Siding near UNH?

I was at UNH today and noticed ballast has been dropped NORTH of the UNH Milk Bar/train Station. What's going on there?

Guilford installing switch west of Durham station today (Thursday).
Downeaster using shuttle train (2 locos - 2 coaches) and buses to cover daytime runs between Durhamd and Portland. New siding is near boiler plant at UNH. Unknown if this is a temporary or permanent siding.

Dick H.

Correction.... It is not a new siding, but rather a new underpass under the GRS main line at UNH. Crews still working at 7PM,

Dick H.

Dick H wrote:Correction.... It is not a new siding, but rather a new underpass under the GRS main line at UNH. Crews still working at 7PM,

Dick H.

The preparation for that work seems to have been going on for some time.

The place rb is talking about is north (east on the mainline) of the station.

Are you a UNH student too? I am a junior computer engineering major.

Woah, I'm a freshman Mechanical Engineering student at UNH! Pleased to meet you spinfire!

I have heard a few things about the track work. Someone said they were putting in a passing track so Amtrak can add another mid-day Downeaster trainset. And the other day I was over driving my R/C truck near the tracks (near the entrance to College Woods, spinfire) and talked to a young guy over there about the road construction going on. He said they were re-doing the road for better drainage, because they're putting in a 2nd track/new trestle. I assumed he was talking about the tunnel/bridge thing down by the power plant.

So...passing track and new trestle? Or something else? Hmmm.... It will be interesting to watch this all happen.

For some photos of the Durham/UNH track work, run the URL below.
Read the captions below the photos for information on the work.
Dick H.

http://photos.nerail.org/show/?order=by ... key=TwoXSP

As late as the 1970's,there used to be a consignee that had a spur just east of the station in Durham. There was also a track serving the freight house. Consignee was Craig Supply Company,that handled materials for commercial laundries and laundromats at least in N.H. and S. Maine with a fleet of trucks. Don't know when it went under,or when service stopped to it. Probably served by a local out of Dover or Lawrence/Lowell.

Switch to mainline was disconnected years ago,but tracks to freight house and their former warehouse were still "intact" a few years ago.

Bud

Interesting. Seems like it would still make sense to ship industrial detergents (in drums or buckets) by rail. Are there any customers in NE who take ship such materials?

wolfmom69 wrote:As late as the 1970's,there used to be a consignee that had a spur just east of the station in Durham. There was also a track serving the freight house. Consignee was Craig Supply Company,that handled materials for commercial laundries and laundromats at least in N.H. and S. Maine with a fleet of trucks. Don't know when it went under,or when service stopped to it. Probably served by a local out of Dover or Lawrence/Lowell.

I'm pretty sure the work being done north (east) of the station is related to a hazmat cleanup from this particular industry.