Bill Matta
Conrail WARE-29 (May 21, 1986)
Conrail's WARE-29 is eastbound on trk. 2 just west of the Attleboro, MA station. Thatcher Interlocking can be seen in the distance.
At the time, this job worked M-F out of Readville Yd. and serviced consignees along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Canton Jct. & the Attleboro/Hebronville area, including the East Jct. Branch (Condon-Carpenter Steel in Seekonk). The branch's other customer, Teknor Apex (along with Pascale Brick in S. Attleboro on the NEC), was serviced by WAMI-1 out of Middleboro yard. In the photo, the flat behind the locos was likely to/from the steel place.
After heading west out of Readville, they would work in Mansfield at Blaine Chemical & American Paper and then clear up at the Zayre's switch. At Zayre's, there were 8-9 customers located in the W. Mansfield Industrial Park. For a time in the late 80's, a repurposed warehouse located there also received flatcars w/ MBTA subway cars (Red Line, I think) for pre-delivery work.
Continuing west, they would head for Hebronville to switch Furman Lumber. Afterwards, they would pipe back (with a real caboose!) to trk. 4 at Attleboro tower (still manned with an operator then!) to run around their train.
After lunch, they would head east and clear up at the Merkens Chocolate siding lead in Mansfield, where they would switch Champion Container, Franklin Warehouse & Owens Illinois. Later on, Tighe Bros Warehouse would also build a siding on this lead adjacent to the Amtrak mainline.
Once done there, under the authorization of the Attleboro Tower operator, they would open up on main line # 2, shove west to clear the switch & then make a quick eastbound sprint for home!
The conductor in the doorway of the 3371 is my Dad. Oftentimes back then, I would visit my Dad at work. Over the next few years, I hired out & ended up working on different runs with him many times. Some wonderful memories for me!
Conrail WARE-29 (May 21, 1986)
Conrail's WARE-29 is eastbound on trk. 2 just west of the Attleboro, MA station. Thatcher Interlocking can be seen in the distance.
At the time, this job worked M-F out of Readville Yd. and serviced consignees along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Canton Jct. & the Attleboro/Hebronville area, including the East Jct. Branch (Condon-Carpenter Steel in Seekonk). The branch's other customer, Teknor Apex (along with Pascale Brick in S. Attleboro on the NEC), was serviced by WAMI-1 out of Middleboro yard. In the photo, the flat behind the locos was likely to/from the steel place.
After heading west out of Readville, they would work in Mansfield at Blaine Chemical & American Paper and then clear up at the Zayre's switch. At Zayre's, there were 8-9 customers located in the W. Mansfield Industrial Park. For a time in the late 80's, a repurposed warehouse located there also received flatcars w/ MBTA subway cars (Red Line, I think) for pre-delivery work.
Continuing west, they would head for Hebronville to switch Furman Lumber. Afterwards, they would pipe back (with a real caboose!) to trk. 4 at Attleboro tower (still manned with an operator then!) to run around their train.
After lunch, they would head east and clear up at the Merkens Chocolate siding lead in Mansfield, where they would switch Champion Container, Franklin Warehouse & Owens Illinois. Later on, Tighe Bros Warehouse would also build a siding on this lead adjacent to the Amtrak mainline.
Once done there, under the authorization of the Attleboro Tower operator, they would open up on main line # 2, shove west to clear the switch & then make a quick eastbound sprint for home!
The conductor in the doorway of the 3371 is my Dad. Oftentimes back then, I would visit my Dad at work. Over the next few years, I hired out & ended up working on different runs with him many times. Some wonderful memories for me!