Eastern Railroad Discussion > Wild Horses on the B&A 2/20/2020

Due to the partial collapses in the Hoosac Tunnel, there have been a number of detours of NS trains on the B&A.
Yesterday I caught Z016 coming through MP64 in East Brookfield and even though the tunnel repairs may take weeks, from the sounds of it this may be it for detours on the B&A.
Stay tuned...

Enjoy -
Bob
nerrp.com

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Great catch and first-class photo.
Bob

bob01566 Wrote:
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> Due to the partial collapses in the Hoosac Tunnel,
> there have been a number of detours of NS trains
> on the B&A.
> Yesterday I caught Z016 coming through MP64 in
> East Brookfield and even though the tunnel repairs
> may take weeks, from the sounds of it this may be
> it for detours on the B&A.
> Stay tuned...
>
> Enjoy -
> Bob
> nerrp.com
What is the B&A?  Boston and Albany or some other railroad?  Please spell it out, thank you.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

We lived in Pittsfield, MA several years, and watched the Penn Central and Conrail action on the Boston & Albany (B&A).  It was busy in those years . . . all double track, except for the bridge spanning the Massachsetts Turnpike.

Of course, in those years (70s), Boston & Maine still owned and operated through Hoosac Tunnel.

FWIW . . . there was a short line that ran from NW Mass. into Vermont . . . . the Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington, RR . . .  which was also known as the "Hoot, Toot, and Whistle".

ClubCar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bob01566 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Due to the partial collapses in the Hoosac
> Tunnel,
> > there have been a number of detours of NS
> trains
> > on the B&A.
> > Yesterday I caught Z016 coming through MP64 in
> > East Brookfield and even though the tunnel
> repairs
> > may take weeks, from the sounds of it this may
> be
> > it for detours on the B&A.
> > Stay tuned...
> >
> > Enjoy -
> > Bob
> > nerrp.com
> What is the B&A?  Boston and Albany or some other
> railroad?  Please spell it out, thank you.
> John in White Marsh, Maryland

Boston & Albany Railroad then New York Central then Conrail and now CSX.

The NYC Heritage loco also made a visit to CSX.  Here is a rather bad photo of the 23K detour train crossing the Wachusett Reservoir on Pan Am's Worcester Line.

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Great capture, Bob! It's ironic/tragic that given NS isn not able (for reasons unknown to me) to run daily 22K/23K detours on parallel CSX, the few detour trains that do operate every 3 or 4 days do so with lots of empty wells as shown in your photo! Prior to the Hoosac Tunnel cave-in, I had been watching 22K pass the NYC RR Museum web cam at Elkhart, IN and the # of containers hauled eastward to Ayer ranged between 35 and 80 with 30 or more empty wells often times.

It's almost comical how many empty intermodal cars are hauled around on trains back east? You almost never see empties on intermodal trains out west? I realize there is an imbalance just about every where but they don't mix empties with loads on Z's and Q's in the west when most loaded trains in the east have them intermixed? Maybe because of slower speeds?
JB