Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Worcester Main Upgrade - P&W Clearance work

Background: At some point in the 1950s, an approximate 1/4 mile of B&M's double track Worcester Main Line (WML) between School St and Lincoln St in Worcester was covered over to become the Lincoln Square tunnel with Goldsberry St running on top of RoW. Today this approximately 1 mile long section of double track including the tunnel is owned by the Providence & Worcester. One track is used primarily by CSX Selkirk-Portland road freights M426/M427 between the CP-45 connection to the CSX B&A main and the start of single track at Garden St. The 2nd track is used primarily by P&W's Gardner trains carrying NS/PAS interchange. P&W ownership of the single track north of Garden St extends less than 2 miles to Barbers Crossing where its ex-B&M track splits off to head to Gardner and CSX ex-B&M track heads to Ayer. Given the Lincoln Square tunnel does not facilitate passage of double stacked domestic cube containers that NS plans to run on its upcoming re-route of its Chicago-Ayer MA intermodal train, it is funding Railworks contractor to undercut one track of the two in the tunnel and the Lincoln St overpass.

Photo 1: Starting at the south end of the clearance project with northerly view of the tunnel taken from School St, the track to be used by CSX/NS (on the right) has been removed with a temporary shoo-fly arrangement permitting operation over the P&W used track (on the left). Railworks has removed a foot of the old RoW base and replaced it with a continuous concrete slab to which rails will be directly mounted with tie plates bolted to drilled holes in the slab.

Photo 2: A quarter mile further north, this is a view of the north tunnel port taken from the Lincoln St overpass that more clearly shows the slab with drilled tie plate holes and stacks of tie plates with bolts along the wall on the left.

Photo 3: The slab ends on the north side of the Lincoln St overpass.

According to a RR worker I spoke with, the tunnel clearance project is to be completed by May 2025 (ie within 30 days or so) and even with the growth of CSX/NS traffic on the WML from 4 to perhaps 6 or more daily trains, P&W will retain ownership of the double track section. Also, the track used primarily by P&W will not be undercaut to permit double stacks.

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Photo 4: Looking north from the current end of WML double track near Garden St, the staging area used by Railworks for debris removal and new rail/ties to be installed is visible in the upper right. Speculation is that at some point this area which was the south end of B&M's Worcester yard will be the site of a small CSX-built yard to ease interchange with the P&W (today the existing CSX Worcester Yard alongside the B&A main is used almost entirely for intermodal work and CSX interchange with P&W requires pulling ahead of CP-45 and backing an often lengthy consist about a mile or into P&W's yard). It's also expected that CSX intends to add its own main track parallel to P&W Gardner track from Gardne St up to Barbers Crossing. That Morgan & Morgan bill board will have to go!

Photos 5 and 6 show what looks to be a 2nd track being added around the Millbrook St overpass which marked the north end of B&M's yard. The contractor is Frontier Railroad Services and is likely being funded by CSX for this work which includes significant drainage remdiation.

Net: the expectation is NS double stack trains should be added to the traffic mix on WML within the next 90 days. And there looks to be a number of good vantage points to capture moves from the P&W, CSX, and NS along this short stretch of track in Worcester.

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Thanks for the updates.  Gerry

Thank you for the coverage on this former Boston & Maine track upgrade for Providence & Worcester and Norfolk Southern rail traffic.  Impressive project.  So sad to see how deteriorated the Boston & Maine right of way has become.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/25 05:35 by cozephyr.

Great update and very informative text and photos , thank you !