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  • New Hampshire Commuter Rail Discussion

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New England

Moderators: MEC407, NHN503

 #1559956  by codasd
 
Why not? They would love someone to upgrade the track from the Gallagher terminal north from class 1 to class 3 track. North of the wye is there ever more than one freight per day? Maybe every other day?
 #1559963  by Rockingham Racer
 
So:
-- a 70 MPH CTC railroad with multiple new interlockings
-- 4 stations: 2 in Nashua, MHT, and downtown Manchester

MBTA has trackage rights on PAR--soon to be CSX--tracks, so I imagine CSX will play ball, especially if they are getting an upgraded piece of railroad. I did not know that a new MBTA control center is in the works to be located in N. Billerica.
 #1559969  by Trinnau
 
codasd wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:45 pm Why not? They would love someone to upgrade the track from the Gallagher terminal north from class 1 to class 3 track. North of the wye is there ever more than one freight per day? Maybe every other day?
Keep in mind the MBTA actually owns Gallagher to the State Line - it's just maintained by Pan Am since only freight trains use it right now. Last I knew there was a day a night local NA1 and NA2 each working 5 days/week out of Nashua to serve customers on the line.

RR is correct that MBTA actually has rights to operate passenger service on the Northern.
 #1559978  by codasd
 
Trinnau wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 3:46 pm
codasd wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:45 pm Why not? They would love someone to upgrade the track from the Gallagher terminal north from class 1 to class 3 track. North of the wye is there ever more than one freight per day? Maybe every other day?
Keep in mind the MBTA actually owns Gallagher to the State Line - it's just maintained by Pan Am since only freight trains use it right now. Last I knew there was a day a night local NA1 and NA2 each working 5 days/week out of Nashua to serve customers on the line.

RR is correct that MBTA actually has rights to operate passenger service on the Northern.
I'm aware of the MBTA ownership to the state line and trackage right granted by Pan Am north of the state line. My response was to the comment 'Does anyone expect CSX to allow this?'

After reading the NHDOT document it appears that they are looking at track up to Class IV.
 #1560019  by eolesen
 
The EGE wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2020 7:28 pmNH is happy to ride on those coattails for free. Indiana doesn't have any comparable Metra service to use for free.
Not entirely true. The outlying Metra Electric (former ICRR) stations are only ~10 miles inside the border. It's 18 miles from Crown Point to the University Park station, and that's a shorter drive time-wise than it would take to get up to a South Shore station. I knew several people who drove 30 mins from southern Wisconsin to a outlying UP-NW stations in McHenry/Harvard/Woodstock/Crystal Lake to take the train downtown on a daily basis.

All that said.... if the work-from-home trend we've lived with for almost a year keeps up, commuting may become obsolete for a huge number of workers permanently. Hardly the time to be starting up a new service. If it weren't for the Feds paying for it, the State wouldn't be doing the study.
 #1560109  by NHN503
 
codasd wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:45 pm ... North of the wye is there ever more than one freight per day? Maybe every other day?

Soon you'll see a decent amount of freight on the Northern. Expect a mid 2021 resurgence.
 #1560152  by Ridgefielder
 
arthur d. wrote: Thu Oct 01, 2020 5:01 am
BandA wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 1:23 pm
I still cannot understand how private companies were able to operate passenger trains profitably (at least "above the rails") during the "golden age" 1834 - ~~1920 with much smaller trains than used today, stopping at every village, but agencies such as the MBTA lose money ("above the rails") on trains carrying 500+ passengers.
Crappy roads and damn few cars before 1920, mail and express contracts, time sensitive commodities, (milk and newspapers come to mind) rent from telegraph companies, lower costs of living/ lower costs of everything...
Mail & Express before anything. Probably every single one of those branch-line makes-all-stops locals carried a baggage car and all but the most insignificant flag stops had express handling facilities. Express agents handled everything from live chicks to barreled oysters. And then there were the contracts to carry the United States mail. Remember in an era of dirt roads this wasn't just The Fast Mail; it was the 8:12 from Portsmouth to Wells River via Rochester that brought the mail to villages like Alton or North Haverhill.
 #1560166  by Rockingham Racer
 
NHN503 wrote: Thu Dec 31, 2020 6:07 am
codasd wrote: Tue Dec 29, 2020 12:45 pm ... North of the wye is there ever more than one freight per day? Maybe every other day?

Soon you'll see a decent amount of freight on the Northern. Expect a mid 2021 resurgence.
Is this wishful thinking, or is it based on fact?
 #1560202  by NHV 669
 
It's a statement based on fact, given that he's part of making that resurgence happen. Have you been following the NEGS thread of late? Gravel loads will move from Tilton down to Lynch Construction at Lowell Junction.
 #1560232  by Rockingham Racer
 
NHV 669 wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 8:13 am It's a statement based on fact, given that he's part of making that resurgence happen. Have you been following the NEGS thread of late? Gravel loads will move from Tilton down to Lynch Construction at Lowell Junction.
Yes, I'm aware of that plan. I'm hoping, though, that "decent amount" translates to more than one more train a day on the Northern. If the commuter rail plan ever gets done, THEN we'll be perkin'!!
 #1560279  by NHN503
 
Rockingham Racer wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 2:54 pm
NHV 669 wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 8:13 am It's a statement based on fact, given that he's part of making that resurgence happen. Have you been following the NEGS thread of late? Gravel loads will move from Tilton down to Lynch Construction at Lowell Junction.
...I'm hoping, though, that "decent amount" translates to more than one more train a day on the Northern...
You'll get 2 (NB/SB TILJ-LJTI) 3-4 days a week in addition to NA1/NA2 or whatever becomes of those. As for the additional in the works traffic, I don't know if that will be added onto those two gravel trains ( I don't see why not at this point as it makes interchange a lot easier) or if an additional train would be added for it. A good chunk of logistics all depends on what happens to the Northern under CSX, and that's WAY above my pay grade.
 #1560332  by NHN503
 
Rockingham Racer wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 5:37 am Good enough! Is this piece of railroad still 10 MPH?

Ours is maintained to Class 2 (25), but because of the current operation rules in place (OTMT) it is 10, and fine for the current operations. We'll most likely go to TWC once the gravel trains and additional business come on, at which point it can go back up to 25. It just makes sense IMO, that way it pretty much does not take 3 crews to get from NC to TI and return. But then again we can only control what happens on our side.

The PAR section is still 10, and again that's one thing that is very much subject to change if/when CSX happens.
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