Photo of the Week: 3/23/2012

A while ago, I mentioned that I rarely see trains on the Hillsboro Branch, out of Nashua, and I would love to railfan the line sometime. Recently, however, I was driving around town and happened to see a train on the Hillsboro Branch. Armed with my camera and some free time, I followed it back to Nashua Yard. I still didn't get to railfan much beyond what I talked about last time, but at least the train was more than just a light engine!

Here the train is pictured crossing Main Street in Nashua. Most of the crossings on this line are not protected, and someone has to get out of the cab and wave a red flag at all the crossings. Most people still drive through the crossing anyway, until the train blocks their way.

The locomotive is a GP40 painted for Pan Am Railways, the operator of the line. It has B&M reporting marks, but it is not an ex-Boston & Maine engine. Boston & Maine had a small fleet of GP40-2s, numbered 300-317, but Guilford, Pan Am's predecessor, sold those off many years ago. These GP40s came from Conrail, originally purchased by Penn Central for the Boston & Albany line, B&M's direct competitor across Massachusetts.

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Photo of the Week: 1/13/2012

One day at work, I heard a train whistle when I happened to be outside. Pan Am's Hillsboro Branch is nearby, so the train must have been running on that line. I was kind of disappointed that I would not be able to chase the train, it was a beautiful day, I had my camera with me, the Hillsboro Branch sees very little traffic and I have never been able to chase a train very far on it despite living here my whole life. When I got out of work a few hours later, I once again heard a train whistle. Chasing the train 3 miles back to Nashua Yard was better than nothing, so I got in my car and started chasing.

I caught the train at Broad Street, Main Street, Temple Street, and Crown Street. The photo is at the last spot, the yard ladder ends at the Crown Street crossing. The Hillsboro Branch splits from the main just as close to the road, but on the other side of the crossing. The train I saw was just the light locomotive, MEC 345, returning to the yard. I don't know how far out on the line it went or what industries it switched, because I was stuck at work then. Actually, I've never been able to chase a train on the Hillsboro Branch much past Broad Street. Perhaps one day I will hear a train whistle when I have a few hours to kill and go chasing.

Photo of the Week: 1/6/2012

Well, this is the first Photo of the Week post for the new year!  I started this column in December 2010 with a photo of a Long Island Railroad train crossing Main Street in Port Jefferson, NY.  Since then, we've visited the Long Island Railroad, a tourist line here in New Hampshire, San Francisco, and James even shared a photo from a Costa Rica railroad once.  Today's photo takes us to Ayer, MA, a place we haven't visited in a while.  I was down there on a summer evening one time, to see the daily intermodal train pull in.  Here is one of the photos I shot:



The train is Pan Am symbol MOAY (Mohawk Yard in Albany, NY to Ayer, MA).  It runs daily, arriving in Ayer in the evening and leaving in the early afternoon the next day.  The train usually runs with Norfolk Southern power, and carries containers, trailers, and autoracks.  The train pulled through the station, which is inside of a wye, and backed down the east leg of the wye, behind where I am standing.  The train was too long for the yard, and had to be broken into two cuts of cars to fit in the yard.  Even then, they were still 3 autoracks too long, so they parked those on an empty siding west of the station.

Photo of the Week: 4/9/2011

Well, it's Saturday. I didn't have access to a computer yesterday so yesterday's post is coming today.

Today's photo comes from last summer. When I was leaving work one day, I heard a train whistle. Having a camera with me, I drove down to the Broad Street crossing in Nashua, not far from where I work, and got this photo. It was NA1, the Nashua local on the Hillsboro Branch, coming back to Nashua Yard as just a light engine, MEC 345, a GP40 in Pan Am paint. I chased the train the last few miles back to the yard, taking photos along the way. The locomotive is running long hood first, towards the back of the photo.

What is now the Hillsboro Branch is not used often, only a few times a week. Pan Am serves most of the customers on this line from Nashua Yard. Milford-Bennington Railroad (MBRX), a local shortline, serves Granite State Concrete out in Milford and Wilton. The single train that the railroad owns operates back and forth between a quarry in Wilton and a concrete plant in Milford. The plant distributes the concrete locally by truck. MBRX does not interchange with Pan Am at all, and only operates during the summer when the open pit quarry is active.

The Hillsboro Branch once went all the way to Keene, where it met other railroad lines. A flood in 1934 closed the western end of the line, and passengers on the line boarded a bus in Peterborough. Lack of traffic caused other portions of the line to be abandoned throughout the years, and what is left is now known as the Hillsboro Branch. Many of the mileposts along the branch still tell you how many miles there are to Keene.

In 2003, two Budd RDCs found their way onto the Hillsboro Branch and the Wilton Scenic Railroad was born, operating from Wilton depot west towards Lyndeborough and Greenfield State Park. However, after three years, the owner of the railroad died and the operation was shut down. The ex-BCRail RDCs now operate in Rhode Island.

Photo of the Week: 1/7/2011

It's Friday, which means it's time for another photo. As I've said before, although I've posted this on Saturdays in the past, I will be posting it on Fridays as often as I can remember to.

This weeks photo was shot at Ayer, MA. It is a small town in eastern Massachusetts where not much ever happens...unless you're a railfan. Boston's MBTA has a station in Ayer on the Fitchburg Line, which makes a great vantage point to watch all the action. The station is literally in the middle of a wye, which connects two freight yards. The main line through Ayer connects Boston with Albany, but there are branches connecting Ayer to Worcester and Nashua. Pan Am and MBTA run plenty of trains on the ex-B&M main line, plus there are other freights coming from the other branch lines as well.

Without any further ado, here is the photo:

Although Pan Am owns the tracks here, Norfolk Southern equipment is a very common sight. One train is MOAY and AYMO (Mohawk Yard in Albany to Ayer). This is a daily intermodal train that almost always has Norfolk Southern power leading it. MOAY arrives at Ayer in the evening, and returns as AYMO just after noon the next day. In this shot, Pan Am is using the laying over NS power to switch one of the yards. My vantage point is the end of the platform, and I am looking down the east leg of the wye. The main line is behind me. I spent the whole morning there railfanning, and this locomotive pair kept appearing and disappearing on the wye, each time with a new string of freight cars behind it. It provided some good entertainment during otherwise dull moments, and every time it showed up I got another chance at the same shot. This one was the best one I got of the train.

Photo of the Week: 12/24/2010

It's Friday, which means it is time for another photo of the week! Last week's photo was on Saturday, but from now on the weekly photo will be posted on Friday.

Today is Christmas Eve, so I chose a winter themed photo for this week. It was taken in February 2009, when I was shooting on film. Due to my low-quality scanner, the photo quality may not be that great.

Here is this week's photo:

As stated before, this photo was taken in February 2009 at the end of my street. A friend of mine knew that Pan Am was running a plow extra on the line out of Nashua, and gave me a heads-up. I walked down to the end of my street with my camera and waited, and sure enough the train came along. The lead plow is MEC 80, a product of Russel that served Maine Central until the Guilford buyout, and now wears Pan Am blue. Following the plow is a Guilford-painted GP40, followed by B&M 3738, another Russel product still in its B&M blue livery. The 3738 has been assigned to Nashua since it was built, and the words "Nashua Yard" are stenciled on one side of the plow.

Both these plows are single-track plows. The wedge is designed so it throws snow in both directions. On a double track plow, the point of the wedge is all the way on the left side of the plow, so all the snow gets thrown to the right. Double track plows can be used to plow single track lines without a problem, but using a single track plow on a double track line would push snow on the second track. The main line out of Nashua is single track with some passing sidings, but all the sidings are no longer active so Pan Am uses the single track plows.