B100 At Shelburne Falls
Another uninspiring image from this bleak day on the west end
Other than East Portal there are a few other classic locations on the west end that everyone does but with speeds up on the railroad post Pan Am and slow conditions on the roads we couldn't catch back up to them for the Zoar or Charlemont shots. We only followed him east as far as this spot before turning back west for the tunnel in hopes of another train. Eastbound train B100 seen making good time crossing Ashfield St. on Main 2 at MP 398.7 of the Berkshire and Eastern's Freight Main. I am standing almost exactly where the joint Boston and Maine and New Haven passenger station once stood. It's hard to imagine that the New Haven once reached this far north with the Shelburne extension of the Canal Line from South Deerfield which opened in 1881 but had a very short life being taken out of service in 1919 and removed seven years later. The station saw its last B&M train call on November 1, 1958 and I'm not certain how much longer it survived before being demolished. Fortunately the freight house survives behind me and is nicely restored and cared for by the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum
Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company which is newly created to act as a neutral third party operator of the former 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 for operation on the MBTA property east of Westminster. This train is on borrowed time out here because another condition of the sale was NS being granted trackage rights for one 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!
Buckland, Massachusetts
Friday January 26, 2024
B100 At Shelburne Falls
Another uninspiring image from this bleak day on the west end
Other than East Portal there are a few other classic locations on the west end that everyone does but with speeds up on the railroad post Pan Am and slow conditions on the roads we couldn't catch back up to them for the Zoar or Charlemont shots. We only followed him east as far as this spot before turning back west for the tunnel in hopes of another train. Eastbound train B100 seen making good time crossing Ashfield St. on Main 2 at MP 398.7 of the Berkshire and Eastern's Freight Main. I am standing almost exactly where the joint Boston and Maine and New Haven passenger station once stood. It's hard to imagine that the New Haven once reached this far north with the Shelburne extension of the Canal Line from South Deerfield which opened in 1881 but had a very short life being taken out of service in 1919 and removed seven years later. The station saw its last B&M train call on November 1, 1958 and I'm not certain how much longer it survived before being demolished. Fortunately the freight house survives behind me and is nicely restored and cared for by the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum
Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company which is newly created to act as a neutral third party operator of the former 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 for operation on the MBTA property east of Westminster. This train is on borrowed time out here because another condition of the sale was NS being granted trackage rights for one 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!
Buckland, Massachusetts
Friday January 26, 2024