Eastern Railroad Discussion > It begins: CSX stages rail & turnouts to start Pan Am rehab

On 7/17/22, CSX M427 manifest from Portland ME to Selkirk sits tied down at Burncoat St Worcester likely for several more hours awaiting a crew to go to Selkirk. As it happens, there is a Portland-bound M426 sitting on CSX B&A main at Worcester but no opposing move can run the ex-Pan Am Worcester main to Ayer until M427 leaves. Just my speculation but a remedy to improve traffic flow may be in the making as a freshly delivered prefabbed turnout sits by the RoW suggesting a passing siding long enough to hold a mile long train may be in the offing. And about a half mile further north along the Worcester main sits another stack of prefabbed turnouts. Picture #3 shows more stacked turnouts at Clinton where the Worcester main passes under the CSX Agriculture branch at Clinton Union Station. Behind me is the south end of a short passing siding. The red vehicle to the extreme right is an RJ Corman truck so I'm guessing RJC will be heavily involved in the Worcester main rehab

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/22 05:03 by JPB.

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On 7/30/22, a CSX CWR train has just been tied down on the Camp track at Ayer MA adjacent to the MBTA owned Fitchburg commuter line. Speculation is the rail will be dropped along the Worcester Main which today features 10 mph running on tired old 100 lb and 115 lb jointed rail. A second CWR was also tied down on the short Clinton siding likely to be deployed along the Worcester main. Hopefully we'll be seeing stacks of ties deposited soon.

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Thanks for the report, please keep us updated.  PanAm tried hard in recent years to change their image and to become more customer-focused but lacked the deep pockets necessary to seriously rehabilitate the property.  I hate seeing regional railways disappear but in this case I think for the best.  Hopefully there will be a knock-on effect of revitalizing freight service throughout northern New England.

Gordon

If CSX is willing to shell out for line rehabilitation....(one fo the few things we actually do pretty well on these days) I think they mean to use it and hopefully develop some potential. 

In the photos of the switches, there are yellow blocks attached to the insides of the point rails. What is their purpose? NS built a high speed interlocking near my home and there are four on each point rail. I believe they have something to do with feedback to the control circuits however there are no visible wires, conduits or otherwise, wireless transponders perhaps?
 Always good to see old run down ROW upgraded.
Thanks,
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> In the photos of the switches, there are yellow
> blocks attached to the insides of the point rails.
> What is their purpose? NS built a high speed
> interlocking near my home and there are four on
> each point rail. I believe they have something to
> do with feedback to the control circuits however
> there are no visible wires, conduits or otherwise,
> wireless transponders perhaps?
>  Always good to see old run down ROW upgraded.
> Thanks,
> Gonut


These yellow boxes have wheels rollers to help move the points on the gage plates.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/22 10:01 by farmer.

Normal procedure on CSX is to install new turnouts at locations that receive new rail. I would look for new 136 pound rail very soon. Then new ties.

Posted from iPhone

The yellow blocks are Eko Slide rollers. They reduce friction which improves reliability and reduces the force the conductor or switch machine needs to apply to operate the switch. https://www.ekoslide.cz/en/product/

Thanks Farmer for the info and the link. I never wandered close into the interlocking for a good look, makes sense that the longer hi-speed switch has more of the rollers due to its length.
Go

JPB Wrote:
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> ..... suggesting a
> passing siding long enough to hold a mile long
> train may be in the offing.

With today's class one railroads, I'd expect to hear more along the lines of "passing siding long enough to hold a three mile long train"...  Just one mile long trains was just "so yesterday".

farmer Wrote:
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> Normal procedure on CSX is to install new turnouts
> at locations that receive new rail. I would look
> for new 136 pound rail very soon. Then new ties.
>
> Posted from iPhone

Yep Pretty sure we're standardized on 136....one subdivision I work on was all 122 but is slowly getting converted as the toothpicks wear out....doesn't take long with 30,000 ton trains all day. 

JPB Wrote:
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> my speculation but a remedy to improve traffic
> flow may be in the making as a freshly delivered
> prefabbed turnout

A better solution for traffic flow might be to just move the damn trains, instead of regularly leaving them there all day.

The B&M once had a yard just south of there, but its in the stretch that's now owned by the P&W.  I've wondered if CSX has considered making P&W an off for ownership of that short segment, so that there new acquisition doesn't depend on trackage rights on someone else's railroad.

That would explain the loaded rail train heading east through Springfield MA at 2:51AM Friday with two complete 'sets' of loaded cars.

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
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> farmer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Normal procedure on CSX is to install new
> turnouts
> > at locations that receive new rail. I would
> look
> > for new 136 pound rail very soon. Then new
> ties.
> >
> > Posted from iPhone
>
> Yep Pretty sure we're standardized on 136....one
> subdivision I work on was all 122 but is slowly
> getting converted as the toothpicks wear
> out....doesn't take long with 30,000 ton trains
> all day. 

The former B&O west of Willard was mainly 122 pound rail. Most of that saw five times the tonnage it was ever expected to with the ConRail
split.