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| Massachusetts Central; Barre, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
New England is dotted with small shortline railroads, and most have a certain charm about them. The Massachusetts Central is certainly one of those charming roads. The railroad operates over former Boston & Maine trackage from Palmer, Mass., north through Ware and on to Barre, Mass. The railroad's primary power, a pair of EMD GP38-2s, pays tribute to the line's heritage, as the paint scheme is inspired by the B&M's "bluebird" scheme.
On November 14 I chased the Massachusetts Central (along with Mike Burkhart) from Palmer. On this day the crew had work to do all the way to Barre (on some days the train only goes as far as Ware), so we got to cover the entire railroad. After a crew meeting at 7:30 the first order of business was to go to the CSX interchange in town and pick up the day's train. The Steaming Tender restaurant is located in the former Palmer Union Station and has a Porter-built 0-6-0 steam locomotive in the parking lot.
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| Massachusetts Central; Palmer, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
After dropping tank car it had just picked up from CSX at an industry in Palmer, the train proceeded north. The line twists and turns on the outskirts of Palmer, crossing a marsh adjacent to Forest Lake.
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| Massachusetts Central; Palmer, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
Next up on the switch list was a transload terminal on the Palmer-Ware border. The low winter sun put everything in shadow here, so we skipped it and headed into Ware, where there is an industry that gets plastic pellets in covered hoppers. The locomotive ran around two covered hoppers and pushed them into the industry.
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| Massachusetts Central; Ware, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
Just north of here, another stop was made at a recycling center. At each stop the crew spotted cars that had just come in from CSX, but left all the outbound cars for the return trip. By the time the train was heading to Barre, there were only three cars left -- a boxcar and two flatcars loaded with pipe. Boxcars are spotted at the old mill in Barre, while a team track is located on the other side of the mill (but on the same track as the mill). Once in Barre, the crew had to head down to the mill with just the engine to pull the cars out of the mill and team track.
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| Massachusetts Central; Barre, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
After grabbing the cars, the train headed back up the hill to the runaround track on the mainline (top photo of this post). Then the inbound cars were pushed down the hill and spotted. Once that was done, the locomotive returned light past the mill heading back to its train.
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| Massachusetts Central; Barre, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
The short winter day was quickly bringing in long shadows as the train rounded the curve and headed up the hill to the mainline.
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| Massachusetts Central; Barre, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
With the train back together, it was time to take the several cars that were lifted from Barre back to Palmer.
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| Massachusetts Central; Barre, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
One of the few places where trees didn't block the low sun was the open crossing at Wheelwright.
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| Massachusetts Central; Wheelwright, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
The crew paused to retrieve outbound scrap cars from the recycler north of Ware, then dropped down past the industry where they spotted plastics cars earlier in the day, heading into the very low sun.
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| Massachusetts Central; Ware, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
The train did not stop at Ware to pick up covered hoppers, but continued on. With the sun just about gone, our last shot was of the train passing through Ware.
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| Massachusetts Central; Ware, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
We headed back into Palmer to the railroad's shop. After thanking the folks in the office for their hospitality, we snapped a quick night shot of the railroad's other GP38-2, then headed for home. It was certainly an enjoyable day of New England shortline railroading.
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| Massachusetts Central; Palmer, Mass.; November 14, 2016 |
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