Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

newpylong wrote: ↑Tue Apr 28, 2020 12:05 pm There are no crew members from that job on this forum. Looks like a standard split switch.

Can you explain hypothetically how that would have happened? If one box car split a switch, I don't understand what woudl have caused the tracks way before that to break, and the car before the split car, to be on the ground?

It happens when the switch points become lose under the car or after some of the train has already passed - so some cars go on one track and some the other. I've even seen it where one truck of the same car goes one way, the other on the other track.

Hard to tell re: the rail from the pictures, it looks removed on purpose to me. But who knows... derailments like this are more common than you think.

Wilmington Cold Storage hasn't seen a box car in about 10 years from my memory. Yet it looks like they put up brand new RXR signs on Industrial Way in Wilmington. Curiously, there are no such signs on Woburn St/New Boston Rd. Hinting at future activity? Or just regulation for a siding that is not officially abandoned?

Somewhat amusing given the short distance between crossings. Given that the Woburn St crossing is in Woburn and the Industrial St. crossing is in Wilmington I’d venture a guess that signage is courtesy of the Wilmington DPW.

Does anyone know what's going on at the Eames St cement plant? Lots of construction, but it doesn't look like they're actually doing anything?

Any word on the C&D shipper that was allegedly going in next to the Woburn St crossing?

l008com wrote:Does anyone know what's going on at the Eames St cement plant? Lots of construction, but it doesn't look like they're actually doing anything?

Drove past yesterday. Looks to be a staging, storing, and parking area for a large construction project elsewhere.

Speaking of Eams Street. Apparently the EPA has decided to clean up the mess at Olin {across the street from the cement plant). It will be interesting to see if they make use of rail to haul out the toxic earth.

https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-an ... wxwhsDUD4k

What does this mean for the NE Transrail project?

So they're doing a lot of signal work in this area, and it looks like they are adding a fourth light to each post. Is that what this is? If so, what purpose does it serve?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that will be blue, and it indicates that there is a track between it and the track that the signal governs. There's one on the signal mast in South Lawrence, visible from the S. Union St. overpass. They've been around as long as I can remember. There used to be one also on the westbound signal governing AS interlocking. However, that doesn't seem to be the scenario in this instance.

MBTA is installing Cab Signaling on the territory and retiring the wayside automatic block signals. Interlockings are being re-fitted with "Clear to Next Interlocking" signals, which this indicates in case a train has a failed cab signal system.

So then. Just like the B&A, and I hear the NS Middle Division.

Correct, everywhere on the MBTA out of South Station except on the NEC is like that now too. Not just the B&A.

Trinnau wrote: ↑Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:04 am MBTA is installing Cab Signaling on the territory and retiring the wayside automatic block signals. Interlockings are being re-fitted with "Clear to Next Interlocking" signals, which this indicates in case a train has a failed cab signal system.

So they're taking away all of the existing signaling? Or this is augmenting that? Do you have a picture of what the end result is going to look like?