Valley Line from Middletown to Hartford

FLRailFan1 wrote:Anything new on the line? Is 7d still around?

There has been some brush and weed clearing on the line, as I have crossed it recently, and you can see the difference from a couple years ago. No weeds and no encroachment by brush. There are no overhead movements between Middletown and Hartford. I don't know if 7D is still receiving any shipments in Rocky Hill or not.

There is a Yohoo P&W blog that reports cars to 7D ... only a few customers on the Air Line/Valley Line (North of Middletown).
That is other then the trap rock customer.

It looks te the rails are being taken out south of the CT river Bridge in Middletown to install sewage pipes. Does anyone know if P&W still makes regular trips up to middletown?

Yes, the P&W comes to Middletown quite frequently, but via the "Air Line" route out of NH.
They have a big trap rock customer on that line,
but just a few, basically, single car customers in the Middletown area via old New Britian line & north of Middletown a couple of miles.
There was some activity in Portland (track work), but it never became a customer.

When I do a drive over the Middletown yard now it is most frequently empty.

P&W fuels their locomotives in Middletown. I believe this is their only fueling area west of the Connecticut River.

Is it me, or did Connecticut Central seem to be doing a lot more business on the Air Line/Valley Line than P&W is doing? Or maybe its because of several businesses closing up shop (Dynamo, Midstate/Portland, city of Middletown "poo poo choo choo", etc). It just seems like there was a lot of hope and optimism with the reopening of the Middletown-Hartford line, but is all that lost now? All the $$$ that was spent in reopening the Valley line through Rocky Hill and Wethersfield... for what? That pesky Conrail Express agreement still holding things up?

Too bad its not in service, as it (with the Air Line) could be a suitable detour route for CSO trains if Amtrak decides to shut down the Springfield Line for a period for double tracking and other associated upgrades. Granted, you'd have to do a reverse move at the diamond. Track conditions on the Air Line north of Reed's Gap can't be much more than 10 mph these days.

ShadyJay,
This topic has been talked about before in detail, so please look at some of the other threads.
To summarize briefely:
- Middletown to Hartford line is owned by CT DOT. The P&W got them to spend some money on ties, etc. some years ago.
The P&W used to to transport gons from MidState before the roof colapsed in a snow storm.
- Lost business, add the power plant that converted to pipeline oil some years ago.
- Airline detour
- a. East of Portland it was converted to a trail, so that ROW is gone forever
- b. Could be used with Valley Line to Saybrook, but line between Middletown & Haddam is out of service, except for the efforts of the Friends of the Valley RxR who have most of it open for speeder use. BTW, that line is also owed by the state. There is a study under way as to what it should be used for: freight, passengers (Valley RxR) or conversion to a trail.

Just as an addendum to the above comment (which also ties back into the main thread topic), ConnDOT "...strongly supports maintaining this section of the Valley Line as a rail corridor and not converting the line into a trail. CDEEP strongly supports maintaining this section of the Valley Line for potential future scenic excursion service or other recreational or tourist uses. [...] It provides the only practical direct rail route between New London/Groton and the greater Hartford area". That's in the final version of the CT State rail plan 2012-2016 under the section for the Valley Line. The State clearly wants this to be a rail corridor, which is probably why they invested so much into the upper section of the line, even if P&W didn't fully deliver on utilizing it.

I learned that a slot for a 3rd car is going to be built at 7D in Rocky Hill.