Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

So I caught that same freight train in the same spot last night! Leaving the wildcat after a commuter rail train with an interesting mix up of cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmZrmN9eRvs

A funny thing happened that didn't make it on that video. A tanker truck was driving on Rt 38. It hits the flashes and slows to a "california stop" at the crossing because I assume "this truck stops at all train crossings". Just as he's pulling up to the crossing, the gates start flashing. Does he stop? No of course not, he stops on it and keeps going. The train came through a few seconds later. KINDA defeats the purpose of stopping at all crossings!

Another interesting thing that happened. I was just north of Anderson and the signals lit up. I started to hear the train so I grabbed my phone out of my bag. But before I could even wake up this phone, a downeaster bombed through the station without stopping, must have been doing every bit of full track speed. It was there and gone in no time. I wish I could have filmed it. Normally Downeasters stop at anderson, and of course commuter rail trains stop there. Freight trains don't but they don't travel as fast. So theres usually never any high speed trains going through this one spot.

When I'm out pedaling and train-hunting, I've been using this site a lot to see what's around: https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~wuensch/ ... l-map.html
It's been VERY helpful at increasing my sightings because I know when to wait or when to not bother.
But it only has MBTA CR trains. I'm wondering if theres any other way to track amtrak trains and pan am / csx / nhn trains? That would be amazing to have one app/site like that that could show you everything on the line!

I caught an inbound freight going through Winchester Center around 6:25AM today. Looked like roughly 20-25 loads, with a 50/50 mix of gondolas and cement hoppers.

https://asm.transitdocs.com/ will let you see Amtrak, though it does not update very often (every 10 minutes or so)

Last night LA2 came right after DOBO, which in turn came right after #340 (second to last inbound). Which is the second time after a weekend. Your best bet if you want to see both freights is to go to Anderson after 10 on a Monday night. My guess is that BODO waits on Track 3 for 340, and then (if you are lucky), LA2 pulls into track 3 shortly after BODO leaves. You may have to wait till after 342 leaves to see LA2 leave.

Last night LA2 passed West Medford first (at 10:40) followed by DOBO shortly after 11

Hope theres some good action tomorrow night, that's when I'll be out and about. I've had really good luck this season.

Does this LA-2 train I keep catching in Wilmington, does this also switch out Tighe and other customers in Woburn along the line? Or is there a different freight that does that?

Also, question: 3rd Ave in Somerville. If you go to the end of the road, looks like you get a real nice view of a big crossing and a spot where potentially lots of activity happens. Yet the one time I pedaled down there, I saw absolutely nothing. Is there a particular time of day/evening where you are more likely to catch some interesting stuff through there?

Tonight DOBO passed West Medford at 10:42, and LA2 passed at 11:47. I don’t know if LA2 switched Tighe (the only current customer between Wilmington and Boston I believe)

Re the 3rd Ave crossing, I don't think you'll see anything there since Yard 8 was ripped up. Maybe a BET or MOW movement. Traffic from the NHML now takes either the High Line (the bridge over those tracks) or the spur that runs by New Washington (although others here say that is still blocked and unfininshed?)

That bridge just north of BET that carries the Lowell line over the other tracks, does it have a name?

Ok A light bulb just went off in my brain. Also it's possible this has already been mentioned but I didn't know what you guys were talking about and I didn't realize it was this, but in any case.....

So I keep talking about freight trains taking the street level line parallel to the dog park and New Washington St in somerville by Innerbelt Rd.
BUT if they are replacing the big bridge on the lowell line, then soon won't they have to run all the trains over the line, at least temporarily? The gravel trains and the downeaster and all of the commuter rail trains?

If so, that will be a great opportunity for some awesome train watching and ideally train filming!

https://www.mbta.com/projects/rail-brid ... s#highline

The new bridge is being built parallel to
the existing one. Any shutdown will be minimal, and will probably see bustitution from Woburn to North Station, with the Downeaster taking the Western route, much like the recent GLX weekend closures.

I love the rendering of the new High Line bridge. The train on it appears to be an A-B-B-B-B set of F-units pulling a single 40' boxcar.

What is that loop under the High Line bridge, future roadbed for a track coming off of the bridge and turning to the left? Or is it an access road? Sadly, most of the new bridges are narrower. The 110-yo NYC era bridges on the Framingham-Worcester Line still look pretty good, much better than the decrepit-looking 90-95 yo B&M bridges. And the new bridges are going to only last 75 years The Commercial St, Lynn bridge shows a 13'5" height restriction not being fixed, and the rendering of Intervale in Weston looks like the height is actually being reduced.

Haven't seen LA-2 stop at either of the Tighe warehouses in quite some time. Seems that customer may now be inactive at best.