Lawrence Yard

Is the Lawrence yard still heavily used or even used at all? Where do trains from Lawrence typically go to/come from?

theseaandalifesaver wrote:Is the Lawrence yard still heavily used or even used at all? Where do trains from Lawrence typically go to/come from?

LA-1 switches the yard
LA-2 serves customers along the Lowell Line
LA-3 serves customers in Tewksbury and in Billerica Shops
LA-4 serves customers along the Eastern Route but typically doesn't actually operate in Lawrence
LA-5 will eventually ferry cars between Lawrence and Boston for LA-4 to pick up

POED and EDPO set off and pick up at Lawrence regularly, or on occasion Lowell. LA-3 will ferry cars between Lowell and Lawrence, typically for NA-1/NA-2.

theseaandalifesaver wrote:Is the Lawrence yard still heavily used or even used at all? Where do trains from Lawrence typically go to/come from?

It's the sorting yard where all the Eastern MA (and Southern NH?) locals originate. PAR's functional equivalent of CSX's Framingham yards. Ayer's way too busy for the space-intensive work of breaking apart and shunting together cars in the correct order for local deliveries, and East Fitchburg has to juggle a lot of general freight. So Lawrence ends up yard of choice for doing the sorting functions, and for that reason ends up point of origin for majority of the local jobs. And it happens to have the best positioning on the map of all the MA/NH yards for sending the locals out in every direction.

No NH locals based out Lawrence. Still Nashua.

newpylong wrote:No NH locals based out Lawrence. Still Nashua.

What ends up serving Western Route on-line customers Lawrence-Rigby, then? Does that get tacked onto some other job?

Lawrence yard is a good place to qualify on re-railing derailed cars. Seems to happen on a regular basis.

As to customers between Lawrence and Rigby, I think the better question is to ask about customers between Lawrence and Rock Jct. A local comes south to Rock Jct., and works the branch to Portsmouth. It would also serve customers east to Rigby.

I cannot picture any customers between Lawrence and Rock Jct.

newpylong wrote:No NH locals based out Lawrence. Still Nashua.

If ED495 is no longer a train, cars for Nashua locals go to Lawrence on EDPO, get brought back to Lowell by a local then picked up by the NA local trains to their final destination? Is there any Nashua and beyond traffic that comes into New England on SEPO or is that all RJED traffic?

Rockingham Racer wrote:Lawrence yard is a good place to qualify on re-railing derailed cars. Seems to happen on a regular basis.

As to customers between Lawrence and Rigby, I think the better question is to ask about customers between Lawrence and Rock Jct. A local comes south to Rock Jct., and works the branch to Portsmouth. It would also serve customers east to Rigby.

I cannot picture any customers between Lawrence and Rock Jct.

The recent rail changeout job from Lawrence to Plaistow ripped out all the dead non-MOW switches on the double-track section of mainline except four: some plant on Holt Rd., North Andover; some warehouse on Hilldale Rd. in Haverhill (definitely an active and regular customer; see the cars overhead on Google); a truck yard loading pad on Hilldale Rd. just a few feet south of the state line; that plant on Main St., Plaistow. Only the warehouse in Haverhill is a 100% confirmed active customer. There's no more than 2 tops, but those would be the going-concern sidings that still have some sort of official or prospective relationship with the railroad since they were the only survivors of last year's MBTA rail replacement and switch pruning job.

North from the Plaistow single-track switch to Rock Jct. I don't see any extant sidings that haven't been disconnected, but I was scrolling pretty fast so possible I missed one. At any rate, something out of Lawrence has to be covering customers out to Haverhill and running around in Plaistow.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

newpylong wrote:No NH locals based out Lawrence. Still Nashua.

What ends up serving Western Route on-line customers Lawrence-Rigby, then? Does that get tacked onto some other job?

Portland locals. Road jobs drop in Dover and Rock. Lawrence local for Haverills.

WN&P wrote:

newpylong wrote:No NH locals based out Lawrence. Still Nashua.

If ED495 is no longer a train, cars for Nashua locals go to Lawrence on EDPO, get brought back to Lowell by a local then picked up by the NA local trains to their final destination? Is there any Nashua and beyond traffic that comes into New England on SEPO or is that all RJED traffic?

Yes or it gets dropped on the Wye or west of there for a nashua local to get it.

Not sure how it is now but 100% came from Rotterdam or Mohawk when I was there. We also ran EDNA every other day.

F-line to Dudley via Park wrote:

newpylong wrote:No NH locals based out Lawrence. Still Nashua.

What ends up serving Western Route on-line customers Lawrence-Rigby, then? Does that get tacked onto some other job?

Not much between Plaistow and Rigby that I'm aware of other than the Portsmouth traffic, NHN interchange, the new LPG customer at Biddeford and the Saco Industrial. I don't believe anyone at Wells is getting cars or at Biddeford other than the Gas company. There's also a couple active customers immediately South of Rigby but would imagine they're served by yard jobs.