Sneaking In
I only got to shoot this once but what a sight! While home visiting from Alaska nearly eight years ago I met my friend Nick Athanus for a chase of his hometown railroad.
The Grafton and Upton Railroad is the rarest of shortlines. It was never part of a class 1, it wasn't a former mainline, it has operated independently since inception, and it sat virtually abandoned save for one mile of track and one customer before rising like the Phoenix seemingly from the dead to be rebuilt from end to end with a diverse, busy, and growing customer base. Now how many lines can say THAT?!
So a bit of history. The G&U story began in 1873 when the Grafton Center Railroad was chartered to build a 3 ft narrow gauge line between Grafton and North Grafton, which officially opened for business on August 30, 1874. At North Grafton the railroad established a connection with the Boston & Albany Railroad, a later subsidiary of the New York Central. The company remained a three-mile narrow-gauge for the next 13 years until July, 1887 when it was renamed as the Grafton and Upton Railroad, converted to standard gauge, and set its sights to the southeast at Milford. Two years later in 1889 the line had reached Upton and on May 17, 1890 the entire route was open to Milford, a distance of 16.5 miles, where it connected with the Milford & Woonsocket Railroad (a later subsidiary of the New Haven).
Between 1894 and 1979 the railroad was owned by its largest customer, the massive Draper Corporation of Hopedale that one time employed some 3000 people as the largest maker of power looms in the country for the textile industry. But in 1978 Draper successor Rockwell Corporation closed the mill and sold the railroad which seemingly had little reason to exist any longer and little future. The track beyond Hopedale to Milford had not been used since 1973 when Penn Central terminated the interchange there since after acquiring the New Haven a few years earlier there was no need to connect with the G&U at both ends. By 1988 the G&U was no longer running to Hopedale at all and the tracks were out of service. In the mid 1990s the G&U did revive the line to haul highway salt down to their tiny yard in Upton for transloading, but I never made it to see that happen before it too was gone.
When I was growing up the G&U had one working locomotive, an Alco S4 resplendent in St. Louis Manufacturer's Railroad paint. I never saw it run, however, as it was always sitting with the stack capped at the railroad's sole customer, Washington Mills just about a mile south of the then Conrail interchange in North Grafton. By the time I had learned of the railroad's existence back then their other two original units in G&U black and yellow were long out of service. I do have one significant souvenir off original G&U GE 44-tonner #99 bought new in 1946 and scrapped in 2009. Around that same period the two Alcos also sadly met their demise.
But all was not lost...as sad as seeing those locomotives go along with the demolition of the last original G&U buildings in Hopedale those losses signaled a rebirth. In an entirely improbable turn of events the road was purchased in 2008 and the new owner began rehabbing the entire railroad. Over the past decade the line has grown busier than it's ever been with a large new yard and transload facility in West Upton, two busy customers in Hopedale and a new propane distribution facility in North Grafton. And the future looks even brighter as the connection to Milford has been reestablished after nearly 50 years out of service and now the G&U has commenced serving CSXT's former customers on the MBTA owned Milford Running Track.
During the transition era as business was being cultivated and the railroad was being rebuilt the line operated with vintage first generation EMDs. By far the most fascinating was this one GU 1501 an EMD F7A blt. Jun. 1952 as BLE 720A. In those early days it shared the active roster with a GP9, CF7, and assorted rebuilt GP7s and 9s of Santa Fe and Grand Trunk heritage. While many have since been scrapped, this classic F7 remains stored and may run again someday.
Today this area is wide open and cut back and equipped with crossing signals, and you'll find far younger patched CSXT MP15s leading trains. But on this day it was still a slow weed grown pike belying its early interurban heritage. The old Bessemer gal seems to be sneakily peaking around the corner as she pulls up to the George Jordan Blvd. crossing near MP 3.1 so the conductor can flag them through three crossings in quick succession here in Grafton Center
Grafton, Massachusetts
Thursday September 18, 2014
Sneaking In
I only got to shoot this once but what a sight! While home visiting from Alaska nearly eight years ago I met my friend Nick Athanus for a chase of his hometown railroad.
The Grafton and Upton Railroad is the rarest of shortlines. It was never part of a class 1, it wasn't a former mainline, it has operated independently since inception, and it sat virtually abandoned save for one mile of track and one customer before rising like the Phoenix seemingly from the dead to be rebuilt from end to end with a diverse, busy, and growing customer base. Now how many lines can say THAT?!
So a bit of history. The G&U story began in 1873 when the Grafton Center Railroad was chartered to build a 3 ft narrow gauge line between Grafton and North Grafton, which officially opened for business on August 30, 1874. At North Grafton the railroad established a connection with the Boston & Albany Railroad, a later subsidiary of the New York Central. The company remained a three-mile narrow-gauge for the next 13 years until July, 1887 when it was renamed as the Grafton and Upton Railroad, converted to standard gauge, and set its sights to the southeast at Milford. Two years later in 1889 the line had reached Upton and on May 17, 1890 the entire route was open to Milford, a distance of 16.5 miles, where it connected with the Milford & Woonsocket Railroad (a later subsidiary of the New Haven).
Between 1894 and 1979 the railroad was owned by its largest customer, the massive Draper Corporation of Hopedale that one time employed some 3000 people as the largest maker of power looms in the country for the textile industry. But in 1978 Draper successor Rockwell Corporation closed the mill and sold the railroad which seemingly had little reason to exist any longer and little future. The track beyond Hopedale to Milford had not been used since 1973 when Penn Central terminated the interchange there since after acquiring the New Haven a few years earlier there was no need to connect with the G&U at both ends. By 1988 the G&U was no longer running to Hopedale at all and the tracks were out of service. In the mid 1990s the G&U did revive the line to haul highway salt down to their tiny yard in Upton for transloading, but I never made it to see that happen before it too was gone.
When I was growing up the G&U had one working locomotive, an Alco S4 resplendent in St. Louis Manufacturer's Railroad paint. I never saw it run, however, as it was always sitting with the stack capped at the railroad's sole customer, Washington Mills just about a mile south of the then Conrail interchange in North Grafton. By the time I had learned of the railroad's existence back then their other two original units in G&U black and yellow were long out of service. I do have one significant souvenir off original G&U GE 44-tonner #99 bought new in 1946 and scrapped in 2009. Around that same period the two Alcos also sadly met their demise.
But all was not lost...as sad as seeing those locomotives go along with the demolition of the last original G&U buildings in Hopedale those losses signaled a rebirth. In an entirely improbable turn of events the road was purchased in 2008 and the new owner began rehabbing the entire railroad. Over the past decade the line has grown busier than it's ever been with a large new yard and transload facility in West Upton, two busy customers in Hopedale and a new propane distribution facility in North Grafton. And the future looks even brighter as the connection to Milford has been reestablished after nearly 50 years out of service and now the G&U has commenced serving CSXT's former customers on the MBTA owned Milford Running Track.
During the transition era as business was being cultivated and the railroad was being rebuilt the line operated with vintage first generation EMDs. By far the most fascinating was this one GU 1501 an EMD F7A blt. Jun. 1952 as BLE 720A. In those early days it shared the active roster with a GP9, CF7, and assorted rebuilt GP7s and 9s of Santa Fe and Grand Trunk heritage. While many have since been scrapped, this classic F7 remains stored and may run again someday.
Today this area is wide open and cut back and equipped with crossing signals, and you'll find far younger patched CSXT MP15s leading trains. But on this day it was still a slow weed grown pike belying its early interurban heritage. The old Bessemer gal seems to be sneakily peaking around the corner as she pulls up to the George Jordan Blvd. crossing near MP 3.1 so the conductor can flag them through three crossings in quick succession here in Grafton Center
Grafton, Massachusetts
Thursday September 18, 2014