Boston & Maine Help Wanted Ad 6/25/17

This ad was in the June 25, 1917 Boston Globe newspaper.  The B&M Railroad was looking for "women car cleaners".  No doubt with the U.S. entering WWI in April, the railroad knew there could be a manpower shortage, hence the ad looking for females.  

OR, perhaps, the job was always done by women?  I am curious now!

Things Happen in Threes... Including Derailments!

Yes, things happen in threes.  On 2/18, Pan Am had a minor derailment in Nashua NH.  I say minor, but a main road was partially blocked and a crane had to be brought in to fix the situation.  On 2/19, the P&W had 4 loaded autoracks derail at South Main Street in Gardner MA.  RJ Corman was on scene to clean up that mess today.  And this morning I came across 5 cars derailed at Bridge Street in Westford MA, on Pan Am.  They had been removed by the afternoon.

Three of the 5 derailed cars at Westford MA

One of 4 derailed autoracks at Gardner MA

Crane Puts Derailed Locomotive Back on Track in Downtown Nashua NH

Huge crane puts derailed locomotive back on track in downtown Nashua

Huge Crane in Nashua Putting Derailed Locomotives Back on Track

(SOURCE:  David Brooks, The Telegraph - thanks to Dave Pierson for the link)

NASHUA – Pan Am Railways is bringing in a large crane in to lift a pair of derailed 100-ton locomotives and put them back on the tracks in downtown Nashua.

The two locomotives went off the rails at Main Street around 3 p.m. Tuesday. One was blocking the northbound lane of Main Street for about an hour until the two were pushed back by a bulldozer.

Pan Am Executive Vice-President Cynthia Scarano said a 44-foot long mobile crane, capable of lifting 130 tons, will be driven to the scene from the company’s Billerica, Mass., headquarters this morning. The Kershaw RC-130 crane can travel by road or by rail.

“They should be re-railed by 1 or 2 p.m.,” she said.

The locomotives were not pulling any cars at the time as they travelled at low speed along what is formally known as the Hillsborough Branch line. Nobody was injured in the accident and no obvious property damage occurred.

New Hampshire railroad safety inspector John Robinson said the train apparently was derailed by ice built up along the rails. 

“The ice builds up along the flangeway, which keeps the wheel tracking ... to the point where the wheels steer off the rail,” he said. “It’s not completely unknown.”

The flangeway is a groove that allows the lips, or flange, of the wheels to fit alongside the rail and keep the wheels in place. Ice in the flangeway can lift the wheel up above the rail to the point that it can slip sideways.

Robinson said no formal investigation had been launched. 

Pan Am Train Stuck on Main Street in Nashua NH

It was reported that on February 18th a Pan Am train derailed at the Main Street crossing in Nashua NH.  Deedless to say, auto traffic was effected.  This photo was posted on the WMUR website (no phorographer sited).

Pan Am Railways FP9 Added to Streamliners at Spencer Event

(SOURCE:  Trains.com NewsWire)  More info HERE

SPENCER, N.C. – The North Carolina Transportation Museum and North Carolina Transportation Museum Foundation are adding Wabash E8 No. 1009 and Pan Am Railways FP9 No. 1 to the list of locomotives attending the Streamliners at Spencer event. The four-day event is being held May 29-June 1 at the museum’s grounds in Spencer. It will celebrate classic streamlined locomotives, ranging from Atlantic Coast Line E3 No. 501, built in 1939, to Norfolk Southern’s recently upgraded executive F9s. With the addition of these two units, the total number of engines attending “Streamliners at Spencer” is now 16.

General Motors Diesel, the Canadian subsidiary of EMD, built Pan Am Railways FP9 No. 1 in 1954 for Canadian National as No. 6505. The unit was used in passenger service for CN until 1978, when it was transferred to VIA Rail Canada.

VIA sold the engine to New Hampshire’s Conway Scenic Railway for use on the tourist railroad. In 2010, the engine was part of a trade between Conway Scenic and Pan Am Railways that saw the engine move to its new home in Waterville, Maine, to pull business trains.

Tickets are now on sale for the event. A special Preview Day, featuring the last of the engines to arrive, special movements, site preparations and more will be held May 29. Tickets for the Preview Day are $40 per person in advance. Tickets will be $45 on the day of the event.

Combo tickets and group discounts will be available, along with discounts for North Carolina Transportation Museum members and Norfolk Southern employees. Tickets are available online at www.nctrans.org or by calling (704) 636-2889, ext. 237 or ext. 257

PCCs Removed From Brooklyn Waterfront, Donated to CT Museum

(SOURCE:  Trains.com Newswire)

NEW YORK — Three derelict PCC streetcars recently removed from the Brooklyn waterfront have caused a stir in the rail preservation community in the Northeast. The cars in question, which once called Cleveland, Minneapolis, Buffalo, and Boston home, were to be the cornerstone of the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association's planned museum in the Red Hook neighborhood.

The cars, which were heavily damaged in 2012 by Hurricane Sandy, were removed by the property owner, local land developer, The O’Connell Organization. "These trolley cars, along with a significant donation, were conveyed to the Branford Electric Railway Association," the group says. The Branford group operates the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven, Conn.

However, the Branford museum says the cars are still on borrowed time. "They will be stored and given one more try via the internet and other media to find them a home," the organization says. "If by the end of spring we are unsuccessful, the cars will have any salvageable components removed for use in the streetcar preservation community and the remainder disposed of. The cars are not and will not be located at our museum, but are at a safe site, away from vandals and thieves."

"We would like to commend and thank the O’Connell Organization for their sincere efforts in trying to save these cars, including a substantial donation to pay for their movement to a temporary refuge," the museum says. "The O’Connell Organization truly did the right thing. At this point it will be up to the museum community or interested others to step up and save these cars or to let them go."

Bob Diamond, founder of the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, says, "I had no idea this removal happened.” At first, he even made a public plea for more information regarding their removal. According to Diamond, he purchased the three cars from commuter agencies in Boston and Buffalo as the main attraction of the Brooklyn museum. They have sat, largely unused, on the Brooklyn waterfront at the foot of Van Brunt Street for more than a decade.

According to Diamond, there is a fourth streetcar on the Beard Street Pier in a former trolley barn, but he us currently unable to speak to the fate of that car. He hopes that O’Connell will pay to relocate it somewhere for display.

NH Model Train Enthusiasts on Track for Event 2/22/14

Model train enthusiasts on track for Saturday event | SeacoastOnline.com

Bolstered Rail Service Could be Around Bend

(SOURCE:  By Maggie Cassidy, Valley News Staff Writer)

White River Junction — Rail enthusiasts and regional planners turned out to a hearing Wednesday night to advocate for more frequent stops along two passenger rail routes to connect Boston with Montreal and southern Connecticut, while several attendees with Claremont ties urged for that city to be included in the loop.

Transportation officials from Vermont and Massachusetts were at the Hotel Coolidge hosting the first public meeting on a Northern New England Intercity Rail Initiative study, which will examine the feasibility of improved intercity rail service along the two lines, which both connect in Springfield, Mass.

“Frequency is the key,” Carl Fowler, president of Rail Travel Adventures and a member of the Vermont Rail Council, said in an interview following the two-hour hearing. “That’s what they’ve got to address.”

On top of advocating for greater frequency, many of the nearly 40 people in attendance urged officials and consultants to consider regional connectivity as they advance the study and develop a firm list of goals. In addition to being able to easily move along the two corridors, attendees said, they also want the train schedules to work in a way that allows them to pick up connecting trains that travel further south or head west.

Others, though, were feeling left out of the mix altogether.

Although the initiative is designed to improve passenger service to Quebec and four New England states — Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire — there are currently no New Hampshire stations included as potential stops. The omission of Claremont, in particular, led to questions from several people in the crowd, including N.H. Rep. Ray Gagnon, D-Claremont, who asked why Claremont officials weren’t being consulted about the potential need for a stop there.

“We’re out of the loop,” he said.

New Hampshire Rail Authority member Jonathan Edwards, of Hanover, said it would be “a mistake to not give Claremont the fullest consideration possible,” noting that Springfield, Vt., and Windsor would also be served by that station. A representative from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation also advocated for the Claremont stop.

The two nearest stops north and south of White River Junction included on the list are Montpelier and Brattleboro, Vt.

Ron O’Blenis, senior rail project manager with HDR Engineering who led the presentation, responded that the list of potential participating stations was the result of a “preliminary screening” of stations that would bring in a high volume of passengers without having to stop the train too frequently that it slows down service.

He said a stop in Claremont is not off the table and will be researched further as the study progresses.

“Lots of times it’s local groups and initiatives to make it happen that can dictate that,” he said in an interview afterward.

Some questioned why the Boston to White River Junction leg had to go through Springfield, Mass., which one person compared to keeping the two s ides of a triangle and “cutting out the hypotenuse.” Sixty miles of track between Concord and White River Junction was removed years ago, and New Hampshire put the brakes on a proposal in 2003 that would have possibly had it reinstated.

 

The study is being funded by federal funds matched by Vermont and Massachusetts. It builds upon projects already completed or in the works thanks to funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, including upgrades to 220 miles of New England Central Railroad completed last spring.

Similar upgrades are underway in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Several attendees noted afterward that they had expected to see a more substantive study and are looking forward to September, when another round of hearings will take place and, as Fowler said, “hopefully there will be more meat on the proposal.”

Christopher Parker, executive director with the Vermont Rail Action Network, an advocacy group for rail services in Vermont, said it seemed like people were ready for more substantive discussions beyond an easy consensus that greater frequency is better and, instead, take a hard look at train schedules and other details.

Still, he said, he was glad that things were moving forward.

“For us, this is super,” he said. “This is what we want to see happen.”

Written comments about this phase of the study will be accepted through the end of February, O’Blenis said. More information is available at http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Planning/Main/CurrentStudies/NorthernNewEnglandRailStudy.aspx or by calling Scott Bascom, planning coordinator at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, at 802-828-5748.

A follow-up meeting will be held at 7 p.m. tonight in Springfield, Mass., at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission office at 60 Congress St.

Connecting Boston and Montreal By Rail

(SOURCE:  Vermont Public Radio - By Maggie Cassidy and Valley News)

Rail enthusiasts and regional planners turned out to a hearing Wednesday night to advocate for more frequent stops along two passenger rail routes to connect Boston with Montreal and southern Connecticut, while several attendees with Claremont ties urged for that city to be included in the loop.

Transportation officials from Vermont and Massachusetts were at the Hotel Coolidge hosting the first public meeting on a Northern New England Intercity Rail Initiative study, which will examine the feasibility of improved intercity rail service along the two lines, which both connect in Springfield, Mass.

“Frequency is the key,” Carl Fowler, president of Rail Travel Adventures and a member of the Vermont Rail Council, said in an interview following the two-hour hearing. “That’s what they’ve got to address.”

On top of advocating for greater frequency, many of the nearly 40 people in attendance urged officials and consultants to consider regional connectivity as they advance the study and develop a firm list of goals. In addition to being able to easily move along the two corridors, attendees said, they also want the train schedules to work in a way that allows them to pick up connecting trains that travel further south or head west.

Others, though, were feeling left out of the mix altogether.

Although the initiative is designed to improve passenger service to Quebec and four New England states — Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire — there are currently no New Hampshire stations included as potential stops. The omission of Claremont, in particular, led to questions from several people in the crowd, including N.H. Rep. Ray Gagnon, D-Claremont, who asked why Claremont officials weren’t being consulted about the potential need for a stop there.

“We’re out of the loop,” he said.

New Hampshire Rail Authority member Jonathan Edwards, of Hanover, said it would be “a mistake to not give Claremont the fullest consideration possible,” noting that Springfield, Vt., and Windsor would also be served by that station. A representative from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation also advocated for the Claremont stop.

The two nearest stops north and south of White River Junction included on the list are Montpelier and Brattleboro, Vt.

Ron O’Blenis, senior rail project manager with HDR Engineering who led the presentation, responded that the list of potential participating stations was the result of a “preliminary screening” of stations that would bring in a high volume of passengers without having to stop the train too frequently that it slows down service.

He said a stop in Claremont is not off the table and will be researched further as the study progresses.
“Lots of times it’s local groups and initiatives to make it happen that can dictate that,” he said in an interview afterward.

Some questioned why the Boston to White River Junction leg had to go through Springfield, Mass., which one person compared to keeping the two s ides of a triangle and “cutting out the hypotenuse.” Sixty miles of track between Concord and White River Junction was removed years ago, and New Hampshire put the brakes on a proposal in 2003 that would have possibly had it reinstated.

The study is being funded by federal funds matched by Vermont and Massachusetts. It builds upon projects already completed or in the works thanks to funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009, including upgrades to 220 miles of New England Central Railroad completed last spring.

Similar upgrades are underway in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Several attendees noted afterward that they had expected to see a more substantive study and are looking forward to September, when another round of hearings will take place and, as Fowler said, “hopefully there will be more meat on the proposal.”

Christopher Parker, executive director with the Vermont Rail Action Network, an advocacy group for rail services in Vermont, said it seemed like people were ready for more substantive discussions beyond an easy consensus that greater frequency is better and, instead, take a hard look at train schedules and other details.

Still, he said, he was glad that things were moving forward.

“For us, this is super,” he said. “This is what we want to see happen.”

Written comments about this phase of the study will be accepted through the end of February, O’Blenis said. More information is available at http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/Planning/Main/CurrentStudies/NorthernNewEnglandRailStudy.aspx or by calling Scott Bascom, planning coordinator at the Vermont Agency of Transportation, at 802-828-5748.

What Does Buyer See in Small, Bankrupt Maine Railway?

(SOURCE:  Portland Press Herald - Tom Bell)

Why would Fortress Investment Group, a global firm with $58 billion in assets, want a small, bankrupt railroad in a remote region where traditional rail customers have been in decline for years?

Box cars owned by the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway sit idle in Brownville. The small bankrupt railway was sold at auction to a global firm that may like it, experts say, for its beeline between Montreal and Saint John, Canada.

Tom Bell/2013 Press Herald file

The answer, say transportation experts, is Fortress probably sees potential in the railroad’s unique geographic position on the North American continent.

Fortress last week won an auction to buy the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway with its bid of $14.25 million. Although the company has said it plans to continue operating the railroad, it is not speaking publicly about its business plan. The deal has yet to close.

One of MM&A’s biggest challenges has been that its customers are spread far apart. It has only one customer, for example, on the 117-mile stretch of rail between Lac-Megantic, Quebec, and Brownville Junction: Moose River Lumber, outside Jackman. That’s a lot of rail to maintain without much revenue.

Also, some of the railroad’s previous customers have gone out of business, and some of its existing customers are struggling. One of its biggest customers in Maine, Great Northern Paper in East Millinocket, announced two days after the auction that it would halt paper production for up to four months amid high production costs and lower market prices for its paper.

The railroad may travel though some of the most remote areas in the United States, the experts say, but its roughly 500 miles of tracks provide the shortest route between two large Canadian cities, Montreal and Saint John, New Brunswick.

That route could once again be profitable if the Quebec government would allow the return of crude oil shipments on the line, said Chalmers “Chop” Hardenbergh, editor of Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports, a trade magazine.

Officials in Lac-Megantic and the province have been reluctant to do so since a train carrying 72 cars of oil derailed in Lac-Megantic on July 6 and killed 47 people.

Fortress owns the Florida East Coast Railroad, a well-respected, high-volume railroad that has won numerous safety awards, Hardenbergh said. If any railroad could persuade the Canadians to allow the resumption of oil shipments, it would be Fortress, he said.

The nearly straight-line run between Montreal and Saint John is valuable for not only its potential as a rolling oil pipeline but also for transporting other cargo, Hardenbergh said.

One issue that has frustrated the operators of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway has been the unwillingness of the federal Food and Drug Administration to allow sealed containers filled with food products to cross the U.S. border, he said.

Tropical Shipping, a Caribbean shipping company that uses the port of Saint John as its Canadian port, for a short period about eight years ago used the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic to ship its cargo to Montreal and points west.

Fortress’ Florida railroad does a lot of business with Tropical and perhaps the two companies would have more clout working together to address the border problems, Hardenbergh said.

At Brownville Junction, the railroad splits into two directions, with one line extending northward to Millinocket and another southward to Searsport.

Searsport, which has a deep-water port, also gives the railroad value, said David Cole, a former commissioner of the Maine Department of Transportation who now consults on trade and logistical issues.

From Searsport, he said, the rail line extends through the middle of a region of 26 million acres of forest land in northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

“The MM&A is like a skeleton within the northern forest and funnels it right down to Searsport,” said Cole, who works for the Action Committee of 50, a nonprofit group made up of leading business and civic leaders from the Bangor region. “This railroad is very strategic relative to our forest base, not just for Maine but the region.”

Fortress has chosen a veteran railroad operator, John Giles, to lead the new railroad initiative in Maine. Giles’ 40-years-plus career includes executive jobs with CSX Corp, Great Lakes Transportation and RailAmerica, one of North America’s largest operators of short-line and regional freight railroads.

Fortress bought RailAmerica in 2007 and sold it four years later. However, Fortress continues to operate on one of the RailAmerica lines, the Florida East Coast Railway, a regional freight railroad that runs along the east coast of Florida between Jacksonville and Miami.

The Florida railroad plans next year to launch a passenger service, the nation’s first privately run inter-city service in 43 years and the only one that would not be dependent on government subsidies.
Passenger trains operated between Montreal and Saint John from the late 1800s to 1994. Fortress won’t be reviving passenger service along the MM&A lines in Maine because the rails would have to be replaced, at an enormous expense, to accommodate the high speeds required for passenger trains to compete with air travel, said Don Marson, who retired last year as general manager of the Maine Eastern Railroad, which operates freight trains and summer excursion trains between Brunswick and Rockland.

The MM&A railroad’s 500-mile-long corridor also has value for other uses, such as a corridor for a pipeline, fiber optic cables or a highway, said George Betke of Damariscotta, who has an ownership stake in three short-line railroads outside New England.

“They don’t view it as just a railroad,” he said.

MM&A to Become the Central Maine & Quebec Railway

(SOURCE:  By Whit Richardson, BDN Staff)

HERMON, Maine — Once the sale of the bankrupt Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway is complete, that name will be filed away in the history books.

Railroad Acquisition Holdings, the affiliate of New York-based investment firm Fortress Investment Group that is in the process of buying Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway out of bankruptcy, will change the railroad company’s name to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway.

John Giles, a consultant working with Fortress on the purchase of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, confirmed the new name in an email to the Bangor Daily News. He said the name was chosen because it “has a nice ring to it” and is an accurate description of the communities it serves.

Chalmers Hardenbergh, an astute railroad industry observer as editor of Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports, said Fortress chose a descriptive name — something he said would not be as simple as one might think — though one that lacks the expansiveness compared to a name such as Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway.

“It’s interesting because a lot of Maine names have already been chosen,” Hardenbergh said. “How do you say Maine when you already have Maine Northern Railway, Eastern Maine Railway, Maine Eastern Railway, Maine Central Railroad, Boston and Maine. So almost by default you have to say central Maine or southern Maine, but of course they don’t operate in southern Maine.”

The new name is similar to that of Maine Central Railroad, which has been around for 100 years and remains the formal name of the railroad operated as part of Pan Am Railways’ network, Hardenbergh said.

“There’s a little bit of an echo there of history,” he said.

Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bangor on Aug. 7, a month after one of its trains rolled driverless down a hill before derailing in the middle of the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, and causing an explosion that killed 47 people.

It’s not uncommon for a new owner of a railroad to change the company’s name, especially if it was bought out of bankruptcy, according to Hardenbergh. Before operating as the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway, it was the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad, which filed for bankruptcy in 2002 and was purchased the next year by Rail World Inc.

Fortress, which was the winning bidder in an auction last month for Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway’s assets, hopes to close on the sale of the railroad by the end of March.

Lowell MA Commuter Rail to Temporarily Lose 500 Parking Spaces

(SOURCE:  Nashua Telegraph, by David Brooks)

LOWELL, Mass. – New Hampshire-to-Boston commuters who board commuter rail in Lowell are facing some unpleasant news: Almost two-thirds of the parking garage at the train station will be closed for at least a year.

“There will be an impact. I won’t deny that, but we’re trying to minimize that,” said James Scanlan, administrator of the Lowell Regional Transit Authority. 

The $7 million construction project will rebuild one of the parking garages and has been in the works for several years, but some commuters only learned of it Monday when Scanlan distributed an announcement.

“A problem? Big-time,” said Scott Beausoleil, a Nashua native who graduated from Bishop Guertin in 1980 and has commuted into Boston for much of the last 22 years by boarding the MBTA Commuter Rail line at Lowell.

“You don’t so much mind it in the spring to late fall – but boy, come winter, you can understand what traffic can be like, especially if the weather’s bad,” said Beausoleil, who is a case administrator in the bankruptcy field. 

The problem is that a 30-year-old, four-story parking garage known as Gallagher I is crumbling to the point that it can’t be repaired any more, Scanlan said. 

“We’ve been putting money into it, federal and state money, for at least the last 7 or 8 years … probably $1 million, for concrete repairs,” he said. “But the amount of deterioration that has occurred in the concrete, from water, salt … the (federal government) came in and said they were reluctant to fund it any more. They did a review of the structure with us and said we should be doing a more comprehensive overhaul of the garage.” 

All the concrete in the garage will be removed and replaced, meaning Gallagher I has to shut for about a year, starting around April 1, so the concrete can be removed and replaced. The $7 million project will be paid for with $2.5 million in federal transportation money with the rest coming from Massachusetts state funds. 

Compounding the difficulty for commuters is that a two-story addition, known as Gallagher II, can only be reached by driving through Gallagher I – therefore Gallagher II also will have to be shut for the duration of the work. 

The adjoining Rourke Garage will remain open because it has a separate entrance.

The result, said Scanlan, is that about 550 of 950 parking spaces at what is officially called the Gallagher Intermodal Center will be unavailable for a year. 

The three garages are rarely full to the brim, Scanlan said – peak usage usually tops out around 780 vehicles – but they’re popular with commuters from the New Hampshire side of the state border. On average, about 20 percent of the vehicles in the garage, between 120 and 150 vehicles, have New Hampshire license plates, Scanlan said. 

Scanlan said the Lowell transit authority is negotiating with several nearby commercial sites, including the YMCA, to lease some parking spaces for the duration of the project. 

They also may use some 80 spaces at the system’s maintenance facility. Another option is the Early Garage, owned by the city, although it’s far enough away from the Gallagher Center that a shuttle bus would become necessary.

Details will be announced as they’re worked out, Scanlan said.

As for Beausoleil, he said the situation supports something that he has been saying for years: Commuter rail should extend to Nashua. Then local residents wouldn’t have to worry about what Lowell does.

Rail Study to Restoring Service in Central, Southern NH

(SOURCE:  New Hampshire Union Leader  - By DAN TUOHY)


MANCHESTER — One of the alternatives in the "capitol corridor" rail study would put express buses on the shoulder of Interstate 93, saving anywhere from eight to 22 minutes over peak travel times to Boston.

As New Hampshire works on expanding I-93 from Manchester to the Massachusetts border, the "bus on shoulder" scenario is being considered as part of a multimodal transit booster, twinned with the possible restoration of passenger rail along the corridor.

An advisory committee to the New Hampshire Capitol Corridor feasibility study heard the preliminary alternatives Tuesday at the Southern NH Planning Commission in Manchester.

As the consultants and committee continue to refine rail and bus options this year – working toward a preferred state recommendation late in 2014 – a combination of both has merit, said Kenneth Kinney, a transit consultant with URS Corp., during the presentation. URS is working on the study with New Hampshire Department of Transportation and various stakeholders, including municipal, elected officials and bus operators.

"Can we do it all? The answer, I think, is yes," said Kinney.

The prominent option under study is the restoration of passenger rail connecting Concord, Manchester, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and Nashua to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority tracks to Boston. There has been no passenger rail north of Lowell, Mass., since 1967.

Alternatives to be discussed further include intercity rail options, enhanced bus service on shoulders, and a no-build options.

The state-local financial commitment for rail between Manchester and Boston would be $8 million to $10 million annually, according to preliminary analysis. The rough cost estimates are after federal support and fares are taken into consideration, and the source of that local matching funding is still to be determined.

One of the assumptions of the study is that there is no capitol corridor restoration without federal funding.

The Federal Transit Administration and Federal Railroad Administration like the project, Kinney said. He said that a state-federal financial plan for a proposed rail option will not be completed until 2015.

Additional studies are being conducted, including prospective fare surveys and noise monitoring along existing rail lines.

The project website is: nhcapitolcorridor.com. The benefits and objectives, according to Tuesday's presentation, include:

• Addressing the congestion issue at southern end of the corridor, thereby reducing trip times and providing a wider set of alternatives to the automobile.

• Improving access to higher-paying jobs in greater Boston. Commute from New Hampshire; return money to New Hampshire.

• Improving access to other tourism, recreation and cultural attractions in both greater Boston and in New Hampshire.

• Building that employee base to attract new businesses and grow existing ones in New Hampshire.

• Providing additional transit service to the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.

POSTCARD VIEW: Harvard MA Station & Freight House

Amherst Railway Society Awards Grants to Preserve Rail History

(SOURCE: official release)

Amherst, Mass. - The Amherst Railway Society has awarded more than

$40,000 in grants to 19 charitable organizations that work to preserve rail heritage. The

awards were made at the society's annual Railroad Hobby Show Jan. 25, 2014 at the

Eastern State's Exposition in West Springfield, Mass.

The two-day show, one of the largest in the nation, attracts about

25,000 railroad enthusiasts each year. It is also the society's primary fundraising

endeavor and generates the money the society then distributes to rail-related museums,

historical societies and restoration groups.

Since 1991, the non-profit Amherst Railway Society has given away about $750,000 in

grants.

"We're delighted to be able to share the proceeds of our annual train show with these

terrific organizations that work so hard to preserve rail history," said John Sacerdote, the

Show Director.

"Preservation of important rail sites and equipment is extremely difficult, even before

one considers all the fundraising these groups do," added Amherst Railway Society

President Sudro Brown. "We're glad to be able to lend a hand to so many organizations

doing such worthwhile work. We plan to keep doing it in the coming years."

The Amherst Railway Society's $10,000 Founders' Award went to the Shelburne Falls

Trolley Museum in Shelburne Falls, Mass. The museum is raising money to build a fireresistant metal two-car car barn to house part of its collection.

The Robert A. Buck Award, totaling $2,000 and named in honor of the long-time director

of the Railroad Hobby Show, went to the Chester Foundation in Chester, Mass. for

restoration of a 1919 wooden caboose displayed at the Chester Depot.

The President's Award, totaling $3,125, went to Branford Electric Railway

Association/Shoreline Trolley Museum in East Haven, Conn. for restoration of

Connecticut Company Car No. 865.

The other grant recipients are:

The ALCO Historical & Technical Society of Schenectady, N.Y., $1,000 to help cover

the cost of moving Adirondack RSC2 No. 25 to a new location for eventual display.

Bartlett Roundhouse Preservation Club of Bartlett, N.H., $1,000 for continuing

restoration of the Conway Scenic Railroad's 1923 Russell snow plow.

Central Vermont Railway Historical Society of Randolph Center, Vt.,

$2,500 to aid in archiving CV historical information.

Conrail Historical Society of Marysville, Pa., $1,500 for the purchase of a portable

generator for outdoor restoration work.

Friends of the Keystone Arches, Inc., of Huntington, Mass., $1,500 to lift stones from

the Westfield River to restore one of the Keystone Arches in Chester, Mass.

Hopewell Depot Restoration Corp. of Hopewell Junction, N.Y., $1,500 for construction

of a replica of the 1892 control tower.

New England Electric Railway Historical Society/Seashore Trolley Museum of

Kennebunkport, Maine, $3,000 toward restoration of Bay State Railway car No. 4175.

National Railway Historical Society - Cape Cod Chapter, $1,500 toward interior

restoration work at the West Barnstable, Mass. train station.

National Railway Historical Society - Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Chapter of

Scranton, Pa., $3,200 toward continuing restoration of Boston & Maine steam

locomotive No. 3713.

National Railway Historical Society - Western Connecticut Chapter of South Norwalk,

Conn., $1,500 for exterior restoration work to SoNo Tower.

Old Colony & Newport Railway/The National Railroad Foundation and Museum of

Newport, R.I., $1,450 toward window replacement on the railway's 1884 office car No.

74.

Rowe Historical Society of Rowe, Mass., $1,232 for the purchase of a display case.

Rutland Railroad Museum of Rutland, Vt., $2,000 to upgrade interior lighting.

Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington Valley Railway Museum of Alna, Maine, $2,600

for interior enhancements to the Percival house.

2014 Boston & Albany Railroad Calendars

Tucker's Hobbies in Warren MA is offering for sale 2014 Boston & Albany Railroad Calendars, featuring photography by Bob Buck.  Info can be found at their website. 

Recent New England Model Railroad Announcements

N SCALE

Athearn:  Thrall High Side Gondola  - Sullivan Scrap (Holyoke, MA) – cancer schemes, blue & pink

Atlas:  PS-2750 Hopper – Boston & Maine (4 road #s)

Rapido:  Osgood Bradley Lightweight 10-Window coach - NH, B&M, BAR

HO SCALE

Athearn: Thrall High Side Gondola  - Sullivan Scrap (Holyoke, MA) – cancer scheme, blue & pink

True Line Trains:  MBTA MP36PH-3C diesels #010 & 011 - DC/DCC w/sound