Lovely Local
CSXT local L011 (formerly) B733 with lone GP40-2 6226 (EMD blt. Jan. 1978 as BO 4327 and delivered in Chessie System paint) has a half dozen cars in tow as they approach Elm Street at MP 2 on the Framingham Secondary headed for Mansfield where they work customers located off Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in the area.
Built as the Mansfield and Framingham Railroad in 1870 the 21 mile route between its two namesake points came under the aegis the Old Colony Railroad in 1879 and then the New Haven in 1893 when that system absorbed the OCRR. 40 years later passenger service ended, but for the past 86 years the line has been an important freight route. Passing from the NH to PC, CR and ultimately CSXT the line was sold by the latter in June 2015 to MassDOT for $23 million. The line is now dispatched and maintained under contract by Mass Coastal but still served by CSXT which owns the perpetual freight rights. This branch line was for years limited to 10 MPH but has recently been upgraded all to 25 and 30 thanks to the state despite still normally seeing just four trains a day on its fairly flat route through wooded semi rural and suburban Boston bedroom communities.
Foxborough, Massachusetts
Wednesday April 12, 2023
Lovely Local
CSXT local L011 (formerly) B733 with lone GP40-2 6226 (EMD blt. Jan. 1978 as BO 4327 and delivered in Chessie System paint) has a half dozen cars in tow as they approach Elm Street at MP 2 on the Framingham Secondary headed for Mansfield where they work customers located off Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in the area.
Built as the Mansfield and Framingham Railroad in 1870 the 21 mile route between its two namesake points came under the aegis the Old Colony Railroad in 1879 and then the New Haven in 1893 when that system absorbed the OCRR. 40 years later passenger service ended, but for the past 86 years the line has been an important freight route. Passing from the NH to PC, CR and ultimately CSXT the line was sold by the latter in June 2015 to MassDOT for $23 million. The line is now dispatched and maintained under contract by Mass Coastal but still served by CSXT which owns the perpetual freight rights. This branch line was for years limited to 10 MPH but has recently been upgraded all to 25 and 30 thanks to the state despite still normally seeing just four trains a day on its fairly flat route through wooded semi rural and suburban Boston bedroom communities.
Foxborough, Massachusetts
Wednesday April 12, 2023