Newburyport Branch Wakefield

I was just down by the tracks because of the recent activity I have noticed the past few days around there. Here are some pictures I took and this is the point where the branch branches off the Commuter Rail.









So these new sections of track are on top of the old ROW. Also, there is a lot of equipment down there. A pile of brand new ties, buckets of new spikes, new tie plates and new rail connectors. Also, can anyone identify the yellow maching in the picture? It looks like a spike puller but I'm not sure.

i assume it must be sections of rail for the mainline, stored on the branch. but maybe they are going to use the branch itself as storage for mow equipment and are putting down new track. it'd be sweet iff they were reopening it, but i'm sure its not that.

My guess would be that they assemble the track sections on the branch so they can just slide them down the rails to where they need to go.

I mean that's what i thought but there is a new sign by the rails that says "look before crossing' now whether or not they plan on installing it on the branch or if its being stored there, it has never been there before. But I live right down the street and see the tracks everyday. I've never seen this before but I don't want to speculate.

i guess you never know, maybe its for the swampy section under 128.


but i highly doubt it.

i just remembered the crossings are gone now man, as of a couple months ago. no way its for the newburyport branch.

Yeah I mean we're hoping for the impossible but unless someone actually knows whats going on, we'll just have to sit and wait..

i think we'd know if something was going on, the railtrail freaks would be flipping out.

My dad seems to think this could be some type of Federal Funding? And also, the rail trail commitee can't go forth with the project just yet. Wakefield has said that the project will cost millions of dollars to fund and the funding is not coming. I don't know like i said i don't want to speculate but hopefully someone will be able to clear this up.

i drove by here last week and it was really overgrown, and now its cut. you never know i guess man. i dont know why theyd assemble sections of track for rail thats already maintained, usually they replace it piece by piece in that situation, i think anyway.

Yeah it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next week or so. There's a porter potty on the site where these pictures were taken so my guess is that these workers plan on being here for a while

There's no way half a mil will get this trail made. It'll cost more than that just to either raise the bed or lower the Saugus River underneath 128. I don't know if it's solely beaver activity or the water table rose, but there's a big flood problem down there. In spring the water is routinely over the tops of the rails. Call me a curmudgeon, but I hope the trail project goes down the drain even if rail service is never restored.
My belief is that the beginning of the branch at Wakefield Junction is a de facto stub track strictly for staging MOW operations. I'd love to be wrong.

Maybe they'll use those sections to replace a grade crossing somewhere near by.....

gentlemen, we can only hope.

wasnt the line already sold for 1 dollar or somethin like that?

Hmmm, I've never heard that before. I was back down there today for another look. Brush seems to have been semi-cleared. And also, the two track pieces have had pieces added to them, looks like some kind of clamp that goes under the rail to re-enforce it to the ties. The white truck is gone now. I will check again tomorrow for more updates and let you know.

Just a cool story. As I went down the ROW to look for anymore signs of work, I came across the old site of the Wakefield Junction. It was cool just standing there on that old platform and thinking back of when standing there was a comman thing and how steam was a comman site. It must have been good in those days...