Strange And Sad
Who Is Uglier
Man that's a contest isn't it? MBTA MPI HSP46 2027 blt. 2014 is less shabby the MEC GE B40-8 5933 blt. Apr. 1988 but the latter sure looked classier back then when she rolled out of Erie in sharp yellow jacket paint as Susquehanna 4016.
But given the exceeding oddity of this consist I just had to go out for one photo. Having been serviced overnight at BET the 0500 work train crew is on board and has just arrived here at Hill Crossing at MP 5.6 on the MBTA Fitchburg Line. They just cleared up off Main 1 and are backing down to the partially loaded rail train parked on the West Cambridge Yard lead. Keolis borrowed the Pan Am unit due to a shortage of ACSES equipped work engines to assist with the unloading of this train for several days creating the opportunity to capture this truly weird scene.
And one other reason I wanted to come out was because this would be about my only chance to photograph a 'freight' train at this historically significant rail location. Until 1980 this was the the place where heavy duty east-west freight traffic left the Fitchburg Line to take the three mile Freight Cut Off through Davis Square to Somerville Junction on the New Hampshire Route main to access Mystic Junction and the Yard 8 hump and Somerville freight yard complex. East Cambridge itself maintained a bustling little local yard well into the Guilford era but now not a trace of either remain. You can ride your bike on the cut off but you won't ever again see scenes like these in the two links below taken in basically this same spot but looking the opposite direction as both of these show eastbound freights while the rail train power faces west:
photos.nerail.org/showpic/?201903260839098851.jpg
photos.nerail.org/showpic/?2019040607243528047.jpg
Belmont, Massachusetts
Monday August 9, 2021
Strange And Sad
Who Is Uglier
Man that's a contest isn't it? MBTA MPI HSP46 2027 blt. 2014 is less shabby the MEC GE B40-8 5933 blt. Apr. 1988 but the latter sure looked classier back then when she rolled out of Erie in sharp yellow jacket paint as Susquehanna 4016.
But given the exceeding oddity of this consist I just had to go out for one photo. Having been serviced overnight at BET the 0500 work train crew is on board and has just arrived here at Hill Crossing at MP 5.6 on the MBTA Fitchburg Line. They just cleared up off Main 1 and are backing down to the partially loaded rail train parked on the West Cambridge Yard lead. Keolis borrowed the Pan Am unit due to a shortage of ACSES equipped work engines to assist with the unloading of this train for several days creating the opportunity to capture this truly weird scene.
And one other reason I wanted to come out was because this would be about my only chance to photograph a 'freight' train at this historically significant rail location. Until 1980 this was the the place where heavy duty east-west freight traffic left the Fitchburg Line to take the three mile Freight Cut Off through Davis Square to Somerville Junction on the New Hampshire Route main to access Mystic Junction and the Yard 8 hump and Somerville freight yard complex. East Cambridge itself maintained a bustling little local yard well into the Guilford era but now not a trace of either remain. You can ride your bike on the cut off but you won't ever again see scenes like these in the two links below taken in basically this same spot but looking the opposite direction as both of these show eastbound freights while the rail train power faces west:
photos.nerail.org/showpic/?201903260839098851.jpg
photos.nerail.org/showpic/?2019040607243528047.jpg
Belmont, Massachusetts
Monday August 9, 2021