Passenger Trains > Pine Tree Limited ambles through Massachusetts

The AAPRCO Pine Tree Limited was running about two hours behind schedule as it entered the former B&M Stony Brook Branch at Willows Junction in Ayer, MA today.

1) The train enters the Stony Brook...the MBTA Fitchburg line is in the foreground.

2) same location

3) The train meanders through Forge Village in Westford, MA. Speed on most of the Stony Brook is restricted to 20 MPH.

Dave

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Some more at Forge Village...

1) Northern Sky Charters' sleeper

2) Former B&M 6-4-6 sleeper Salisbury Beach is in familiar territory. One of it's orginal assignments was the New York - Concord, NH sleeper line on the State of Maine which used the Stony Brook branch.

3) Georgia 300 brings up the markers.

Dave

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It would be interesting to know the last time Salisbury Beach used this line under B&M ownership.

Latebeans Wrote:
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> It would be interesting to know the last time
> Salisbury Beach used this line under B&M
> ownership.

Definitely....I'm pretty sure the Concord sleeper was dropped in 1957. The State of Maine continued through 1960, but from what I've read it used New Haven 14-4s and 6DB-Buffet cars exclusively on the Portland run. I think there may have been a NY - Bangor through car in 1958, which could have been a B&M "Beach" car, but it was gone by 1959. The Stony Brook was freight-only once the State of Maine was dropped, so other than possible special train use or a fill-in role, best guess would be 1957 or 58.

BTW, Salisbury Beach was one of two cars renamed "Dartmouth College" (I & II) for New York - White River Junction use 1959-63. It was sold to the CN in 1965, but may well have returned to B&M rails on the Montrealer/Washingtonian while under CN ownership.

Dave

Here's a video of the AAPRCO Pine Tree Limited exiting the Stony Brook Branch on the south leg of the wye at North Chelmsford, MA. It will travel south on the former New Hampshire Division through Lowell, then diverge onto the Lowell Branch to North Andover, joining the original Boston and Maine, which is now Amtrak's Downeaster route.

Dave

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Thanks for the video! I believe the PAR is the only railroad to use white flags on the head end for this move.
Just a little nit pick: the Lowell Branch joins the former B&M Western Route at Lowell Jct., west of Ballardvale [compass south],not North Andover.

The use of the white flags certainly added a touch of class to this event.

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

Neat rolling show of what was.
Now about that track greaser!