Hi, I am new to the site and am hoping to hear some recollections of the B&M. I currently work as a Conductor on the old B&M lines out of North Station. I spend most of my time on the old Fitchburg Division but also work the Eastern Route, Western Route and the New Hampshire Route. If I can help anyone with questions regarding the operations these days, please let me know. As you may be aware the Democrat Party Convention is being held at the Fleet Center in Boston this Summer. The Fleet Center sits on top of the old platform area at North Station and was constructed directly behind the old Boston Garden/North Station complex which has now been demolished. It appears that North Station is going to be closed for the duration of the convention with all commuter lines being stiooed clear of Boston with shuttles or rapid transit connections for all riders. As might be expected, riders are not happy. The remains of the old enginehouse at Fitchburg were torn down this past year. They had been in an advanced state of decay for some time. The turntable remains as part of a storage track though the pit has been filled in. Best Wishes, Joe
Hey Joe, Welcome to the TrainBoard old buddy! Tell us more about the B&M! I have heard of it, but having grown up in the south and Rocky Mountains, the Eastern Railroads are not familiar to me. Did the D&M have any Steamers? Got any photos? Tell us about how one of your runs goes. (I got an aunt that lives in New Hampshire, and she can talk your arm off too.)
Joe. I left the B&M in 1971 to work for FRA. In 78 and 79 was at Boston but lived in Nashua, NH. That was when the Budds were being pulled/pushed by the GP-9s as most had only one engine which was used for lights and heat. The mechanical people devised a hookup so the Budds could control the GP-9 even though EMD said it couldn't be done.
Hi Guys: Nice hearing from you. To answer you Watash, yes the B&M had plenty of old steamers. I'm a bit partial to them and think they were some of the prettiest girls on the block. if you check out the site www.nerail.com you can see some nice B&M photos. It is an easy site to navigate. I think that the B&M's R-1 "Mountains" were about the prettiest ladies to ride the high iron. B&M 3713 (a Pacific ) the largest surviving B&M engine is currently undergoing restoration at Steamtown. The B&M was a tough old road that always had to work a little harder than its competitor (The New York Central's Boston & Albany RR) to the south. I'll tell you about one of my runs some day, they are a real adventure every day. Hi Signalguy, nice to hear from a refugee from New England! I'm just sitting hear with my Moxie enjoying a Saturday night after a hectic day on the railroad. To fill you in if you don't already know the fight is continuing to get the commuter trains back to Nashua. As usual New Hampshire wants the service but does not want to pitch in to pay for it. There are still a lot of old B&Mers around. Where did you work on the B&M? I can probably give you a list of names that may be familiar to you. I remember the old GP and Budd lash ups. I will probably misspell the name but I think they were called "Keirsted Connections" after Lyodd Keirsted who invented it. You must remember the Blizzard of 78? The old B&M ws one of the only ways to get around! I grew up in Medford, do you remember the High Street crossing in West Medford? They had the biggest hand operated gates on the B&M. I used to love to see the crossing tender crank them down. I have a couple of photos on the NERAIL web site showing old GP-7's with Buddcars. I enjoyed seeing the posts you have of the commuter trains in Calif. I'd like to hear and see more of the operations. Do you ride the trains often? Take care and happy Memorial Day weekend. Joe
I was an Asst Signal Supvr on the Fitchburg Div and my territory was the Conn River from Springfield, MA to Berlin, NH. The Div headquarters were at Greenfield, MA. There isnt very much left of my old territory now as everything north of East Northfield, MA is now part of New England Central, owned by the state of VT or abandoned. I do remember the 78 storm as I could not get into Mass for a week. I rode the train from Lowell but they had state police at the NH line and let no one in. Once I retired from FRA in 89 I quit riding trains and have not rode one since then. The only service here at Redding is ATK and both north and south come through in the in the real early morning.
Not to mention about 5 pop ups from that link. I didn't see anything railroad about it.. Did I miss something?
Try these sites for some California commuter systems. This is the LA area. http://www.metrolinktrains.com/ This is Stockton to San Jose http://www.acerail.com/ This is San Francisco to Gilroy. http://www.caltrain.com Gil
Hi Signalguy: I currently work the Fitchburg Div. four days a week. The signal system you probably remember that was in place between the Willows and West Cambridge Yard is still in place and still controlled by Waltham Tower. Whenever it rains hard the signals and crossing systems go haywire. The commuter territory is all dispatched from an office building near Mystic Junction. The Guilford territory is all dispatched from Billerica. The Fitchburg and the Haverhill trains are handled by Guilford dispatchers beyond the Willows and Wilmington Jct on the Western Route. Ayer Tower is still standing though used as a yard office. BX Tower in Fitchburg is long gone and WX is still standing though vacant at East Deerfield. The double track is gone over Ashburnahm Hill and that is an obstacle in returning the passenger trains to Gardner. I did work the Conn River on the Vermonter. We used the old CV from Palmer to East Northfield and the B&M to White River Jct. One of the engineers that I worked with was an old B&Mer by the name of Jack Hazelton. I believe his Dad was the Wreckmaster on the East Deerfield Wrecker. Another old timer was Jim Dimond. Both guys are getting ready to head pin one of these days. I don't see them any more as I now work for MBCR after the split but here they are ok. Jack was involved in a grade crossing accident about a year ago near Sharon, VT on the old CV. A logging truck crossed in front of them at a grade crossing and injured both engineers in the cab. I occasionaly communicate with Alden Dryer, though I have never met him in person. He is quite active in selling B&M memorabillia. I remember he was a Train Director at WX Tower. Old Don Robinsson passed away last year. He was living at the Masonic Home in Charleton, MA. Russ Maroux the son of Fran Marcoux is still dispatching the B&M lines for Guilford in Billerica. Well I have blabbed long enough take care Joe
It was Jim Hazelton who was his dad and he was General Car Foreman at E Dfld. I don't remember a Dimond. I worked with Alden when he was a dispatcher at Greenfield and I believe he went to Billerica for a while before he was at WX. I was maintainer there in the 50s. I also worked with Don Robinson at Greenfield and Gardner when he was dispatching. He went to Billerica also and I worked with Fran Marcoux at Greenfield. Just before I left Boston they were working to increase clearance on the NH between Lowell and Boston as they had sold the freight cutoff to MBTA for the Red line extension. Part of the hill at So Ash was 3 tracks for a couple of miles.
Jim Dimond lives in Montague or Turner's Falls. Last time I heard he was still working out of the Amtrak Engineers crew base at Brattleboro. The Conductor and Trainman change at Springfield One engineer takes the southbound from Brattleboro to Springfield and then takes the northbound back where they put on two engineers to take the train to St. Albans. Growing up I also new Harold Lanzini. Harold was a civil engineer for the B&M. As a little kid I always loved to here railroad stories from him. I also worked with Chris Carme who was a conductor out of Greenfield. Walter Nutter is another west end guy that now works a commuter job out of Worcester. All in all a great bunch of guys. It is best not to tell you to much about your old B&M. It is a disgrace these days. The Conn River Rte is barely used between East Northfield and Greenfield. It looks like a back country branch line now. It's just amazing when you swing off the main line at East Northfield and travel down the old CV all the way to Palmer, change ends and then travel CSX to Springfield all because of Guilford. It really makes the train uncompetitive.
There used to be CTC from Springfield up the Conn River to Windsor and ABs from there to WR Jct. On the old CV it was all dark territory to St Albans. The CV/NEC from E Nfld to Brattleboro was also dark. Before the pier collasped on the bridge just north of E Nfld it was CTC on the B&M side to Bratt. Do you know if the CTC is still in service and if it is where is it controlled from? I believe Harold Lanzini worked for the signal Dept also but I never worked with him. Most of the others you mention probably came about the time I left in 71. I am sure most of those I knew have retired by now. I had 25 years on B&M, 18 with FRA and 6 consulting. The last 8 years have been full retirement.
The remaining CTC is controlled by the NECR dispatchers at St. Albans. It is in service at E. Northfield and between Putney and Hartland. As a signal man you may be interested in hearing about a unique crossing protection arrangement I enountered when I worked for the Vermont Railway prior to joining Amtrak. Just south of Burlington, VT along Lake Champlain here is an area full of "million dollar" homes. These homes of the "rich and famous" have appeared over the pat ten years. It seems that the residents objected to the horn blasts of trains passing over the numerous crossings. A system was developed whereby a "distance" style signal with two aspects ( yellow and green) governed the approach to a series of about eight crossings. At these crossings the gates were ALWAYS DOWN! If you approached the crossing in a vehicle and no train was in the circuit the gates would raise and your car would pass. If a train was in the circuit the gates would not go up and the lights and bells would operate. The signal system would come into play as follows, if the gates were down and funtioning and there were not autos detected in the gauge the indication would be CLEAR, if the gates were not functioning properly and or the system detected something fouling the gauge the aspect would change to RESTRICTING. Needless to say, this new fangled system kept the signal maintainer very busy. I don't know if the system is still in use as it was installed when the ill advised "Champlain Flyer" commuter trains were operated on the Vermont Railway. You may remember them from the "Fleecing of America" series on NBC news.
As a guess I would say this system was installed before the FRA regulations on highway crossings went into effect. I will have to check but I don't think it would be permitted now. The CTC has been extended as it used to end at the south end of Windsor. Windsor to White River yard was ABS and it was designed so the signals in both directions were normally red but were cleared by an approaching train. This was done back in the days of primary battery and was a battery saving system.
http://photos.nerail.org/ try that for the nerail link Gil if you ever get bored, I would love to read any stories about the Groveton and Berlin lines - I model part of the Groveton Branch and the SLR/GT connection.
I had a maintainer at Woodsville who covered the main line south of Wells River for about 20 miles and the crossing protection on the Berlin and Groveton lines. There were 3 crossings on the Groveton Branch and all were flashing lights. I remember one occasion where one flasher was hit by a car. We could not find the pole after the accident but as we were installing the new equipment a NH State Trooper drove up. He was the officer who investigated the accident so I got all the information I needed from him. Then I asked if he knew what happened to the pole. He told me to get in and he would show me where it was. We drove to a local garage where the car had been towed and out back was the car that hit the pole and the pole was sticking out of the roof. When the car hit the pole it somehow flipped and went right through the roof. It was lucky for the driver it went into the back seat. The tow truck hauled the car in with the pole sticking out the roof so I left it there as it had been bent in the accident. It was a 4 inch 12 foot long steel pole.
Here is a timetable page from B&M TT #6 dated 3/22/1964 and a system map from the same timetable. It may be hard to see on the map but many years ago there was a connection between Whitefield Jct. on the Berlin line and Coos Jct on the Groveton branch. When it was taken out the B&M ran over the MEC from Waumbek Jct to Coos Jct. I hope you are modeling the Ball signals at Waumbek Jct and Whitefield.
Gil, sadly my Groveton branch is only a few feet long - I am modeling the GT-SLR mainline from Gorham through North Stratford. The B&M/NHVT branch heads out of my mill complex and around to the other side of the layout and into a three track staging yard (or it will in about a month!). My next layout will have it in its entirety. I would love to model Waumbek Junction and recreate all of the B&M and MEC ops including milk trains. That said, I am going to try a working ball signal for someplace on the layout. We have these ball point pens at work that come with a little plastic ball over the end, just about perfect size for the balls. I want to mount them on wire, then have one of them extend under the layout to a tortoise - then it can work the balls up and down!
