Mass Coastal Railroad (MC) Discussion

Look at all those brand-new railroad ties floating on nothing!

“No one is expected to fill in permits for an act of God”

How about a Saturday morning chuckle...
Here's a link to an article from RR trade magazine RT&S (apparently written by the editor in chief) entitled "Severe drought may have caused track collapse in Maryland" that really discusses the Mass Coastal's RoW collapse near Sandwich< MA. Excerpt:

A 300-ft portion of rail, which dates back to the 1800s, dropped into a nearby pond. A locomotive was approaching the site when the accident happened, and was able to stop well before the damaged area. According to a preliminary report by Jacobs Engineering, the collapse along the south side of Lily Pond covered the length of approximately 300 ft and was about 70 ft to 90 ft wide at the base. The estimated height of the embankment lost due to the collapse was about 30 ft. Approximately 15,000 cu yd of material was displaced during the failure.

Jacobs was hired to look at the damage to Lily Pond, which is adjacent to the pond where the failure took place. The engineering firm does not know the cause of the failure.

https://www.rtands.com/track-maintenanc ... -maryland/

Sounds like a sinkhole opened up to me. With the water level being 6 ft below normal levels, that's bound to destabilize any soil in the adjacent area.

Remember, the Cape is just one giant sand bar left by a glacier at the end of the ice age. Dry sand is apparently weaker than wet sand.

Absolutely, take a walk on any beach at low tide, the sand is solid, then take a walk on the same beach above the highwater mark, the sand is very soft.

The Cape main washout in Sandwich is rebuilt and has been back in service for about a week now. Job well done and just in time for the Christmas trains to run. See reconstruction photos on Mass Coastal Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

A couple pictures of the rebuilt route 28 crossing in Hyannis:

https://hyannisnews.com/hyannis-massach ... ottleneck/

Looks like the super wide crossings in Florida. Biggest crossing in the State? Impressive by Massachusetts standards.

With the North & South side Hyannis Rail yard reconstruction nearly complete with a 4 rail crossing over Rte. 28 what potential expanded use is MassDOT planning for the future ? A big Capital investment by MassDOT has been put into all this reconstruction and presently serves a Scenic RR operation, Seasonal Cape Flyer and Mass Coastal operations, but is there more expanded service to come in the future ? Perhaps a bigger new MC Locomotive shop , Amerigas getting propane shipments by rail again for starters ? Any other news out there about what the long range plan is ?

It is interesting that (I think) they reconnected the propane company track. From what I remember years ago- didn’t rail propane deliveries to smaller companies like this end years ago b/c of new standards that were cost prohibitive to implement? Every small/mid size propane company location I know of that was served by rail hasn’t gotten deliveries in years.

Looking at the MassDOT Hyannis Yard North End plan project file 85234 sheet 10 of 27 it lists new track as Propane Gas Company Connection. So time will tell if Amerigas receives propane by rail once again as they have 2 large storage tanks on site.

today on youtube thanks to south coast rail videos;

article from "south coast today" 7/26/2019;
https://www.southcoasttoday.com/news/20 ... s-shipyard

I can't tell where that track is going. Is it going to a loading platform on the far brick building or the closer white building? Or is it going onto a dock or loading area between the buildings?

UPDATE: Checking Google Maps it looks like there was a loading dock on the white building.

Looks like the environmentalists couldn't protect the endangered urban forest in the way:

Former Revere Copper & Brass plant. The siding curved to the right between the white building and the brick building. There was a large concrete pad/unloading dock there where
boxcars and gondolas were spotted. Another FYI - the area in the road to the right of the truck was street trackage that went down beyond Revere Copper.

I drove by there this morning. There is a lot of activity in the entire complex. I don't know if they will have to do any dredging or remediation but maybe they will rail out "dirty" dirt. There is a lot of heavy equipment in there so even though they got the property for next to nothing they are putting significant money into it. The siding is part of an IRAP grant.

Shoreline Resources LLC ($500,000):

The project will help provide rail access to a new shipyard site that will build and repair commercial vessels, including fishing vessels and potentially service vessels for the offshore wind industry in New Bedford. This will eliminate 280 truck trips and help sustain jobs. Shoreline is providing 58.5% of the project cost.


While I was down there I saw that there was a car spotted at the seafood plant. If someone starts using the EPA building and rail gets extended to the Marine Commerce Terminal, the NB waterfront will be pretty interesting.