Walpole MA

[jonnhrr]

I was at Walpole today for the first time. I noticed there was a small yard northwest of the station/diamond (along the track to Framingham) with a number of cars, plus some on the connection to the line west to Franklin (the old midland).

I was wondering how are the lines in this area worked. Are these cars brought from another yard e.g. Framingham or Readville and then swiched by a local - if so where does this local originate? Does this serve the line to Millis as well as down to Franklin?

BTW I also headed up to Framingham where around 11:30 I saw a train heading out of North Yard west on track 1 CSX SD70AC, and 2 HLCX units with about 20 cars or so. It didn't have a FRED so I assume it was going to Nevins (for Q437 maybe?).

[CSX Conductor]

The line crossing the commuter tracks is the Framingham Secondary which runs from Amtrak's NEC in Mansfield to CP-21 at Framingham. As you look north the tracks are: to the right of the main: track 6, which is where loads are set-off by B725 which brings the cars from Framingham. To the left of the main is track #1, which is used for storage, the last two tracks are 3 and 4 in that order.

There are 2 locals that originate there at Walpole. B735 reports M-F @ 500am and travels south to Mansfield to build their train for the East Mansfield and West Mansfield industrial parks. (B725 drops the Mansfield cars in the yard at Mansfield since Walpole is not big enough for both jobs.) B736 reports @ 400pm Sunday-Thursday and services customers to the west. On the Franklin Industrial track, which splits off the MBTA line just west of Franklin Station, there are 3 sidings, Franklin Paint which gets one car every year, Franklin Groves has a siding but no longer gets rail service, and the only regular customer JJ Corrugated Box is at the end of the track.

West of Forge Park Station is:

Garelick Farms which gets covered hoppers of plastic for bottles on Wednesday evenings. (Siding holds 4, but only 3 can be unloaded at a time)

Blue-Linx, formerly Georgia Pacific can take a flat and up to 12 box cars of lumber.

Lastly in Milford is Saint Gobain a.k.a. Foster Forbes which receives covered hoppers of industrial sand for making glass bottles. They can handle 20+ cars on their 2 tracks which are switched by their own track mobile. About a mile west of there is the Milford run-around which holds 10/11 cars.

Just west of Blue Linx there is an old power plant of some sort which is where BOC Gases moved to last year and was getting xars of carbon dioxcide, but they were evicted.

There are also 2 customer sidings inside the Walple Yard, Merchandise Warehouse off track 6 and Robert Bury Panel to the west of the Framingham Secondary under the Rte.27 bridge.

Hope this helps.

[jonnhrr]

Thanks CSX Conductor!

[paulrail]

What local comes out of Readville and heads south to Walpole? Is that the job that then travels to Milford?

Paul

[CSX Conductor]

Paul as I stated earlier, the local B736 reports to WALPOLE @ 1600 hours Sunday through Thursdays, that's the one that goes WEST to Milford.

[Robert Paniagua]

NTM, CSX Conductor, the line past Forge Park also goes through Bellingham and also goes by the FPL Coal fired power plant there before reaching Milford.

[CSX Conductor]

Yes Robert, I just didn't mention it because that siding is inactive again. Last year BOC Gases started usig that plant, but for some reason was evicted. They weren't getting as many cars as the other customers such as GP & Saint Gobain, but it was better than nothing. They were getting about 1/2 dozen to a dozen cars of Carbon Dioxide per month at the most