Quarry action at the Fletcher Quarry in Westford, MA

[JCitron]

http://youtu.be/53_4NlgWcpc


Fletcher Quarry is one of the largest still active granite quarries in Massachusetts. Located in Westford, MA, they have their own railroad with a connection with the Stoney Brook line located few miles away. They recently rebuilt their tracks and the connection at Stoney Brook and occasionally interchange freight with Guilford (PanAm Railways).

It's quite interesting how they cut the stone in the mill and use their little GE 80-tonners to haul the granite blocks around the works.

John

 

[Euphod]

Holy cow, death around every corner! I think the engineer has the safest job of the bunch, as long as you're not afraid of heights! Thanks for posting the link!

 

[JCitron]

Holy cow, death around every corner! I think the engineer has the safest job of the bunch, as long as you're not afraid of heights! Thanks for posting the link!

No kidding, Ed. I've biked by the quarry many, many years ago and watched them work from the road. I can't imagine what it would be like working in a place like that. It's really fascinating and I've been thinking about how I'd build something like that in Trainz. I suppose it could be a dig-hole object that "blends" into the terrain, but that doesn't always work well. The more I think about it, I think the traditional hole dug in the ground with tracks laid around the rim might work best.

John

 

[sawyer811]

That, my friend, is really, really cool! I'm thinking, though, if I was working there, I'd chained myself into the cab of that 80-tonner! good catch.

 

[oknotsen]

I was curious how that place looked like from above, so I looked it up. Here is the link if you are also interested.

 

[JCitron]

Thank you for the aerial view. If you follow the their trackage south (down), you'll see where they connect to the Stoney Brook line. Their connection is a recent rebuild, probably in the past 6 years or so. This was once the Stoney Brook Railroad which was absorbed into the Boston & Maine many years ago. Today the Stoney Brook line is a major freight line for PanAm Railways.

I never knew they ran such an extensive little shortline though. This is really awesome. When I was up there, their operations were a lot smaller.
Here's a Bing Bird's Eye view of the operations across the road with an 80-tonner pushing or pulling a string of flats.

http://binged.it/Ins2LJ

On the original property, you can see a rail-riding crane and an old boxcar for parts storage.

http://binged.it/InslWZ

I've got some ideas now on how to build something like this.

This could be either narrow gauge, which would be fun because of the small-sized wagons and locomotives, or maybe a standard gauge using old RS1s or 80-tonners.

John

 

[Dermmy]

Fantastic find John! Thanks. Thanks also to oknotsen for the aerial link - what an amazing little railway! In the aerial view you can clearly see an 80-tonner near the big shed south of the quarry. Love it

 

[sawyer811]

I've got some ideas now on how to build something like this.

This could be either narrow gauge, which would be fun because of the small-sized wagons and locomotives, or maybe a standard gauge using old RS1s or 80-tonners.

John

my vote's on Standard: the NG might be a bit cliched (no offense to anyone) and honestly, I kinda think a SG line would be more fun to run: you'd have to think a little more about which engine to take up (for instance, your 2-8-0 can pull more than your little 0-4-0T, but the area the loads are in is tight-curve central: the 2-8-0 ain't gonna like that much) not to mention you'd have a bit more prototypical fidelity

not that anyone cares, of course :hehe:

 

[JCitron]

my vote's on Standard: the NG might be a bit cliched (no offense to anyone) and honestly, I kinda think a SG line would be more fun to run: you'd have to think a little more about which engine to take up (for instance, your 2-8-0 can pull more than your little 0-4-0T, but the area the loads are in is tight-curve central: the 2-8-0 ain't gonna like that much) not to mention you'd have a bit more prototypical fidelity

not that anyone cares, of course :hehe:

That it will be. When I get a chance, I'll download the DEM from Chelmsford/Westford. (It's really on the townline of both towns).

I did a bit more of a look around at the aerial views. These photos are going on 8-10 years old. I can tell by the construction on nearby Interstate Route 3. The highway was widened from 2 lanes to 3 lanes during this period. The construction ended in early 2007, just before my old company moved from Bedford to Woburn. We got to enjoy the then new widened highway for about 3 months and put up with construction for 5 years.

John

 

[JCitron]

I've downloaded the DEM for the area and imported it into Trainz using TransDEM. Surprisingly, the area is quite flat even though it is in the Merrimack Valley still. The Merrimack is up to the north a bit where the junction of the Stoney Brook line and Boston and Maine intersect in North Chelmsford.

When I've made some progress, I'll post some progress picts.

John.