L004 In The Weeds
CSXT L004 (old B724) has been on duty more than four hours and is just now starting north. They are technically still inside the Framingham Yard limits as they trundle northbound on the Fitchburg Branch at about MP QBU35.6. The entirety of the branch is designated as Other Than Main Track with this local operating at Restricted Speed but not exceeding 10 MPH the whole way making for an agonizingly long round trip. The two GP40-2s are snaking through the weedy trackage on the causeway over the Foss Reservoir/Sudbury River with a big train of nearly 30 cars.
This trackage dates from 1855 when the Agricultural Branch Railroad opened between Framingham and Northborough. In July 1866, the railroad opened a 14-mile extension to a connection with the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad at Pratts Junction in Sterling. The next dozen years were rather convoluted as many small independent lines began to congeal into larger systems and by 1879 the route was part of the Old Colony Railroad, then ultimately the New York, New Haven, & Hartford in 1893.
This line, like its sister route to Lowell was one of only three incursions of the NH north of the defacto "Mason Dixon Line" of New England Railroading into Boston and Maine territory. For virtually a century, with few exceptions, the NH ruled CT and RI and everything in MA south of New York Central's Boston & Albany subsidiary that ran in a virtual straight line between its namesake cities bifurcating New England.
Today this 30 mile route meandering northwest is the last CSXT owned branchline in Massachusetts, with all the rest of any length that they still operate having been sold to MassDOT. The branch seems to have a solid future thanks to the addition of a busy new demolition debris customer near the end of the line in Leominster supplementing stalwarts like Ken's Foods, Nucor, and Bestway Lumber.
Framingham, Massachusetts
Friday December 9, 2022
L004 In The Weeds
CSXT L004 (old B724) has been on duty more than four hours and is just now starting north. They are technically still inside the Framingham Yard limits as they trundle northbound on the Fitchburg Branch at about MP QBU35.6. The entirety of the branch is designated as Other Than Main Track with this local operating at Restricted Speed but not exceeding 10 MPH the whole way making for an agonizingly long round trip. The two GP40-2s are snaking through the weedy trackage on the causeway over the Foss Reservoir/Sudbury River with a big train of nearly 30 cars.
This trackage dates from 1855 when the Agricultural Branch Railroad opened between Framingham and Northborough. In July 1866, the railroad opened a 14-mile extension to a connection with the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad at Pratts Junction in Sterling. The next dozen years were rather convoluted as many small independent lines began to congeal into larger systems and by 1879 the route was part of the Old Colony Railroad, then ultimately the New York, New Haven, & Hartford in 1893.
This line, like its sister route to Lowell was one of only three incursions of the NH north of the defacto "Mason Dixon Line" of New England Railroading into Boston and Maine territory. For virtually a century, with few exceptions, the NH ruled CT and RI and everything in MA south of New York Central's Boston & Albany subsidiary that ran in a virtual straight line between its namesake cities bifurcating New England.
Today this 30 mile route meandering northwest is the last CSXT owned branchline in Massachusetts, with all the rest of any length that they still operate having been sold to MassDOT. The branch seems to have a solid future thanks to the addition of a busy new demolition debris customer near the end of the line in Leominster supplementing stalwarts like Ken's Foods, Nucor, and Bestway Lumber.
Framingham, Massachusetts
Friday December 9, 2022