Pan Am Worcester Main Line

Work continues today near the footings of the Ag Branch bridge. The tracked drilling machine is still there along with a pallet of cement or grout. My guess is they're doing some sort of compaction grouting to stabilize the soil in preparation for an undercut. The ballast pile just south of the bridge has also been replenished.

A few pictures of CSX developments around Millbrook St and Garden St as of Sunday 9/29/24:

Some minor clearing work of CSX property at the Garden St crossing has occurred and CSX has put up at “No Trespassing “ sign.

And more stone has been spread at CSX property at Millbrook St. There was little if any clearing progress along the P&W RoW at Millbrook St.

And now a crane appears . . .

so the bridge is undoubtedly going UP. Just like last time.

Then they need to cut the CWR, raise the bridge, add ballast and regrade the track, add a small piece of rail, re-stress & weld it back together.

I'm sure they have the process covered.

Not sure where they get their info (perhaps here as rumors of all this have been here), but railpace is reporting that csx will reinstall the 2d track in worcester, add the yard back there for PW interchange, and install a turntable.

They also say Clinton bridge will be raised -- which seems to be happening with the crane there.

Unrelated to wml, they also say csx is running 60 now NH border to rigby. That was rumored to be upcoming here but no idea if it has occurred yet.

Of course they got it here and uncorroborated because it's all anonymous info. Nowhere else have these topics been discussed in such depth.

CSX has not started running 60 yet on the Portland Sub. NS starts running over the B&A/Worcester Sub May 1 and plans to start up another train on PAS once the intermodal leaves.

NS re-route to CSX via Worcester won't occur until May 1, 2025 - 7 months from now? Any idea what NS or CSX has yet to accomplish other than crew qualification? The Voorheesville - Ayer conductor/engineer job postings are no longer on the NS Careers web page.

Nope.

I take that to mean NS will double stack from day 1.

Double stacking is clearly the big reason to re-route NS Ayer IM trains from PAS to the B&A but IMO there would also be some lesser benefits to simply re-routing today's single stacked train:
- Transit time between the Albany area and Ayer should be reduced by 3-4 hours due to faster B&A track v. PAS track plus there won't be time spent doing Mechanicville work (of course, NS could decided to separate Mechanicville and Ayer containers into 2 trains between Binghamton and Mechanicville to reduce time on Ayer transit over PAS). Perhaps NS could compete for more time sensitive traffic?
- By agreement with CSX, must operate the re-routed train over B&A with a single crew - I think it often takes more than 1 B&E crew to get between Mechanicville and Ayer.
- NS gains some power flexibility by not needing to lead trains with relatively scarce dual mode PTC SD60Es

Just my $0.02.

Single crew XO to Ayer.

I don't think the increased transit time alone is enough to push them over to the B&A, it will be the stacks that do. Could be wrong, guess we'll see in the spring.

Anyone know the clearance under Main Street in Ayer? I know and have seen that it will clear double stacked trash containers (including those which are former international containers with the top shaved off) on the yard lead, but will domestic (or even unaltered international) double stacks clear?