611 At Barretts
New England Central Railroad train 611 (Brattleboro to Palmer turn that forwards the connecting 323/324 road freight traffic) has four six motor units leading a big train as they slow to make their set out here at Barretts, about MP 69 on NECR's Palmer Sub, the former Central Vermont Railway mainline. The track curving off to the right crosses the Swift River and heads to the former Quabog Transfer site, now a very busy industrial park in Bondsville, MA that generates much business for the NECR. While this spur and bridge are relatively new dating from the early 1980s, in days of old the Boston and Albany Railroad's Athol Branch once crossed the CV about a quarter mile to the north. Abandone in 1935 north of Bondsville when much of the line was inundated by the new Quabbin Reaervoir and then cut back further to Ludlow in 1939, the CV took over a short portion from the crossing into Bondsville and ran it for many more years about as far as the old freight house which still stands on Main Street.
Rebuilt SD40M-2 3476 on the point still has her classic SD45 lines dating from her Mar. 1969 construction for the Cotton Belt as SSW 9058. The old CV never rostered anything like this and the woods of central Mass sure is a long way from this old girl's days of whipping thru Texarkana on the head of the Memphis Blue Streak...but at least she's still earning her keep.
Belchertown, Massachusetts
Friday October 14, 2022
611 At Barretts
New England Central Railroad train 611 (Brattleboro to Palmer turn that forwards the connecting 323/324 road freight traffic) has four six motor units leading a big train as they slow to make their set out here at Barretts, about MP 69 on NECR's Palmer Sub, the former Central Vermont Railway mainline. The track curving off to the right crosses the Swift River and heads to the former Quabog Transfer site, now a very busy industrial park in Bondsville, MA that generates much business for the NECR. While this spur and bridge are relatively new dating from the early 1980s, in days of old the Boston and Albany Railroad's Athol Branch once crossed the CV about a quarter mile to the north. Abandone in 1935 north of Bondsville when much of the line was inundated by the new Quabbin Reaervoir and then cut back further to Ludlow in 1939, the CV took over a short portion from the crossing into Bondsville and ran it for many more years about as far as the old freight house which still stands on Main Street.
Rebuilt SD40M-2 3476 on the point still has her classic SD45 lines dating from her Mar. 1969 construction for the Cotton Belt as SSW 9058. The old CV never rostered anything like this and the woods of central Mass sure is a long way from this old girl's days of whipping thru Texarkana on the head of the Memphis Blue Streak...but at least she's still earning her keep.
Belchertown, Massachusetts
Friday October 14, 2022