Urban Grit
While the Industrial Highway doesn't have anywhere near the number of rail served businesses it did a few decades ago it still offers up a few classic urban railroading scenes. No spot is better to capture the chaos than the busy crossing of Armistice Blvd. which was to be crossed multiple times while pulling and spotting longtime important customer Teknor Apex.
Providence and Worcester Railroad local freight PR-3 has started their day with a quick run out of Valley Falls yard with a single loaded covered hopper of plastic pellets and have arrived at the plant in the Darlington section of town. The crew is lining the switch at MP 2 on the East Providence Running Track as GP38-2 2007 waits patiently. Still dressed in the colors of the pre Genesee and Wyoming independent P&W this unit is original to the road having been built new by EMD for the then only 7 year newly independent company in Nov. 1980 respectively. It has spent its entire career working the of the Ocean State and its neighbors.
Rising beyond is the brick mill complex built by the Phillips Insulated Wire Company between about 1898 and 1927. The company, established in 1888, was one of the most successful manufacturers of coated wire products, in an industry that ranked as the third-largest in Pawtucket. The complex was used by a variety of owners for the manufacture of such products until 2003 and was a railroad customer for many years.
The complete complex originally consisted of one four-story brick, heavy timber structure built in 1898. Thirteen more buildings were built over time, making it one of the largest historic mill complexes in the region. It has since been repurposed into luxury lofts and condos and alas another rail served industry is gone forever with only the shell remaining as a photo prop.
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Monday April 21, 2025
Urban Grit
While the Industrial Highway doesn't have anywhere near the number of rail served businesses it did a few decades ago it still offers up a few classic urban railroading scenes. No spot is better to capture the chaos than the busy crossing of Armistice Blvd. which was to be crossed multiple times while pulling and spotting longtime important customer Teknor Apex.
Providence and Worcester Railroad local freight PR-3 has started their day with a quick run out of Valley Falls yard with a single loaded covered hopper of plastic pellets and have arrived at the plant in the Darlington section of town. The crew is lining the switch at MP 2 on the East Providence Running Track as GP38-2 2007 waits patiently. Still dressed in the colors of the pre Genesee and Wyoming independent P&W this unit is original to the road having been built new by EMD for the then only 7 year newly independent company in Nov. 1980 respectively. It has spent its entire career working the of the Ocean State and its neighbors.
Rising beyond is the brick mill complex built by the Phillips Insulated Wire Company between about 1898 and 1927. The company, established in 1888, was one of the most successful manufacturers of coated wire products, in an industry that ranked as the third-largest in Pawtucket. The complex was used by a variety of owners for the manufacture of such products until 2003 and was a railroad customer for many years.
The complete complex originally consisted of one four-story brick, heavy timber structure built in 1898. Thirteen more buildings were built over time, making it one of the largest historic mill complexes in the region. It has since been repurposed into luxury lofts and condos and alas another rail served industry is gone forever with only the shell remaining as a photo prop.
Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Monday April 21, 2025