Spring Snow
Just another frame of this train on borrowed time.
Berkshire and Eastern train B100 exits the East Portal of the famed Hoosac Tunnel after traveling 4.75 miles and 1000 ft beneath its namesake mountain deep in the heart of the Berkshire Range. A light coating of spring snow brightens this gray afternoon here at MP 415.7 on B&E's former Pan Am Freight Main, the former Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division.
Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company which was created to serve as the neutral third party operator of the former Pan Am Southern property as a condition of the sale of Pan Am Railways to CSX in 2022. 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 on the west end because another condition of the sale of Pan Am 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 leave their current routing at Delanson, NY and take the old Delaware and Hudson Albany main to Voorheesville, where they will utilize the rebuilt connection on to the Selkirk Branch. From there they will travel east via Selkirk Yard, the Castleton Bridge and the Berkshire and Boston Subs to Worcester and on up to Ayer. Allegedly, that routing will commence sometime later this spring or summer, so if you want shots of 'the pig train' on the old Boston and Maine the time is now.
Florida, Massachusetts
Saturday April 12, 2025
Spring Snow
Just another frame of this train on borrowed time.
Berkshire and Eastern train B100 exits the East Portal of the famed Hoosac Tunnel after traveling 4.75 miles and 1000 ft beneath its namesake mountain deep in the heart of the Berkshire Range. A light coating of spring snow brightens this gray afternoon here at MP 415.7 on B&E's former Pan Am Freight Main, the former Boston and Maine Fitchburg Division.
Berkshire and Eastern is a Genesee and Wyoming owned company which was created to serve as the neutral third party operator of the former Pan Am Southern property as a condition of the sale of Pan Am Railways to CSX in 2022. 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 on the west end because another condition of the sale of Pan Am 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 leave their current routing at Delanson, NY and take the old Delaware and Hudson Albany main to Voorheesville, where they will utilize the rebuilt connection on to the Selkirk Branch. From there they will travel east via Selkirk Yard, the Castleton Bridge and the Berkshire and Boston Subs to Worcester and on up to Ayer. Allegedly, that routing will commence sometime later this spring or summer, so if you want shots of 'the pig train' on the old Boston and Maine the time is now.
Florida, Massachusetts
Saturday April 12, 2025