New England Central Railroad (NECR)

Is there any good public roads to get to the NECR White River Junction North Yard? Where is power kept here? Is there any good public roads to get to the PAR White River Junction South Yard? Where is power kept here?

Where is the NECR yard in St. Albans? Is there any access to view the yard? Where are the engines kept? How much foreign power comes into there?

The NECR enginehouse area is pretty much inaccessible. Little Italy yard, though, can be seen from North Elm
Street, where the tracks cross the road between the engine house and the yard. It is a good spot to catch the
through SB freight departing, and the NB arriving, of you know when they are coming. Early AM can be a good
time to catch the chip train leaving, as well as Amtrak, if you sit by the depot. It's been almost a year since I've
been up there so, schedules might have changed; but back then SB 324 used to depart anywhere between 1600
and 2100. Chip train used be behind the SB Amtrak, and return mid-late afternoon.

The former CV yard is about half a mile north of the passenger station, the B&M yard is about half a mile to the south, and both are easily visible from local streets whose names I don't remember. To get to the NECR yard, there's a street that goes down the hill from Route 5 and runs parallel to it... check a local map. The B&M yard is virtually abandoned. To get to it just follow the street that runs along the west side of the tracks south of the station. "Pan Am" power lays over at the station when in town.

I will be going to the station first. So it would basically be a waste to go to the ex-B&M? Too bad the old CV roundhouse burned.

merrman wrote:The NECR enginehouse area is pretty much inaccessible.

Is there any public road that turns into the private NECR access road that one might be able to catch a glance of the roundhouse from without entering NECR property?

Not really. The vehicle access comes in on the back side, where you can't see the tracks. The buildings
block the view. If you have a scanner and can pick up on the local dialogue, you can figure out when to
catch movements around the crossing previously mentioned. From that crossing you can look south into
the engine house area and see some power sitting around, but it's not a great angle, and its a long shot
without good telephoto lens capability.

If you take video, even on your digital camera, there are several good spots along the line between
St A and Essex Jct where you can get good shots. Track speed is 40 or better in some places and the
chip train in particular, makes interesting subject matter, as it is usually powered by a GP-38 and it
work hard in many places.

I don't know much about the NB operations out of St A, but CN power is the norm for the NB freight,
and there a some good spots to catch it between St A and Swanton, I just never happened to time it
right.

To get to the B&M yard, use the crossing just north of the station. You have to keep left (one-way traffic) past the Coolidge Hotel. Continue south. You will pass the Nutt St. crossing on your left. The street then parallels the yard, which you can pretty much see to the south end. By this time, you are on a dead end street. Turn around, head north and take the left up the hill. This road passes motels and businessess until it joins Route #5 at a set of traffic lights.

Turn right on Rt. 5 and head north. Get in the left lane and take the left onto Route #4 west. After a short distance, take another right. You will be at the top of a hill and you will be able to look down into the yard and there is a street that leads down into the yard to the Irving fuel distribution facility and the remains of the former CV engine house. I am not familiar with any current posting of No Trespassing, so be on the lookout for that.

The CV switcher power now usually ties up right across from the Amtrak station, as since the engine house fire, their yard office is located in the station building. You will also see the WACR loco and some passenger cars for the tourist train parked on the east side of the station. Also, if you wish, you can walk along the tracks across the Connecticut River to West Lebanon to check out the Claremont and Concord loco that is usually parked at the cement plant. There are not any
no trespassing signs to prohibit crossing the river and you often see locals using this route.

The GMRC will be running their "White River Flyer" tourist train between WRJ and Thetford Thursdays through Sundays starting July 2nd at 11:30 and 2:30. Amtrak southbound Vermonter arrives at 11AM, so it can be quite busy around the station at that time. The WACR freight job used to go on duty at 7:00AM M-F, head south to the B&M yard to get their cars and then head north. However, this may have changed, as I don't think they have been running every day due to the slowdown in the economy. Also, the tourist train only ran on weekends in the past using the freight locomotive. If they do run the freight job on Thursdays and Fridays starting July 2nd, they will need a second locomotive stationed at WRJ.

Dick

Dick H wrote:The CV switcher power now usually ties up right across from the Amtrak station, as since the engine house fire, their yard office is located in the station building. You will also see the WACR loco and some passenger cars for the tourist train parked on the east side of the station. Also, if you wish, you can walk along the tracks across the Connecticut River to West Lebanon to check out the Claremont and Concord loco that is usually parked at the cement plant. There are not any
no trespassing signs to prohibit crossing the river and you often see locals using this route.


Dick

Nobody should EVER be advised to walk on railroad property and especially across a railroad bridge under any circumstances.
Railroad tracks are dangerous places to walk and bridges even worse. There doesn't have to be a train around to make
this a bad practice, you can trip and fall on something and maybe be seriously injured.
Doing stuff like this is a prime reason that many railroads do NOT like railfans.
There is a highway bridge across the Connecticut River to the north of the railroad bridge and it is a lot safer to use it
than the railroad bridge even though it will require more walking.
Noel Weaver

As of last week the current schedule of operations at WRJ for the NECR is a day light switcher Tuesday through Friday. An evening local operates Monday through Thursday. The day job reports at 1100 hrs. The PM job reports at 2000 hrs. Weekend coverage will be handled as needed by spare board employees. The daylight job handles the WACR interchange and handles the local work north as far as Bethel. The pm job runs as far down as Walpole with occasional sojourns to Brattleboro. You can catch them scurrying back to WRJ in morning light. They handle all work in Claremont, Charlestown and Walpole. The other day it was quite interesting with Pan Am trying to get in to the south yard, NECR waiting in the south yard for the WACR to arrive, the WACR arriving and Amtrak making its way through town. The only one missing was the C-C from Westboro.

Switching activity at WRJ is limited with the slowdown in fuel oil and propane. Lumber traffic is still off. WACR is going to a 3 day a week schedule although movements are dictated by the interchange from the MMA at Newport, if it is there the WACR will move it.

It seems to me that there is a dead end street that ends up near the engine house. If you check out the area, cross the tracks on Lake Street and heading towards the lake take one of the first right hand turns on to Elm St. That is the street that crosses the south end of the yard. Check out some of the side streets between Lake St and the crossing. There may be a way back there. If there is power on the service tracks you may not be able to see the turntable.

All jobs at St. Albans with the exception of the PM switcher are being run off the spare board so activity is based on the arrival of the CN train from Montreal. The chip train has also been annulled and is being run as an extra off the spare board.

You are correct, there is a street parallel to the enginehouse, but it is below track level and
fairly wooded. There is small open area to look through, but visibility is not that good. To
walk up to track level would put you on railroad property.

Anyone know the reason why NECR seems to have not painted a unit in NECR colors since the railroad started? It's been, what, about 14 years?

JD

RailAmerica is notorious for not paint the engines on any of that railroads. It's not just the NECR. As to why, they probably just don't wat to pay for it.

NellsChoo wrote:Anyone know the reason why NECR seems to have not painted a unit in NECR colors since the railroad started? It's been, what, about 14 years?

A good paint job costs a lot of money.