Pan Am Worcester Main Line

Drove past the Ag Branch bridge raising site at Clinton Sterling St Wednesday 11/20/24 around 5pm in near darkness and the bridge was all lit up as work progressed. Unfortunately, as I was driving by I couldn't get a good look at what exactly was happening.

Also, the Ag Branch had a stop sign clipped to a rail out by the S Meadow Rd - Rte 62 crossing in Lancaster presumably to prevent any movements over the Ag Branch from the west side of Clinton (I don't know where the local was at that time).

Inbetween the raindrops yesterday, I stopped by the work area at the Clinton station. Everything was quiet, no one was working. I took the attached photos.

It seems that they are building up the roadbed on the Ag Branch based on the 1st photo. and the 2nd photo shows them buiding a new pier under the bridge, encasing the old cast iron pier in concrete.

It's good to see the work progressing along, thanks for the photos.

Not sure why NS/GW/PW are lagging
The short stretch in Worcester is now way behind the wml and Albany main

This is a quote from the CSX Fifth Biannual Report:

"CSX has also completed its portion of the work on six of the seven bridges that will need to have improved clearances to allow for double stack clearance on the Worcester Main Line. CSX expects that work on the seventh bridge will be completed soon. This project will be complete once work on these bridges, and three additional bridges, is completed."

What?

bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 01, 2024 9:23 am
What?

I think this is your answer.
post1656484.html#p1656484

I drove by the former B&M yard in Worcester on November 29 to see if any progress had been made since the last images were posted here on September 29. Although the lack of leaves allowed for a better view from the former Thom McAn parking lot, no significant changes were evident at either end. In the nineties, and possibly beyond, there was an aggregate/cement plant at the Garden St. site, which may explain why the overgrowth was not as heavy in this area. I do not believe it was rail-served.

For contrast, here are a few pictures from NERAIL of the same area south of Millbrook St., about 50 years ago:

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20161 ... ODE=&POYE=

The Worcester Rigby train was on borrowed time in the Summer of 1974, the Poughkeepsie Bridge had burned in May, and as a result a lot of the interchange traffic via the former New Haven would disappear. Note the piggyback loads in the consist. These would have originated at the B&M ramp on the other side of I-290, accessed via the underpass visible in the photos.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?20180 ... ODE=&POYE=

The Freedom Train was likely departing from its Worcester stop at Barber. The display cars were on a Norton Co. siding just south of the Gardner branch embankment, while the locomotive was parked up on the branch itself. For a common object over the five decades, note the overhead sign on I-290.

Thanks for the old and new photos and descriptions. Too bad I didn't have railroad awareness to see these scenes when I moved to Worcester in 1973. And I didn't know about the pig ramp on the other side of I290, I always assumed that spur was mostly to serve Morgan Construction.

I took these last Saturday from the town cemetery (public accessible). With the foliage gone, the view isn't too bad. The first two show the ballast pile and the haul road on the south side. The third shows the crew using an excavator to strike the concrete forms for the new pier.

Over the last two or three weeks they have been adding these precast retention wall blocks. Since these picture were taken, they have completed across the road bridge and added a cap that is about a third the height as the full size blocks. I also noticed in the dark that on the south side there is a single row of blocks with a cap. The lower wall side is where the siding is. In the last photo beyond the bridge, there is a steel retention wall that was added and back filled during the first bridge raising. It looks like they are extending that higher. It was hard to tell in the dark.

It looks conceivable that the new pier might be 2 tracks wide

Here are a couple more. The second one is a closer view of the opposite side of the precast blocks.

Some other observations:

1. Most of the equipment is either rental or is marked as CSX owned. The crane and most of the excavators have CSX marking on them indicating a good amount of in house resources being used on this project.

2. The Northern Tree Service machine arrived the week before Thanksgiving and has not moved since. I find this development interesting. Other than the connecting track, I am not sure what else they would clear in the area.

3. More ballast was added onto the tracks to the south of the ballast pile. Not sure if this is for another track crossing area. It seems a bit short to be an area for hi-rail set on/offs.

4. The pictures that tonyschul posted shows more of the retention wall blocks on the north side. These were placed on the existing angled retention wall that goes behind the old mill building.

Great photos and analysis, thank you for sharing

Thanks for update and pictures.
Here is my best guess on what they will do.

-Extend abutment bridge seats
-Set new steel on extended abutments and pier.
-Shutdown Fitchburg line and remove existing bridge, and set new deck between installed girders.

I don't think the tree work is related to the bridge project. One of the guys I know was acting as a flagman for maybe the same tree cutting crew a few weeks ago. I can't remember if he said if he was working in Downeaster territory or if he was on the Worcester Main Line.

Anyway, that Sennebogen tree care handler will be used to take down tree limbs impacting clearances, which cannot be reached by a typical excavator with a brush mulching head. I worked for a tree company for a little while and they had the smaller machine they make, but it had a grapple with a slasher on it so you could cut limbs or the top of a tree off without dropping it. They can also put a small mulching head on it. The cabs on those also raise/lower and tilt so you don't have to crane your neck while cutting limbs at a high angle.