Slow Slog East
Thanks to a stop and protect order for all the crossings it was a slow slog east for Berkshire and Eastern Railroad train B100. This shot isn't much to look at but since I was here anyway I grabbed this after Pownal Curve as slow as they were going. After flagging the Orchard St. crossing they are accelerating here at MP 431.4 on the B&E operated Pan Am Southern Freight Mainline, the one time Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division. Rising some 2500 ft in the background is the Taconic Range forming the border between Vermont and New York.
B100 is the symbol B&E uses for the continuation to Ayer of Norfolk Southern train 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 here because one condition of the sale of Pan Am to CSXT in 2022 was the granting of trakage rights to NS for the 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 June 1, so if you want shots of 'the pig train' on the old Boston and Maine the time is now.
Pownal, Vermont
Friday January 17, 2025
Slow Slog East
Thanks to a stop and protect order for all the crossings it was a slow slog east for Berkshire and Eastern Railroad train B100. This shot isn't much to look at but since I was here anyway I grabbed this after Pownal Curve as slow as they were going. After flagging the Orchard St. crossing they are accelerating here at MP 431.4 on the B&E operated Pan Am Southern Freight Mainline, the one time Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division. Rising some 2500 ft in the background is the Taconic Range forming the border between Vermont and New York.
B100 is the symbol B&E uses for the continuation to Ayer of Norfolk Southern train 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 here because one condition of the sale of Pan Am to CSXT in 2022 was the granting of trakage rights to NS for the 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 June 1, so if you want shots of 'the pig train' on the old Boston and Maine the time is now.
Pownal, Vermont
Friday January 17, 2025