In days of old this grade was a helper District and just a few miles to the east at the bottom of the hill relics of that bygone era remain in the form of a crumbling and long abandoned roundhouse and concrete coaling tower in Chester. So there is some precedence and historical relevance for the adding of a pair of head end hill helpers to this train.
At least that's the story I tell myself to futily attempt to mask a bit of my disappointment that CSXT decided to cap their splendid and newly repainted rebuilt F40PHs in matching Baltimore and Ohio style paint with a pair of run of the mill modern Gevos, but hey at least they were clean!
CSXT's office car special is running as train P00109 from Worcester to Waycross via the water level route to Cleveland then south toward Indianapolis, Nashville and Atlanta. Allegedly CSX was hosting UPS on board but I don't know for certain or how far the train was occupied.
On a sweltering hot and humid morning in the green Berkshire Hills they are seen making easy work of steepest part of the climb at about a 1.65% grade here on the old Boston and Albany. They are negotiating the giant s-curve made of two full horseshoe curves and here at the bottom of the first curve is about the only place a westbound train can be found heading into the sun during the morning hours. This is at MP 129 and they are climbing up track 2 as the NC Dispatcher in Jacksonville decided to 'double barrel' trains west and Q019 just passed on Main 1 which these guys will pass on the climb to Washington Summit.
This route following the West Branch of the Westfield River dates from 1841 and includes the famed cluster of dry laid Keystone Arch bridges in this area. The 1912 rebuilding and double tracking of the line bypassed all but the double arch bridge which remains in use to this day though three of the long bypassed structures remain and can be hiked to, an adventure I highly recommend. If you want to learn more here is a great article:
www.mass.gov/doc/keystones-for-wildlife-and-posterity/dow...
Becket, Massachusetts
Wednesday June 9, 2019
