling/powered crossovers (which plays into conflicts). Passing platforms isn't much of an issue at most (probably all) platforms. One thing to note is bogus early 20th century kludges such as all outbound trains getting an Approach signal at Wakefield Jct and not getting a clear at Albion St until the gates are activated and have been operating. This inevitably slows down all trains. Things such as this are why the New Hampshire Route is so damn superior, and not modifying the Downeaster schedules for long term detours is probably not even an option.

For traffic that normally uses the Wildcat, Fells - Sullivan Sq. will be the worst choke point anyway. It wouldn't be an enormous amount of money to signal and interlock the siding at Medford Jct., but the T doesn't act like it has in-house signal engineers available for short-term service improvement jobs.

jbvb wrote:but the T doesn't act like it has in-house signal engineers available for short-term service improvement jobs.

Well... they don't... This Ash St interlocking has been years in the making, and has been delayed month after month as limited resources (the signal design team) keeps being redirected to other areas.