Lawrence Luck
For a brief moment little Lawrence Yard might just have been the location of the coolest gathering of power on the entirety of the vast CSXT network! Four wide cab GP40 variants, each in a different scheme, congregate in the former Boston and Maine facility which is now CSXT property thanks to its 2022 acquisition of Pan Am Railways.
A pair of former Pan Am GP40-2Ws of CN heritage are at rest in the yard, MEC 516 in PAR blue and MEC 507 in its retro 'heritage' Guilford scheme which it was repainted into in 2020, the last unit ever freshly painted as such. To their left is CSXT's three car geometry train with its assigned one of a kind unit, CSXT 9969, an ex MARC GP40WH-2. Double heading with it is MBTA 1129, a rebuilt GP40MC (rebuilt from an original CN GP40-2W like those beside her) dressed in this one of a kind 'cranberry' heritage scheme.
The CSXT GEO train was being returned by the MBTA after spending two a half days testing on the commuter rail. Due to the fact that 9969 is not equipped with ACSES PTC equipment it could not lead on the MBTA lines.
The T measures and tests its lines quarterly, but with no equipment of its own has always relied on Amtrak's Corridor Clipper car for this work. For whatever reason Amtrak is no longer able to support this so other arrangements were made. An Ensco truck twated all South Side lines except the Worcester Mainline and the MBTA/Keolis made arrangements with CSXT to borrow their train which was used to test east from Worcester, and the Grand Junction Branch, and all the former B&M North Side lines. With the T in the process of building two GEO cars of its own it is unsure if this will ever happen again or if this was a strictly one off occurrence.
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Friday May 23, 2025
Lawrence Luck
For a brief moment little Lawrence Yard might just have been the location of the coolest gathering of power on the entirety of the vast CSXT network! Four wide cab GP40 variants, each in a different scheme, congregate in the former Boston and Maine facility which is now CSXT property thanks to its 2022 acquisition of Pan Am Railways.
A pair of former Pan Am GP40-2Ws of CN heritage are at rest in the yard, MEC 516 in PAR blue and MEC 507 in its retro 'heritage' Guilford scheme which it was repainted into in 2020, the last unit ever freshly painted as such. To their left is CSXT's three car geometry train with its assigned one of a kind unit, CSXT 9969, an ex MARC GP40WH-2. Double heading with it is MBTA 1129, a rebuilt GP40MC (rebuilt from an original CN GP40-2W like those beside her) dressed in this one of a kind 'cranberry' heritage scheme.
The CSXT GEO train was being returned by the MBTA after spending two a half days testing on the commuter rail. Due to the fact that 9969 is not equipped with ACSES PTC equipment it could not lead on the MBTA lines.
The T measures and tests its lines quarterly, but with no equipment of its own has always relied on Amtrak's Corridor Clipper car for this work. For whatever reason Amtrak is no longer able to support this so other arrangements were made. An Ensco truck twated all South Side lines except the Worcester Mainline and the MBTA/Keolis made arrangements with CSXT to borrow their train which was used to test east from Worcester, and the Grand Junction Branch, and all the former B&M North Side lines. With the T in the process of building two GEO cars of its own it is unsure if this will ever happen again or if this was a strictly one off occurrence.
Lawrence, Massachusetts
Friday May 23, 2025