Pan Am Worcester Main Line

They took the Ziff switch out when they installed the welded rail late last year. The switch on the other side of Shrewsbury Street (formerly served Bunzl?) I think was gone by the time I moved to the area 18 years ago.

Aerial photos via Google Earth show the switch and a connecting track in place on 9/20/2019, but show the frog removed (but not the points) as of 6/6/2022.

The brush cutter has been at work on the P&W section between Worcester and Barber. Not saying it means anything, because I don't know, but the other track that had been engulfed in overgrowth for years is fully exposed now.

I haven't seen it this open in my 20 years traveling the line. That goes back to when there was another grade crossing between Garden St. and New Bond St. by the Home Depot.

I haven't seen the brush cutter working, but I noticed the second set of tracks exposed in back of the new Amazon building. I wonder if anything is in the wind about relaying the second line from Garden Street up to Barber.

Hmm, since Ziff Paper (now Bunzl) is located on the west side of Shrewsbury st, I figured that the siding that used to serve them (taken out years ago) would be referred to as the Ziff siding. The short siding to the east of Shrewsbury st has not served a customer in the 30+ years I've lived around there, and was only used for parking maintenance of way machines.

F74265A wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2023 10:59 am The almost certainly outdated google maps still shows the former ziff paper switch and siding just east of the shrewsbury st crossing

I may be wrong about the siding name
That map google map shows the switch on the east side of shrewsbury st, whatever it served

1st off, apologies for mis-IDing the siding just E of Shrewsbury Street as Ziff Paper. It shoulda been New England Envelope, at least per p.41 of the Oxford Junction Press GRS TT #1.
Google hits showed both as having moved, Ziff to Shrewsbury Street, but in Boylston (Rte. 140) and New England Envelope to another part of the industrial area on Hartwell.
Some looking on the Rev. 9 Scott Whitney track-chart CD showed a bunch of info, but no real clarification. Back in double-track days and early on, there were no turnouts cuz the industrial area didn't yet exist. Cattle passes did show in the area of the Worcester Country Club. In late double-track time. there was 1 turnout on the EB E of Shrewsbury Street, and 2 on the WB, also showing E of Shrewsbury Street, possibly feeds for the Hartwell section of the industrial area. The turnouts were unIDed. Couldn't see dates for the double-track charts, but the earliest showed #75 rail, the middle going up to #100.
The most recent and single-track chart -- post State of Maine -- showed the arrangement as in the GRS TT #1, but again unIDed. Dunno if the pair on what had been the WB E of Shrewsbury Street had been pulled or were a drafting error.
If a history of the industrial area exists, it's not online, at least per Google. Mebbe it's 1 more of my false memories, but before Bunzl, White & Bagley/Oilzum mighta been there.

According to my copy of the 2004 ST ETT, the two sidings faced in opposite directions. Heading from Worcester toward Ayer, the facing point switch for the NE Envelope siding was just before the Shrewsbury St crossing, and the siding also crossed Shrewsbury St. The trailing point switch for Ziff Paper was just after the Shrewsbury St crossing, and the siding did NOT cross Shrewsbury St. Both sidings are still shown (with labels) in the 2008 PAR ETT (#1). The former Ziff Paper siding is shown (without a label) in the 2014 PAR ETT (#3) and the 2016 PAR ETT (#4). I don't know if anything's been issued since then, but based on all of that, I would say that you correctly identified the siding on the East side of the street as Ziff Paper.

I think part of the confusion here is using railroad cardinal directions versus physical (compass) cardinal directions. As most know, the Worcester Main is east-west per timetable, however in the area in question, physically it is roughly north-south. I have a photocopy of GRS Timetable #1 effective January 2, 1995. The sidings on both sides of Shrewsbury Street are indicated on the track diagram and identified by name.

One of them is shown as Ziff Paper. That is the siding that was still connected to the main line and used for MOW storage until CWR was installed and the switch removed last fall. It is physically on the compass east side of Shrewsbury Street (and the switch was railroad east of the crossing). There is still evidence of track running through the parking lot of the businesses at 211 Shrewsbury Street and evidence of a loading door in the front facade of 215 Shrewsbury Street.

On the compass west side of Shrewsbury Street was another siding with the switch aligned in the opposite direction, railroad west of the crossing. That one is identified in ETT #1 of 1/2/95 as N.E. Envelope, and that is the one I referred to previously as "Bunzl" since it is on that side of the street and once served the building now occupied by Bunzl. That is the one that has been gone for at least 15 years and probably more. I don't know when the Angel Brook housing development was built, but it seems that siding was abandoned before then since Angel Brook Road is graded several feet higher than the grade of the former siding right of way where the two intersect. Not as much evidence of that siding remains although there are clearly former loading doors in the front facade of the Bunzl building.

Hope that helps clear up the confusion!

Not to beat a dead horse to death but I guess we all (I know I do) have time on our hands eh? The PanAm TT map is mislabeled backwards (yes, I agree that the TT would be gospel for the employees). So all that are consulting the TT are correct. But in reality, Ziff is the company that the siding on the TT west (north) side of Shrewsbury St went to. It was connected to the main until the road to the housing development was put in around 15 years ago. Ziff is the origination occupant of the building that now is used by Bunzl. And no, the siding did not cross Shrewsbury st (as a glance at the TT map would appear to indicate). Likewise, New England Paper was located on the TT east (South) side of Shrewsbury St (211 Shrewsbury St to be exact). So the confusion is that I was reporting from the ground while others were reporting from looking at TT's and Google maps. For all I know, railroad employees did refer to the eastern siding as "Ziff" when they parked their equipment there, as that is what the post yr 2000'sTT had labeled it. My apologies.

Think of it not so much as beating a dead horse as clinching a nail in the dead-and-buried reputation of the Mellon/Fink era.

Track equipment had been parking on the stub of a former industrial siding on the other side of Shrewsbury st, but that switch was removed when the new rail was put in last year.

As immortalized in Google Street View in 2011:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.332922, ... 312!8i6656

As a bonus, if you look the other way, you can see the former siding to Bunzl (and I'm not even going to attempt to assign a direction to this one ):
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3331032 ... 312!8i6656

Speed on the not totally rehabbed portion of the Worcester Main between Clinton and Harvard remain 10 mph or so. Here's CSX M426-09 appearing about 2 miles down the track at the through truss bridge over the Nashua River at Still River. Eight minutes elapsed before the head end had crossed the 1910 vintage bridge. Although ties and stone look ok for the most part, the 100 pound rail is old and worn. I'm no expert but the bridge timbers on the 113 year old American Bridge Company bridge look to be cracked and need replacing - a few new ties have been sistered in at spots. Q: will this bridge accommodate full height domestic double stacks? It clearly facilitates enclosed multilevel auto racks. Is it likely that CSX will simply replace the bridge with a new girder bridge?

Great pictures
That joint bar for 100 NH to 115 RE is very interesting. Did you see date stamps on the 100 lb rails?
I thought the Clinton to Harvard stretch was largely 112 but I may be misremembering and it’s only 100 lb

100# NH? Wow - that hasn't been manufactured in over 100 years - they went to 107# in 1915...