Iron Horse Park (North Billerica)

Teamdriver wrote:

atsf sp wrote:There still 2 RDCs there, the 6114 and 6917. They are still listed as stored on NETransit. But they are in a forested area deep within the property so highly illegal to get to.

Are these the ones you are talking about?
Abandoned B&M Budd RDC's Outside of Boston : http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... GJ0R2dRlwI

No there are two still at Iron Horse, past the buses coming from the main lot. Like jr says, grown in heavily and tough to get to. The two in that video are under I93 in Somerville.

newpylong wrote:No there are two still at Iron Horse, past the buses coming from the main lot. Like jr says, grown in heavily and tough to get to. The two in that video are under I93 in Somerville.

Go to Google Maps, zoom in on Iron Horse Park, switch to satellite view, and follow the shop lead in from the Lexington Branch wye. The two RDC's are in the overgrown wooded area just beyond the first siding off of the shop lead to the north.

you can see them real good on bing also. They also showed 2 engines and an old plow up by the shop but when you zoom out they disappear. Guess they were scrapped

There's an old video on YouTube of a tour through there with many pieces of equipment left. To my knowledge, all of that equipment is now either scrapped or sold/refurbished. I hear there's next to nothing there.

According to posts on the video, it's a SuperFund site. Is that true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar0DDEdNfso

yes it is a Superfund site.

I see what you guys are talking about on google maps, but trust me they aren't there anymore. The buses are gone too.

drvmusic wrote:There's an old video on YouTube of a tour through there with many pieces of equipment left. To my knowledge, all of that equipment is now either scrapped or sold/refurbished. I hear there's next to nothing there.

According to posts on the video, it's a SuperFund site. Is that true?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar0DDEdNfso

Anyone know the fate of the equipment in the video? What was scrapped and what was restored or sold? Just curious.

Everything was scrap....The 617 was still running when it was brought in ,shut down and told to scrap it...The two Budd cars were invloved in a wreck back in I believe 1971 or 2...They were fully loaded and had left Needham Heights when they hit an
open switch at a company in west Roxbury...Both went over on their sides...I was on my way to school that day, senior at Needham High, when I saw a train waiting at NeedhamCenter....The gate attendent at the time,Nick Meomartino, told me what happened...The only signal then was a High semaphor at Needham Jct...then when the trains cleared at Forest Hills,the block was callled clear by equipment numbers and markers...By that tme, vandals had thrown the switch...Now I'm curious to see if there is any history to that on You Tube or Google....I was working on the commuter rail when all that stuff was being cut up.
The scrapper told me about the 617...He could not believe they wanted it scrapped...Crying shame to see the E8 cut up!

Tim Mullins wrote:Everything was scrap....The 617 was still running when it was brought in ,shut down and told to scrap it...The two Budd cars were invloved in a wreck back in I believe 1971 or 2...They were fully loaded and had left Needham Heights when they hit an
open switch at a company in west Roxbury...Both went over on their sides...I was on my way to school that day, senior at Needham High, when I saw a train waiting at NeedhamCenter....The gate attendent at the time,Nick Meomartino, told me what happened...The only signal then was a High semaphor at Needham Jct...then when the trains cleared at Forest Hills,the block was callled clear by equipment numbers and markers...By that tme, vandals had thrown the switch...Now I'm curious to see if there is any history to that on You Tube or Google....I was working on the commuter rail when all that stuff was being cut up.
The scrapper told me about the 617...He could not believe they wanted it scrapped...Crying shame to see the E8 cut up!

Thanks for the update!

I thought I'd read somewhere that the 617 was bought and restored. Sad to find out it wasn't

It's possible!...When I had talked with the scrapper he thought it was crazy to cut a good engine and he did mention that he was going to try and hold on to it...I never heard any more on it

Tim Mullins wrote:Everything was scrap....The 617 was still running when it was brought in ,shut down and told to scrap it...The two Budd cars were invloved in a wreck back in I believe 1971 or 2...They were fully loaded and had left Needham Heights when they hit an
open switch at a company in west Roxbury...Both went over on their sides...I was on my way to school that day, senior at Needham High, when I saw a train waiting at NeedhamCenter....The gate attendent at the time,Nick Meomartino, told me what happened...The only signal then was a High semaphor at Needham Jct...then when the trains cleared at Forest Hills,the block was callled clear by equipment numbers and markers...By that tme, vandals had thrown the switch...Now I'm curious to see if there is any history to that on You Tube or Google....I was working on the commuter rail when all that stuff was being cut up.
The scrapper told me about the 617...He could not believe they wanted it scrapped...Crying shame to see the E8 cut up!

That was @ 1967 and it was on the Needham Branch of the New Haven Railroad south of Gardner St. off the VFW Parkway. An RDC train was headed back to South Station when it hit the switch set to the divergence by kids. At least one car toppled. We heard about it in school. (I was in the Washington Irvine in Rozzie) and went up to see it. #41 was one of the cars that had toppled and was a ghastly site. Here is a set of photos that I took that day along with it's photo that a gentleman sent me recently, restored up in New Hampshire.

Well!...I guess I know what I'm talking about....Atleast I got the gate attendents name right!...Sorry about that...I wasn't sure about the year because I was going to school that day...I graduated in 72..Thats why I was thinking of that time period...I remember your school...I'm totatly surprised to see it was restored but I was going by what I was told by a B&M engineer of the two Budds at North Billerica...Thanks for the update and pictures.

Is that Budd at Hobo RR? I know they have Budd cars there.

'' That was @ 1967 and it was on the Needham Branch of the New Haven Railroad south of Gardner St. off the VFW Parkway.''
My good Rail,do you know if that was the switch for Rivermoor street,just by the Gardner street dump and the old drive-in theatre? At that time I was probably on an Arborway bound trolley , or a Forest Hills bound Orange line overhead el, so it wasnt me either.What was the name of that bake shop on the corner just down from the Irving beside the oil guy, do you remember?

That's exactly where it was, TD. That area had a lot of very large enterprises spread way apart so it still always looked barren. There were tire stores, a huge discount store, the drive-in, etc. The Gas Co. hadn't gotten into there yet. I remember seeing two switches, the first one (west) is where the Budds flipped and the second one, closer to Gardner St. (east) was where they towed the first car, #41 in my picture after they righted her. Whoever did the restoration has my eternal awe as I never would have thought looking at 41 that day that she'd ever run again. I was of the Budd RDC generation in Boston and it was a sad site to see what horror kids could do, probably thinking that it was funny. To know their operation was to realize just how aweful the act was as the Budds wound up there with no obstructions such as at grade crossings, etc. for a while, so, I would imagine that the cars were probably doing something in the vicinity of 50 MPH when they violently flipped onto their side. What compounded the injuries was the fact that the glass window side was now the side that gravatational forces had brought the crowded passengers down onto in a violent spasm amidst shards of broken glass. Surprisingly, when we first got there, one Boston Police Patrolman had control of the crime scene, who I'm guessing may have been told to his delight the the "railroad police" were "on their way and to hang in until they got there" knowing full well what that meant. He was nowhere to be seen leaving an abandoned scene soon after we were arrived. (How times have changed !) Of course, nobody was going to drive away with the vehicles, and valuables had been secured, but now, a three ring circus of lighting units and a deployment of crime scene protectors would be the rule.