Railroad Forums 

  • Turners Falls Branch

  • Discussion relating to the pre-1983 B&M and MEC railroads. For current operations, please see the Pan Am Railways Forum.
Discussion relating to the pre-1983 B&M and MEC railroads. For current operations, please see the Pan Am Railways Forum.

Moderator: MEC407

 #1300740  by Mike Kieran
 
Does anybody know anything about the Turners Falls Branch? Was this a Caboose shove move. Who did the branch serve?
 #1300832  by NRGeep
 
There was both a B&M and NH branch to Turners. I believe the B&M abandoned their branch and started running on the NH one when the NH stopped service.
 #1300841  by TomNelligan
 
The one time I caught a train on that branch, in the summer of 1968, it was a backup move. The short local freight behind an Alco switcher left East Deerfield engine-first, headed down the connecting track to the ex-NH trackage, reversed ends, and shoved to Turner's Falls. I presume they came back engine-first and backed up into the yard. At the time there was a small paper mill or box manufacturer along one of the canals in Turner's Falls that got a boxcar or two now and then. The B&M freight house was also still standing but I don't think it was occupied by then.

As Mr. Geep notes, the B&M took over the former NH line into TF when the NH abandoned it north from Northampton in 1943, and abandoned its own line at that time except for some of the terminal trackage at the north end. The secondhand nature of the B&M's branch in its later decades was the reason for the awkward switchback connection at East Deerfield.
 #1300976  by Mike Kieran
 
I figured that this branch would make an excellent switching layout. Thanks for your help.
 #1300978  by TomNelligan
 
One more thing to add... in the 1960s/70s period, only switcher-type diesels were used in the branch, because of a bridge weight restriction that prevented running anything heavier. Traffic was light anyway. But of course in your model world you can assign any power you want!
 #1301025  by Mike Kieran
 
According to my research thus far, it seems that they ran SW1s and S-3s on the branch.
 #1301255  by newpylong
 
At the end the engineer would put the engine in idle and walk ahead of the train over the bridge lol.
 #1301458  by Engineer Spike
 
What was better about the New Haven line? Why did the B&M abandon the original? Didn't the B&M line connect to the Fitchburg on the Greenfield side of the river?
 #1301482  by TomNelligan
 
The B&M started using the New Haven's line to reach its customers in Turners Falls after the Connecticut River bridge on the B&M branch was washed out in a 1936 flood and not rebuilt. When the NH subsequently abandoned its line up from Northampton, the B&M bought the section from East Deerfield to the end of track that it was already using. I don't know where in the East Deerfield/Greenfield area the original B&M branch connected with the rest of the system, but you can probably find a 1920s/1930 topographical map on line that would show that.
 #1301680  by newpylong
 
Engineer Spike wrote:What was better about the New Haven line? Why did the B&M abandon the original? Didn't the B&M line connect to the Fitchburg on the Greenfield side of the river?
Yes, it was actually the north track inside Kramers/WTE recycling. http://goo.gl/maps/5OnHd" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;