Hoosac Hustle
For Freight Car Friday here's a look at the single stack intermodal cars on Berkshire and Eastern Railroad train B100 hustling out of the darkness at the east portal of the 4.75 mile long Hoosac Tunnel at MP 415.7 on the former Pan Am Freight Main, the once Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division. Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company that is newly created to serve as a neutral third party operator of the Pan Am Southern property as a result of the sale of Pan Am Railways to CSX.
Train B100 is the symbol B&E uses for the continuation to Ayer of Norfolk Southern eastbound 264 (intermodal 63rd Street Yard in Chicago to Mechanicville) that used to be known as 22K. The train is led by the standard SD60E which is necessary due to it being one of a small fleet of this model equipped with ACSES required for operation on MBTA property east of Westminster. The days are growing short for photographing intermodal here because another condition of the sale was the granting of trackage rights to NS for operation of one daily pair of premium trains (this one and its westbound counterpart) over CSXT's former Boston and Albany route. These trains will then take the old Delaware and Hudson Albany main to Voorheesville, NY and utilize the connection on to Selkirk Branch which has been rebuilt there. From there they will travel east via Selkirk Yard, the Castelton Bridge and the Berkshire and Boston Subs to Worcester and on up to Ayer. Allegedly that routing will commence in March, so if you want shots of 'the pig train' on the old Boston and Maine the time is now!
Florida, Massachusetts
Friday January 26, 2024
Hoosac Hustle
For Freight Car Friday here's a look at the single stack intermodal cars on Berkshire and Eastern Railroad train B100 hustling out of the darkness at the east portal of the 4.75 mile long Hoosac Tunnel at MP 415.7 on the former Pan Am Freight Main, the once Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division. Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company that is newly created to serve as a neutral third party operator of the Pan Am Southern property as a result of the sale of Pan Am Railways to CSX.
Train B100 is the symbol B&E uses for the continuation to Ayer of Norfolk Southern eastbound 264 (intermodal 63rd Street Yard in Chicago to Mechanicville) that used to be known as 22K. The train is led by the standard SD60E which is necessary due to it being one of a small fleet of this model equipped with ACSES required for operation on MBTA property east of Westminster. The days are growing short for photographing intermodal here because another condition of the sale was the granting of trackage rights to NS for operation of one daily pair of premium trains (this one and its westbound counterpart) over CSXT's former Boston and Albany route. These trains will then take the old Delaware and Hudson Albany main to Voorheesville, NY and utilize the connection on to Selkirk Branch which has been rebuilt there. From there they will travel east via Selkirk Yard, the Castelton Bridge and the Berkshire and Boston Subs to Worcester and on up to Ayer. Allegedly that routing will commence in March, so if you want shots of 'the pig train' on the old Boston and Maine the time is now!
Florida, Massachusetts
Friday January 26, 2024