Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Ayer MA Intermodals via the B&A to start next week

The highly anticipated (at least by us New England railfans), oft delayed move of NS intermodals from the former B&M to the former B&A will start next week. The first edition of eastbound 264 to go via CSX's ex B&A main will leave Chicago on 1/11 arriving Ayer 2 days later. More details here: https://www.trains.com/pro/freight/intermodal/norfolk-southern-to-operate-its-first-new-england-stack-trains-next-week/

The D&H and Conrail heritage units will lead the first train. Unfortunately for railfans the timing will not be great. Per the article: "The eastbound is due to depart Voorheesville around 2 a.m. and arrive at Ayer at 10 a.m.; the westbound is scheduled for a 1 a.m. departure from Ayer, with a 9 a.m. arrival at Voorheesville, which is 15 miles northwest of Albany."

Jay in Mass 

nice to see a small part of the D&H albany main come back to life...OTOH...how may trains are left on the B&M main east of Mcville?

 

Does this put another nail in the Hoosac Tunnel coffin? Why did NS invest in the old B&M?

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/26 15:56 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Does this put another nail in the Hoosac Tunnel
> coffin? Why did NS invest in the old B&M?
>
> Victor Baird

NS was looking to get into the New England intermodal market, so they worked an arrangement with B&M (Pan Am) to create a jointly owned railroad between Ayer and Mechanicville and own 50% of it to achieve that goal.

On a side note, in review of the anticipated intermodal growth following the proposed UP-NS combination, Ayer is one of the markets that UP is looking to grow significantly (see link below).  With the CSX trackaage arrangement, NS is restricted to one 9000 foot train in each direction, so should a dramatic increase come into fruition, will be interesting to see if UP will ultimately improve clearances in the Hoosac Tunnel and overall track conditions over the entire Ayer to Mechanicville route to handle the anticipated new intermodal traffic. 

https://www.trains.com/pro/freight/class-i/union-pacific-and-norfolk-southern-outline-yard-and-terminal-expansion-projects/   

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Does this put another nail in the Hoosac Tunnel
> coffin? Why did NS invest in the old B&M?
>
> Victor Baird

Genesee and Wyoming operates the B&M from Mechanicville to Ayer and south to Springfield.  They still run at least one manifest train to Mechanicville each day.  I believe NS came to an agreement to run an intermodel train over the B&A to Ayer when CSX took over Pan Am to avoid having to single stack when running the train over the Berkshire and Eastern through the Hoosac Tunnel.  I'm sure some locals on here can provide more detailed info.

Too bad more nocturnal B&A traffic.  CSX should get their Pan Am heritage unit on the M427/M426 run to Portland Maine that week.

Glad to see this is finally coming together.  In response to some of the the comments/questions, I think part of this purposeful route redundancy and risk reduction for NSR.  The Hoosac Tunnel has had periodic "issues" since opening in (I believe) 1876, including as recently as just a few years back while Pan Am Southern LLC was operating it..  Having an alternate route provides the operational consistency that 2026 IM traffic demands.  In reverse, should an outage happen on the B&A, NSR would have options to still reach Ayer with it's premium IM traffic even if single stack is less efficient.  If I recall, the deal with CSXT only allows NSR one 9,000 TF intermodal or automotive traffic train per day each way, so it would seem likley the rails of the old B&M won't rust over anytime soon east of Mechanicville. 

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> Does this put another nail in the Hoosac Tunnel coffin? 

No.  There is more traffic on the West End now than there was for much of the 1990s.

The agreement limits NS to one daily train of intermodal and autoracks only, so manifest traffic still has to go over the West End, and there are rumors of more train pairs coming.

That sounds very costly, Are you folks telling me that what was once double track west of Ayer is now mosttly signle track? When did this happen? Was it a Guilford thing? Of course, I can understand why.

Victor Baird

Northern Wrote:
- NS is
> will be interesting to see if UP will
> ultimately improve clearances in the Hoosac Tunnel
> and overall track conditions over the entire Ayer
> to Mechanicville route to handle the anticipated
> new intermodal traffic. 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/26 23:32 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> That sounds very costly, Are you folks telling me
> that what was once double track west of Ayer is
> now mosttly signle track? When did this happen?
> Was it a Guilford thing? Of course, I can
> understand why.
>
> Victor Baird
>

Boston & Maine's so-called Fitchburg line was converted by B&M from double track to single track CTC west of S Acton MA (?) to Mechanicville in the 1960s, well before Guilford arrived.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/26 07:55 by JPB.

Thanks for correcting me on that. When I lived out there, all I saw on the Fitchburg was double track, but I didnt venture out very far west of Fitchburg.

Victor Baird

Posted from Android

Too early to gloat, but that train will be southbound through my area in daylight most times. 

The 264-10 edition of the Ayer/Mechanicville/Scranton bound IM train passed Virtual Railfan's Elkhart live cam at 1752 EST Saturday, its typical evening schedule, but was atypically short at around 5,000 feet with 75 wells laden with 126 mostly double stacked containers. That is, there was not the usual mid-train 5,000 foot block of Ayer-bound single stacked containers. Of late, post New Year's 264 consists have hauled perhaps 50 or so Ayer singles. So perhaps NS held the Ayers that ordinarily would go east on Saturday until the Sunday inaugural run of a fully double stacked consist, 264-11 to ensure that the first 264 that operates over CSX to Ayer has a healthy load of 100 double stacked containers behind the D&H and Conrail Heritage units? Given 264 is scheduled to depart Voorheesville at 2AM typically, the inaugural train might leave Binghamton around 9PM running in darkness until it gets to Worcester around sunrise. I guess NS PR dept and railfans will get to photograph D&H 1080 leading up the Worcester Main in daylight. Hopefully there will be plenty of AlienBee flashes at Voorheesville Monday night!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/26 04:48 by JPB.

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The NS 1080 and 8098 are in Binghampton. The train out of Chicago has non-notable power.