Bow, Billerica and Beyond

NS power awaits unloading at Bow.

The DT&I Fan and I made a more or less impromptu trip south on Friday 2/22/13 with little more than some DeLorme and SPV maps, scanners and cameras.  We also took little on "intel" other than a loaded Bow Coal train was in "Bingo" or Rotterdam Jct. on Wednesday night.  We figured it was a good day to wander aimlessly and see stuff we'd never visited on the ground before - after Bow that is.

Concord tower, home of NEGS.

The drive down was quiet railfan-wise.  We pretty much followed US 202 to Concord.  For the archaeologist types, this route follows the old Lewiston-Portland Interurban route to Gray, crosses the "MEC Mountain Division" in South Windham, then parallels the WN&P/B&M/S&E to Rochester, NH.  Plenty of empty roadbeds, bridge abutments and even the odd building.  But, no trains.  The NHN was the first active line we crossed for two hours, and they weren't around.  Neither was NEGS home.  Not even a loco to look at near the tower in Concord.

Steam rises from PSNH Merrimack Station.

Bow was the first "lively" spot we hit after 3 hours, and that's a relative term.  The coal train was in the power plant and the locos were waiting in the usual spot near Johnson Rd.  The Ciment Quebec plant across the road was full of cars, and behind a lot of young trees and bushes.  The last time I was there, the cement plant was new (no vegetation) but empty.  No movement about but this was part of the ritual at going to Bow, and why we hadn't gone there much in this century.  Railfans who live closer catch all kinds of interesting power on this run but they have the luxury of following the train or popping by without burning half of a day in the process.  We drove 3 hours to see 3 "thoroughbreds" on Perinni Siding.  But this was to be a mere starting point and a change of pace from the usual drive down I-495.

The belly of the beast.

With Bow behind us, we headed south on Rt. 3 and 3a to North Chelmsford to see the wye where the "Northern" line to Concord breaks away from the "Freight Main".  We had hoped to take a location shot or two but with snow banks everywhere, crowded tight buildings and no parking, we gave up and kept moving.  The next target we could think of was Haverhill T Station.  But, on the way we noticed that North Billerica wasn't that far from our course.  Why not detour a couple of miles to check out a 'new to us' T station and possibly see "Iron Horse Park" for the first time.

To find the T station we simply had to follow the road signs.   We were barely out of the car and noticed the platform signs telling us that an outbound train was due in a few minutes.  That was plenty of time to scope the place out and yet not delay the day much.  Perfect.  It wasn't long before an MBTA GP40MC showed up towing a Lowell bound "purple train".   This was my first time seeing the "hunter orange" bags over the couplers.  I'll have to look up what that's supposed to accomplish. 

Even closer to the belly of the beast.

The DeLorme Atlas told us how close the town was to our route, and helped vaguely otherwise but was pretty limited on the local streets.  From the station we did a lot of driving to find "Iron Horse Park" by dead-reckoning.  It had to be hemmed in by two lines and near the splitting point.  We missed the correct turn on our first pass through the neighborhood.  But, we found a cross street after establishing that there is a large "wilderness" and water supply area south of town.  We found the correct street "bassackwardly" but we found it.  There wasn't much to see legally and again we were foiled by snow banks.  We settled for a picture of the sign on High St. and a quick look at the sheer size of the former B&M shop complex.

A southbound Downeaster tries to sneak into Haverhill.

Next we did some more dead-reckoning to the Haverhill T Station.  We did eventually find it and the schedule gave us two trains in about half-an-hour.  The first train in was the T.  Since this was the end of the line, I figured well where it would come from but missed which track it would be on.  Anyone one would have guess right-hand running, especially with a Downeaster train due.  Well that was backwards.  The T showed up on the station side and the Downeaster came in soon thereafter on the other side.  While that hurt the shot I was set up for, it set me up for some interesting shots of the Downeaster mixed with the T.  Meanwhile the place is suddenly crawling with people crossing the tracks and looking for the right train or their car in the parking garage across the tracks.  It looked like chaos to me, but it apparently is the daily ritual here at 4:08 or so.

Downeaster departing Haverhill over the Merrimack River.

With the trains gone we got back on the road.  Daylight was fading so we headed to another "new to us" station in Newburyport".  We had no schedules with us so we didn't know what we might see.  As it turned out, we just missed a train by 20 minutes and another wasn't arriving for 45 minutes.  While a train would have been good, daylight would be gone before the arrival, so we settled for some location shots with lots of empty track.  This station was interesting to us because it is the stub end of the old "Eastern" line to Portland.  The bumpers were by the end of the platforms.  The swing bridge over the Merrimac River, while still in place, needs repair and the rails have been removed.  It will be decades, if ever, before that line sees trains to Portsmouth again.  Looked like a potentially interesting summer diversion to return and walk the trail up to the bridge.

That might have been the end of the day but it wasn't.  We drove up to Derry, NH for the Derry Model Railroad Fun Night.  This took us along Rt.28 and a roadbed through Salem.  It was too dark to see the old station though.  The group in Derry is part of the NMRA Seacoast Division and had an interesting presentation on doing "compacted" scenery on your layout.  It was entitled "5 miles in 3/4 inches" and dealt with layered backdrops.  It was getting late when they got to the "hands on" part so we left early and reversed out morning course back home. 

Sunlight gets scarce at Newburyport.

It was a good day to be out of the house and though we didn't see many trains, we found some interesting stuff.   Some things will be worth another visit.

BC

Another Winter of Our Discount Tent

I hadn't pointed my digital SLR at a rail subject in months so I figured I'd get off my duff an do it while the snow was still around.  The scanner was quiet so I decided to catch up on the local sights.  Some minor changes had taken place since summer so on Sunday 2/17/13 those were my first targets.  Pan Am has renamed the sidings so that each end has a distinct name too - no more 'east' - 'west' designations.  I haven't looked them up yet and I didn't notice any signs to photograph.

The St. Lawrence and Atlantic put up a new sanding tower.  So, a couple of shots were in order to show the facility.  The former BAR plow was out resting, yet poised for the next storm.   Sundays are pretty quiet so I didn't linger for long.  The blizzard winds easily discouraged loitering.  By the way, I think the old sanding tower was from the BAR too, Northern Maine Jct. roundhouse in Hermon, ME.

I have no info on the project since I'd only recently heard of its manufacture and had no idea that it was this far along.  Some colleagues knew an apprentice machinist who was making parts for the project.  These educators were fascinated that trains used sand for traction and with how obvious that sounded.











On Monday the sun came out and the DT&I Fan joined me for an afternoon around the area.  As usual we started at the junctions.  Nothing at Danville but the SLR was switching the newer Savage 
/ Safe Handling yard.  The Quebec Gatineau switcher pair was doing the honors.  Although it wasn't a rare sight, the sun was too good to pass up.  When they move on, I'll be glad I caught them.



We figured we'd head north.  Nothing on the  scanner but we knew there had to be a RUPO somewhere.  At first we didn't see or hear anything at Leeds Jct.  So, we headed to Waterville.  However, we only got as far as the overpass over the Rumford line.  RUPO was moving so we did a u-turn back to the junction.  It took a while for it to reach the switch.  Meanwhile, we sat in the warm car by the signal and watched the winds whip the snow by us.  Eventually they got their Form-D clearance to move out and pass our spot.  We were next to a snow pile where the shack used to be.  Carl used the pile for height.  I used the car window to prevent frostbite.  The pile also enabled a coupler high drift to form so the train would have to bash through it.  A third camera down the tracks could have caught the impact but the operator would have been a popsicle before it was over.   

Waterville was our next target.  No real hopes in finding anything but some odd locos were in the neighborhood so we figured we'd give it a shot.  Near town we heard the SAPPI job get clearance to enter the mainline at CPF110.  We exited at Fairfield and found our train at the crossing so we got ahead to MP 111 for a grab shot at the crossing, which I missed.  Farther down in the yard we were able to catch the train entering the yard.  The sun was pretty good for the old "sludge gray". The main tracks were clear for a change.  Unfortunately, that was the last thing of note in town.

 We figured we'd see if PORU was in the neighborhood yet since the scanner was pretty quiet otherwise. (The "Bucksport Job" was active but well beyond our reach) Earlier at Leeds we'd heard that the crew came on duty at 1300 in Rigby.  Maybe a meet at New Gloucester - or whatever they call it now so we headed there off the pike.  No joy.  Turned out that RUPO made it only as far as "Rumford Jct. - West", or "Poland" now.  Their clearance mentioned returning the switch to normal at "Hackett's", formerly "Rumford Jct. - East".  DJ-1 and the SLR were playing in the yard at Danville Jct. so perhaps they had to wait their turn.

Anyway, I finished the day shooting the SLR as it worked among those fancy new switch lock signals.  

BC