Railroad Forums 

  • Lowell Vs. Lawrence

  • Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.
Guilford Rail System changed its name to Pan Am Railways in 2006. Discussion relating to the current operations of the Boston & Maine, the Maine Central, and the Springfield Terminal railroads (as well as the Delaware & Hudson while it was under Guilford control until 1988). Official site can be found here: PANAMRAILWAYS.COM.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1564708  by Red Wing
 
Anyone know why Lawrence was picked over Lowell for the North of Boston yard. It seams to me Lowell would have been a better location. You have a strait shot to Boston or Nashua. Looking at aerial photo's there seems to be more land in Lowell for car storage plus a larger distance between road crossings. You don't have to contend with the single track in Andover or the Wildcat if your going towards Boston and a majority of your customers are on the NHML vs. the Western. I can't think of any reverse moves on a mainline well if you actually used the B&B.
 #1564712  by BostonUrbEx
 
I think the simplest answer is ease of switching. The tracks in Lowell are spread all over the place, on different sides of the main lines, some can by accessed at CPF BY, some were south of BY. Lawrence Yard can be switched on the east end without ever going out on or across the mainline or anything. Also don't need a dispatcher to put any signals or switches in, etc.
 #1564715  by roberttosh
 
That is absolutely the reason. Lawrence is just much more of a true switching or classification yard with at one time over 20 class tracks on the East side of the main line. Lowell doesn't have anything close to that and as mentioned above just doesn't have a good layout. At one time back in the 70's or 80's there was talk of consolidating everything into a brand new yard to be built at Tewksbury but that obviously never came to fruition.
 #1564726  by newpylong
 
Lowell is a better location overall but with the removal of much of the Bleachery yard there isn't much to actually use. The Turnouts 1/2 are short and only good for small block swapping not switching due to reasons already mentioned. There are still quite a few tracks left of the yard in the woods west of the Concord River but they are on either side of the Lowell line, not the Lowell Branch. The land along the freight main has been developed. So even if they were rebuilt, they would be a pain to get to.

Interestingly though Home Depot is building a mega distribution center just south of there off the Lowell line, be interesting if they use rail.
 #1564735  by Trinnau
 
Lowell's yards were designed/placed for the original spoke-and-hub B&M, for trains running out of Boston and headed to New Hampshire. So when the railroad transitioned to overhead trains running East/West instead of North/South they were no longer in the right place. Bleachery Yard survived for a while but slowly lost purpose as Guilford/Pan Am pulled out of Boston. Not much room left there now.

Lawrence survived because it was enough off the mainline to get a road train out of the way while it's working the yard, despite the single track to get there. It's a little bit of a challenge with today's bigger trains but still doable. It is just that much better as a yard when the tracks are in service, and you can really flat switch there off the west end using the grade.
 #1564752  by Red Wing
 
I could see a little improvement in Lowell for New Hampshire set offs. Especially if VRS gets everything in New Hampshire.
 #1564755  by newpylong
 
Chances are any yard that either CSXT or the B&E operates will get some TLC. No one has substantial 5 MPH yards in as poor shape as Pan Am that moves as much tonnage. Besides the obvious liability, it is inefficient to operate (have you ever watched an ST crew switch?).

The one I can see getting minimal if any work is Gardner as the B&E will likely run from Deerfield to Worcester no stops.
 #1564757  by NYC27
 
newpylong wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:33 pm Interestingly though Home Depot is building a mega distribution center just south of there off the Lowell line, be interesting if they use rail.
It is going to be an appliance DC. No siding planned. Too bad, it would have been a great spot for them to replace the Norwood DC with what they are doing in South Windsor. That place used to have a small yard in the front when it was heavy industry in the early 70s. Not sure what type of plant that was back then.
 #1564765  by newpylong
 
Thanks for the info, I found the Planning Board article just after posting which confirmed my fear that this was the case. Hey, maybe indirect service - a lot of appliances used to come in on 22K, not sure about now.
 #1566877  by BostonUrbEx
 
newpylong wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:17 amThe one I can see getting minimal if any work is Gardner as the B&E will likely run from Deerfield to Worcester no stops.
Good, that yard sucks. And it is always a congested mess having single track on either side of a cramped yard. The whole Gardner Branch seems like dead weight to me. Just run via the Worcester Main. But I doubt B&E and CSX would be able to work that out, so instead the Gardner Branch will continue to exist for one interchange a day.
 #1566904  by newpylong
 
It's all it's ever been going back 40 years... However it's one interchange for a whole lot of tonnage that GWI would otherwise have to pay someone else to move.