Saugus Draw
CSXT's ex Pan Am BO-1 local has a little seven car train seen hustling up the Keolis/MBTA (ex Boston and Maine) Eastern Route mainline at MP 9.5 crossing Saugus Draw enroute to Salem and the Danvers Branch headed to Peabody. The 487 ft long double track bridge dates from 1911 and has a 65 ft movable span. According to the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) it is a single-leaf Strauss overhead counterweight bascule which is believed to be the oldest known example of its type in Massachusetts. It is particularly significant for its innovative engineering design and association with a prominent bridge engineer, Joseph Baermann Strauss, whose company designed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Alas like so much other legacy Boston and Maine infrastructure, this bridge has reached the end of its useful life and a replacement is in the works as described here: archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstream/handle/2452/799579/ocn...
Leading the freight is CSXT's ex Pan Am Railways GMDD GP40-2W MEC 507 (blt. Jul 1974 as CN 9472) which was given this mysterious retro fresh Guilford gray paint job at Waterville in August 2020 and has been frequently assigned to BO-1 since then. If you haven't seen what she looked like sparking fresh check out this shot:
This view looks west from the crumbling sidewalk of the Route 1A General Edwards Bridge at the industrial waterfront of the Saugus River. At left is the controversial Wheelabrator Saugus trash incinerator that processes some 1500 tons of municipal waste every day generating up to 37MW of electricity. At right on the Lynn shore is the massive River Works plant of GE Aerospace that employs nearly 2500 and per their web site: has a history that dates back more than 125 years and is recognized as one of the founding sites of the General Electric Company. The site is home to the first U.S. jet engine (1942) and other prominent aviation industry milestones. The Lynn plant is recognized as a U.S. Department of Defense facility that designs, produces, assembles, and tests military and commercial aircraft engines and components.
In the foreground is a grafitti covered pipeline leading to a derelict pumping station on pilings. Alas I've not been able to find any info on when it was built and what it served so if anyone here knows it's history or purpose I'd love to know more.
And while everything looks normal at the moment, change is on the horizon as it was recently announced the Rousselot in Peabody is closing which means the end of the last freight customer remaining north of Boston on the Eastern Route. That may mean the end of BO-1 (or L055 as CSXT now symbols it) which has long been based in Somerville, as it's possible CSXT may choose to serve their Chelsea and Everett customers via Framingham. Regardless of what happens there your chances to photograph freight trains on this bridge or anywhere else on the line will be over by June....so shoot it now, you might not get a second chance.
Saugus, Massachusetts
Thursday March 9, 2023
Saugus Draw
CSXT's ex Pan Am BO-1 local has a little seven car train seen hustling up the Keolis/MBTA (ex Boston and Maine) Eastern Route mainline at MP 9.5 crossing Saugus Draw enroute to Salem and the Danvers Branch headed to Peabody. The 487 ft long double track bridge dates from 1911 and has a 65 ft movable span. According to the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) it is a single-leaf Strauss overhead counterweight bascule which is believed to be the oldest known example of its type in Massachusetts. It is particularly significant for its innovative engineering design and association with a prominent bridge engineer, Joseph Baermann Strauss, whose company designed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
Alas like so much other legacy Boston and Maine infrastructure, this bridge has reached the end of its useful life and a replacement is in the works as described here: archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstream/handle/2452/799579/ocn...
Leading the freight is CSXT's ex Pan Am Railways GMDD GP40-2W MEC 507 (blt. Jul 1974 as CN 9472) which was given this mysterious retro fresh Guilford gray paint job at Waterville in August 2020 and has been frequently assigned to BO-1 since then. If you haven't seen what she looked like sparking fresh check out this shot:
This view looks west from the crumbling sidewalk of the Route 1A General Edwards Bridge at the industrial waterfront of the Saugus River. At left is the controversial Wheelabrator Saugus trash incinerator that processes some 1500 tons of municipal waste every day generating up to 37MW of electricity. At right on the Lynn shore is the massive River Works plant of GE Aerospace that employs nearly 2500 and per their web site: has a history that dates back more than 125 years and is recognized as one of the founding sites of the General Electric Company. The site is home to the first U.S. jet engine (1942) and other prominent aviation industry milestones. The Lynn plant is recognized as a U.S. Department of Defense facility that designs, produces, assembles, and tests military and commercial aircraft engines and components.
In the foreground is a grafitti covered pipeline leading to a derelict pumping station on pilings. Alas I've not been able to find any info on when it was built and what it served so if anyone here knows it's history or purpose I'd love to know more.
And while everything looks normal at the moment, change is on the horizon as it was recently announced the Rousselot in Peabody is closing which means the end of the last freight customer remaining north of Boston on the Eastern Route. That may mean the end of BO-1 (or L055 as CSXT now symbols it) which has long been based in Somerville, as it's possible CSXT may choose to serve their Chelsea and Everett customers via Framingham. Regardless of what happens there your chances to photograph freight trains on this bridge or anywhere else on the line will be over by June....so shoot it now, you might not get a second chance.
Saugus, Massachusetts
Thursday March 9, 2023