310 Working Bow
On a perfect end of summer day Pan Am local NA-1 heading light down the lead into the then Public Service of New Hampshire's Merrimack Generating station. This lead diverges from the Concord Industrial Track at MP N40. The industrial is the continuation of the Northern Mainline which officially ends about two miles south at MP N38. MEC 310 (EMD GP40 blt. Oct. 1968 as PC 3194) went to retrieve a lone empty tank car placarded with a UN1005. This is anhydrous ammonia is used in the coal burning process to remove nitrogen oxides that are produced during combustion. NOX is one the main ingredients involved in the formation of ground-level ozone....and now you know why there is a tank car in a coal plant!
The first rails through here were laid by the Concord Railroad in 1842. And while the Northern is little more than a glorified branch line these days, for 130 years it was part of an important thru route between Boston and Canada by way of the Concord & Montreal to Wells River and the Northern to White River Junction, both in Vermont. All these routes eventually came to be part of the mighty Boston and Maine system and then were slowly abandoned as that once great road disintegrated in the post war era. The last thru train operated by the B&M ran around 1982 and successor Guilford ultimately removed the Northern (the BC&M from Plymouth having been abandoned 30 years before the Guilford era) but has continued to run this local to handle the remaining carload business and occasional unit coal trains to this power plant.
Bow, New Hampshire
Friday September 16, 2011
310 Working Bow
On a perfect end of summer day Pan Am local NA-1 heading light down the lead into the then Public Service of New Hampshire's Merrimack Generating station. This lead diverges from the Concord Industrial Track at MP N40. The industrial is the continuation of the Northern Mainline which officially ends about two miles south at MP N38. MEC 310 (EMD GP40 blt. Oct. 1968 as PC 3194) went to retrieve a lone empty tank car placarded with a UN1005. This is anhydrous ammonia is used in the coal burning process to remove nitrogen oxides that are produced during combustion. NOX is one the main ingredients involved in the formation of ground-level ozone....and now you know why there is a tank car in a coal plant!
The first rails through here were laid by the Concord Railroad in 1842. And while the Northern is little more than a glorified branch line these days, for 130 years it was part of an important thru route between Boston and Canada by way of the Concord & Montreal to Wells River and the Northern to White River Junction, both in Vermont. All these routes eventually came to be part of the mighty Boston and Maine system and then were slowly abandoned as that once great road disintegrated in the post war era. The last thru train operated by the B&M ran around 1982 and successor Guilford ultimately removed the Northern (the BC&M from Plymouth having been abandoned 30 years before the Guilford era) but has continued to run this local to handle the remaining carload business and occasional unit coal trains to this power plant.
Bow, New Hampshire
Friday September 16, 2011