New England Depot

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Weston Chronicles: Saga of the Central Mass. Railroad

10th in a series of chronicles about Weston people, places and events through three centuries, written by town historian Pamela W. Fox for the Weston tercentennial: READ: Weston Chronicles: Saga of the Central Mass. Railroad

Winchester MA NIMBY Residents "Victorious" Over Tighe/Pan Am

Once again, NIMBYs who move by railroad tracks are squaking because they are actually being used for a money making business:

(6.19.13) WINCHESTER MA - They say you can't fight City Hall. But can you fight big business? Yes, and you can win, too.

Last night, petitioners Susan Busher and Lorraine Malloy, and residents of the Holton Street/Baldwin Street neighborhood, were victorious in their fight against Tighe Trucking and Pan Am Railway over the use of tracks on Holton Street. The Zoning Board of Appeals upheld a ruling they made previously that Tighe and Pan Am can't claim an exemption and, therefore, can no longer run freight service in the area...................READ the article HERE

PanAm East Deerfield Cleanup Meeting

DEERFIELD — Pan Am Railways will hold a public meeting on 6/20/13 at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall to present its draft plans to clean up and keep clear petroleum hydrocarbons and asphalt pollution at the East Deerfield Rail Yard.

The company will present a draft Phase II Comprehensive Site Assessment Addendum and a draft Phase II Comprehensive Site Assessment/Phase III Remedial Action Plan Addendum for historical releases of petroleum hydrocarbons. Pan Am will also present information about disposal site conditions and ongoing site activities.

Copies of the reports will be made available at the meeting or online at eastdeerfieldrailyard.erm.com.

The town and state have been overseeing the railroad’s cleanup of contaminated ground for several years now in the area long used by the Boston and Maine railroad.

Eastern Maine Railway Acquires ex-Bangor & Aroostook Track

(via the Trains.com Newswire)

ST. JOHN, New Brunswick – Eastern Maine Railway, a subsidiary of Canada’s J.D. Irving Ltd., has purchased 28 miles of ex-Bangor & Aroostook track from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway. The track runs from Madawaska and Van Buren, Maine, and includes the international bridge that crosses the international border from Van Buren into St. Leonard. The deal closed June 17.

Eastern Maine Railway presently operates 200 miles of state-owned track, which Maine purchased in 2011 after MMA announced plans to abandon the lines. The latest acquisition will link Eastern Maine Railway’s operations and a Canadian National line on the Canadian side of the border. The 28 miles was not included in the original deal with the state. At the time of the original deal it was considered viable operation since it served the Twin Rivers paper mill in Madawaska, but since that time the mill has cut back on rail shipments. Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway announced a tentative deal to sell the line in late 2011.

“It has never stopped being in discussion,” Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway President Robert Grindrod tells the Bangor Daily News. “Any time a railroad changes hands it requires government approval. It’s taken us this long to get us through that process.”