LOSA Returns - Dirty Dirt

219 empty dirt cars in various Lowell locations now.

There is also a second trick LOSA planned as they now want a switch twice a day - 50-60 cars.

They got enough crews for that?

When has that stopped them? They will just abolish another job or pull crews from somewhere else to protect this job and other job will get screwed.

Yep.Sounds about right..

As in the Everett site will be generating 50-60 cars a day, between two trains? Where are they going to fit them!?

Starting to wish I was still commuting daily on the Eastern Route!

The LOSA 1 job will be starting this next week.

deathtopumpkins wrote:As in the Everett site will be generating 50-60 cars a day, between two trains?

I'm pretty sure less than 20 will fit on the one track they have in there at the moment, unless they go ahead and build that second track. So even at two switches of 20 cars, you're at 40/day. Also, if a fully loaded dirty dirt car weighs as much as any other fully loaded car, they probably won't make it over the Mystic with more than 15 pulled at once.

EDIT: disregard the last sentence, because they've actually been running with two engines so far, so they're good.

They aren't going to be building a second track. LOSA 1 will provide them a full switch (now 20 but will be eventually 28 a train) during the day then LOSA 2 will do it again at night. It will be 56 cars a day between the two jobs. Three engines are on the job and so far have been handling the climb over the Mystic River just fine.

anyone have any pics?

Was 21 cars today out of Boston, followed 327 out. This is a daylight move, crew is on-duty in the morning at Lowell and makes the round-trip. So they're usually just before or in the early part of the rush hour coming north.

Heading home right now on a Keolis trip. Spotted three PAR engines heading south towards FX with the dirt cars. (I'm not sitting by the window so I didn't get any numbers.)

Per postiing on Yahoo CSX-Boston Line posting, apparently the dirty dirt loads head west on POSE/Q427 ( the first such Q427 had 88 cars of dirty dirt) and have caused a few problems getting the heavy train over the Berkshires on CSX. Stalls have occurred even when helpers have been added. There has been CSX crew radio chatter that the loaded dirt cars are heavier than they're supposed to be. The 2nd dirty dirt Q427 that ran on Wednesday had 82 cars of soil with three locomotives 2xES44AH)+1xES40DC up front and 2 ES40DC engines operated by a local crew pushing. I wonder why this heavy commodity doesn't go to Selkirk via POED+EDRJ using the 400 foot lower Hoosac Tunnel route?

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CSX ... sages/8092

Because it's a Pan Am customer not Pan Am Southern. Also it doesn't surprise me the cars are overweight they aren't weighed.

I've seen some trains on the Worcester Main that look like a POSE/SEPO (typical 2, sometimes 3 big CSX motors) but are all dirty dirt gons, no general freight. Are those still running as POSE/SEPO or are there new train symbols in play for the dirt traffic when it exceeds the car limit for POSE/SEPO?

No, these trains are running as AYSE. SEPO brings up an additional 3 units and sets them off in Lowell for use on AYSE. Here is a picture of a 6-unit lashup, before the Lowell setoff: http://photos.greatrails.net/showpic/?p ... otoindex=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (Photo by Hayden McSwiggin)