Andover complains about Pan Am train parking

I couldn't find an existing topic dealing with strains in Pan Am relationships with the communities it traverses (other than the various derailment concerns in Buckland, Westford, Plainville, Chelmsford, etc) so I started a new one.

http://www.andovertownsman.com/news/nei ... d71a5.html

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

One quote stands out as embodying everything about Pan Am:

The double-tracking was meant to ease congestion on the busy rail line, not to serve as a parking lot for idle trains

I still don't really have any sympathy for these people though - after all, the railroad has been there a lot longer than they have.

[*cough*] Royal siding [*cough*]

At least that's in MBTA territory where they've got extremely limited excuses for doing that before they get whacked with a rolled-up newspaper by the track owner and told that Lowell Branch tie replacement is no valid reason for canning someplace far worse. NNEPRA on the other hand seems blithely unaware what bad behavior their DT project is guaranteed to unleash with their track landlord. At this point it's not even safe to touch a passenger capacity grant unless it's got a signed Memo of Understanding amendment enumerating every reason thy shalt and shalt not can freight on the public-paid infrastructure...and how many strikes they get for BS-rationale cannings before there's intervention.

Why are they canned there vs Lawrence yard?

eustis22 wrote:Why are they canned there vs Lawrence yard?

How many empties have gobbled up all the space in Lawrence? They've been canning in Atkinson too near the end of DT. Throw that and Andover in with the Peabody and Somerville logjams and this storage problem seems to be emanating top-down from the D2 yards.

Long Pan Am freight tied down In Andover as I type at 1:45pm so I guess yesterday's meeting didn't produce desired results for Andoverites.

I don't place this at the same level of NIMBYISM or nimbyism at all as the people complaining about switching in Winchester. I also would be pissed. I don't think it is an unreasonable request to not be smothered in diesel fumes even if you live near railroad tracks. Trains should be canned in the yard or in the middle of nowhere, plain and simple.

Best thing that could happen is getting the Merrimack River Bridge up to speed and both tracks in service. There is pressure to push westbound trains across the bridge due to limited time slots between commuter trains and then it takes time to crawl across at 5mph. Plus, if you tie down between CPF HA and CPF 273, you have single track from CPF FR to CPF 273 right now, with most of that double track between CPF Vale and CPF FR being riddled with crossings a bit too close together. Had they made an interlocking at Brad (serious incompetence and missed opportunity there) prior to this decade-long project, it'd be much less important. But for now, best solution is to get the bridge done.

Of course, it is all moot if a real railroad, like NS, were to come in.

Adding a new control point is not a major undertaking, but on the MBTA and Pan Am, I guess it is. Otherwise, Brad's hand-throws would've been gone a long time ago.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... toindex=-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow. Canned and idling right across from the station platform. Now they're just asking for it.

deathtopumpkins wrote:One quote stands out as embodying everything about Pan Am:

The double-tracking was meant to ease congestion on the busy rail line, not to serve as a parking lot for idle trains

I still don't really have any sympathy for these people though - after all, the railroad has been there a lot longer than they have.

I have plenty of sympathy of them. They bought homes next to a mainline, not a yard. There's a HUGE difference between trains passing through and trains idling for hours or days.

newpylong wrote:I don't place this at the same level of NIMBYISM or nimbyism at all as the people complaining about switching in Winchester. I also would be pissed. I don't think it is an unreasonable request to not be smothered in diesel fumes even if you live near railroad tracks. Trains should be canned in the yard or in the middle of nowhere, plain and simple.

^ THIS.

And a relevant quote from the article:

Andover Townsman wrote:"These trains just don't stop for a few minutes," she said. "They are here for hours. Last Sunday one train was here for 10 hours, pulls away around 8:30 and then another pulls in around 11 and stays all night. The air was so thick with diesel smell, it burned our eyes. And that is not the first time, the weekend before was similar as was the weekend before that."

MEC407 wrote:

deathtopumpkins wrote:One quote stands out as embodying everything about Pan Am:

The double-tracking was meant to ease congestion on the busy rail line, not to serve as a parking lot for idle trains

I still don't really have any sympathy for these people though - after all, the railroad has been there a lot longer than they have.

I have plenty of sympathy of them. They bought homes next to a mainline, not a yard. There's a HUGE difference between trains passing through and trains idling for hours or days.

That's a valid point. I definitely don't agree with the practice, and I would be pissed too, but I still don't have much sympathy for the people because they chose to live next to railroad tracks, and the railroad has a right to do what it pleases with regards to running (or stopping) trains on them. Attempting to get the town to intervene is a fruitless waste of resources, because the town has no control over it. Going to the state may have some merit though, considering who paid for that parking spot.

It's ridiculous that this is even an issue in the first place though.

Surprised it took them this long to complain. Before I moved, I remembered the first night with GE's idling at the station thinking, "this isn't gonna end well."

Of course, the end result will probably just be that canned trains are forced back into Lawrence, where residents aren't as influential.

Yes but there's a third track for canning next to the old lawrence platform...can the locos next to the warehouses/stonemason shop.