Lowell Line - Winchester, Woburn, Wilmington Spottings

Caught DOBO thru west medford at 11:06pm thursday 07/18/2024. At least a dozen cars.

Its pretty well lit there, that would be a great place to catch it and film it!

2 engines and 19 cars on DOBO near west medford tonight at 10:42pm. Nearly met outbound Amtrak 689. I’ll be able to film it one of these days!

I was in somerville filming a few commuter rail trains on a bike ride. I knew dobo was coming but I really didn't want to wait. I would have needed to wait about 40 minutes for it. Some day I'll drive down just to film this train coming in.

Took the train to lowell today. No cars at tighe, atlantic, or rohstein. Multiple tanks at Baker.

The construction at the former NE resins/BSI site looks like its almost done. The siding is almost gone.

I saw a freight train in Wilmington last night! And it was NOT DOBO! That is super rare these days, I don't remember the last time I saw a non-dobo freight. It looked like it had a bunch of gondolas and then a few big boxcars. Freight for Everett I assume? I couldn't see what the locomotive was, there was too much glare.

And the worst part was, I caught it as a super poorly lit spot. If I was 5 minutes ahead, I would have caught it at Wilmington station and gotten such a good video :D

Changing topics, anyone heard anything about the wilmington cement plant? I thought I read, probably right here, that another cement company might be buying it. But it still looks super abandoned. Zero activity that I can see.


Also, all this new construction for the new boston road bridge plus ne resins being replaced with a big condo complex.... is there still a ROW there so they could, in theory, extend that siding at anderson all the way to the Olin site. I know that whole transrail thing is dead but in theory, could be rise from the dead or did they put the parking garage directly on the row?

@ L008

Boxcars south of Billerica is interesting based on what we know about typical traffic on this line in 2024!

Could you tell if they were standard railboxes/gatx/other normal boxes or did they look like the white insulated/refrigerated cars (usually ARMN reporting marks) that come off UP/BNSF with produce? That could help to differentiate traffic for NEPC transload in everett vs standard warehouse traffic (likely tighe).

RE: cement spot on the ex woburn loop, in 2019 the ex operator lehigh cement sold the plant to a local CRE development firm, but in 2021 they turned around and sold it to a mysterious company dubbed “rail siding llc” for pennies on the dollar. From what I can tell, they still own it. My best guess is its a shell company and its just an accounting trick while the CRE developer looks for a tenant. If the name of the company is any indication, someone will wventually use this for industry again in the future if they can get past the big obstacle… wilmington nimbys.

Tresca Bros is a major eastern MA cement outfit and they have been trying to purchase the eames st cement site for at least 15 years. EPA approved plans in 2009 but the wilmington approval board wouldnt permit it. Most recent news is Tresca sued the town in 2020 after they stood on their decision after various appeal suits. Not much since then except for the aforementioned sale in 2021. Tresca really wanted to expand to the site but it has been a while since any news so i have no idea what to think of the site and of “rail siding llc.”

When i have time i can link some citations for this info:

2009 tresca article: https://www.lowellsun.com/2009/07/13/gr ... -risk/amp/

2019 tresca article: https://www.lowellsun.com/2010/01/06/no ... ilmington/

Most recent suit: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/ma-co ... 75351.html

Current ownership/history/property tax site: https://gis.vgsi.com/wilmingtonma/Parcel.aspx?pid=3040

Heres video of the freight train, looks like white insulated to me but its hard to tell from the low lighting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiP1lnV6xTI

Regarding the cement plant, I thought Wilmington was a blue collar town, and the cement plant is in the middle of a big industrial area and theres always non stop trains going right by. So I don't get why they'd be against this. The transrail place, ok that was on a superfund site, there could be issues there. But making cement at an existing cement plant, I don't get why thats a problem for anyone.

Produce Center.

Yea i think one issue was they wanted to keep the crossing in service across the street and the FD had an issue with that. Some old local news sites may have more info on the specific complaints that halted the project. I think i rmember complaints about the estimated number of truck trips too. I went down this rabbit hole a year or 2 ago, i can dig up some of the articles I read later.

Nice to see some reefers! If CSX wants to add some business without paying to maintain much track while they rebuild pan am from scratch, this line has opportunities for them. When was the last time there were 4 reefers at NEPC at once?

rail siding llc

A quick Google search yields a Wilmington Company of that name with Charles Benevento listed as the Registered Agent. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that's the same Charles Benevento that is the head of the Benevento Companies.

I could certainly see Benevento having an interest in the site for their own use or to block a competitor.

EDIT: A deeper dig shows a December 2023 planning board meeting where Tresca's plan of 2014 (last amended 9/2013) was unanimously approved. It also indicates that Lehigh sold the land to Charlie Benevento and is currently in litigation with Tresca.

Last EDIT:
Looking at Mr. Benevento's comments from earlier hearings, he highlighted how disruptive the additional traffic.on Eames St would be, so my guess is he bought the property purely to block Tresca.

Oh wow interesting. Im sure those legal fees are adding up on all sides since this has drawn out so long.

is there still a ROW there so they could, in theory, extend that siding at anderson all the way to the Olin site

If we want to get into "crazy infra pitch" stories, that siding is probably blocked by the new development, but the powerline ROW to the south appears to take a reasonably level path from the Lowell Line just south of Anderson Woburn all the way to the Northwest to connect to the former path of the Loop.

According to Woburn's GIS site, the powerline ROW and former Loop parcels involved appear to be owned by Boston Edison and the City of Woburn up to the Wilmington Line. North of that, Wilmington's GIS site shows the B&M as the owner of the former loop track up to Eames Street, with Rail Siding LLC owning it as part of the concrete parcel north of that.

Forgot to post, but both DOBO and the local to Everett ran late Monday night.

Saw from afar at 12:47 and 12:53. I couldn't see which was which.

Hypothetically, if I had a scanner, how useful would it be for CSX on MBTA territory?

I caught a non-gravel freight on the line today. Seeing it made me realize just how long its been. I used to see freight here all the time. But I think its been a few years since I've seen one at this point. How often do they run to everett? Do I just have remarkably bad luck or have they toned it way down.

Here's a video of the train going through Mishawum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccsO9nimCng

You know, this post I started nearly 20 years ago was supposed to be about freight sigtings. So I guess I'll post an update:
Nothing at tighe, nothing at rhostien, nothing at atlantic plywood, nothing at the other tighe, nothing at wilmington cold storage, nothing at the closed down cement plant.