Eastern Railroad Discussion > Grafton & Upton's GU-1 on Monday 4/28/25

Photo 1: A bit after 1000 Monday 4/28/25, Grafton & Upton RR's GU-1 job is assembling a 16 car freight at its North Grafton yard to head south for transload facilities at West Upton and Hopedale (and maybe even Forge Park).

Photo 2: At 1117 GU-1 is about a mile south of of its origin heading upgrade about to cross Tracy Ann Dr at Grafton MA

Movie: At about 1130, with all 4,750 HP hard at work, GU-1 summits at Grafton center the highest point on this roller coaster line at ~500 ft above sea level.

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Photo 4 shows the evelation profile of the curvy ~12 mile long line.
Photo 5: GU-1 has descended from Grafton Center down to about 350 ft altitude about to enter Upton MA.
Photo 6: GU-1 is nearing the 16 track W Upton transload yardabout to cross Glen Ave. At the transload yard, the first 2 locomotives will separate from the 3rd to allow the 16 car train to be pulled past so that the ex-CSX MP15AC and ex-GTW GP9R can yard the rear portion of the consist. Also once the train was in the yard an RJ Corman ballast regulator and hi-rail tandem departed north toward the N Grafton HQ.

I broke off the chase at that point but the lead portion of the train would proceed another half dozen or so miles to the Hopedale transload to drop sheet rock centerbeams and fly ash hoppers and empty glass cullet covered hoppers (plus the box car may have been destined for BlueLynx building supply in Forge Park).

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Great catch - Interesting views (Especially your last).
Bob

Interesting also that the first shot looks like nice heavy welded rail 132 or so, and the last shot looks like about 85#-90 jointed!

Also hope that the crew stopped and flagged the grade crossing in the distance as the gates are up and the lights aren't on.

 

I noticed the same thing.
 

Thanks for the chart. What percent are the grades?

Victor Baird