Railroad capitals of the U.S.

[deneban]

Like Jackson I too live on the "north side" of Boston. The volume of traffic to the Boston area has increased, however, the eastern-most hump yard in the US is no longer in existence. The old Boston & Maine hump, located in Cambridge and Somerville (well mostly in Somerville), is no longer. This has become, to the larger extent, condos and industrial parks set next to the existing BET and commuter tracks with a couple of freight yard tracks, which do hold some freight cars. I actually witnessed that a few months ago on my trip into North Station! For the most part, any freight that does come in, is run to a small siding in Stoneham near Montvale first, and actually originates in Lawrence as SA-1 or SA-2. Yes, the Salem switcher does the Boston work now. They may have more recently discontinued SA-1/SA-2 in favor of LA-1 and LA-2, but I'm not sure. Perhaps with NS teaming up more and more with PAR, we may see an increase in business, however, I doubt any yard would be rebuilt. Heck there are too many NIMBYs in this area now to prevent that from happening. They're even squawking about the new T service to Medford.

I agree this does qualify for inclusion into the list since I to read this as an AND OR and not a NAND or NOR, or XOR combination.

I did not understand, what is an "AND OR" for a list of three items?

I have done some research on Boston. It may be viable as a railroad capitol (capitol with an "o" by the way) for the OP criteria 2 and 3 (passenger and history) but no way does it meet criteria 1 "see a great deal of freight traffic." Boston has not a single mediocre freight yard, and as pointed out herein, the trend has been to expel them from the city and bordering suburbs. Norfolk Southern, in the form of Pan Am Southern, does not venture into the Boston freight stations, only Pan Am does, and only under the state's MBTA trackage at Massport locations. Pan Am traffic into Boston is limited, and their most modern motive power is a two dozen SD40-2s, hardly a contender for delivery of a "great deal of freight traffic." Pan Am is privately held, but revenues are only estimated at only $91 million, so it just squeaks by as a Class II railroad. Boston has no freight yards and no Class I railroads (except for Amtrak).

[[Off topic plug: I have made a Pan Am Boxcar and a fictitious Pan Am Southern boxcar (kuids 71964:100561 and 71964:100035)]]

 

[JCitron]

I did not understand, what is an "AND OR" for a list of three items?

I have done some research on Boston. It may be viable as a railroad capitol (capitol with an "o" by the way) for the OP criteria 2 and 3 (passenger and history) but no way does it meet criteria 1 "see a great deal of freight traffic." Boston has not a single mediocre freight yard, and as pointed out herein, the trend has been to expel them from the city and bordering suburbs. Norfolk Southern, in the form of Pan Am Southern, does not venture into the Boston freight stations, only Pan Am does, and only under the state's MBTA trackage at Massport locations. Pan Am traffic into Boston is limited, and their most modern motive power is a two dozen SD40-2s, hardly a contender for delivery of a "great deal of freight traffic." Pan Am is privately held, but revenues are only estimated at only $91 million, so it just squeaks by as a Class II railroad. Boston has no freight yards and no Class I railroads (except for Amtrak).


[[Off topic plug: I have made a Pan Am Boxcar and a fictitious Pan Am Southern boxcar (kuids 71964:100561 and 71964:100035)]]

I'll have to take a look at the PAS freight car.

Back to Boston... The freight traffic in and around Boston has been in a decline for years. Guilford Rail essentially put the nail in the coffin for it when they decided that their main concern was freight from North Maine Jct. to Buffalo and points west while curtailing business outside this corridor. With that happening in in the early 1980s, the remaining freight service declined rapidly, and by 1990 the old hump yard was gone. When North Point was built, after Pan Am sold off the real estate, this doomed any return of freight yards to the area. This development exists next to the John F. Gilmore Bridge (formerly the Prison Point Bridge) in Cambridge. The rest of the land is a wasteland of ripped up track, bulldozed railroad grade, and an abandoned bridge and ROW with piles of junk. The old Yard 21 is definitely gone now. This was a small siding down along Sullivan Square T station which ended near Assembly Square. This is now going to be the new Assembly Square T station. Back in the early 1990s, Guilford used to park a switcher down there and switch a paper recycler and a few other small industries in and around the area. They then canceled the paper job when the recycler closed, and ripped up the connection to the port. MassPort, however, owns the tracks to the port and at one point was looking for an operator. I don't know what ever happened to that plan, but the tracks are intact up to the port but cut at the yard.

At one point, even up to the early 1970s, Boston had quite a freight operation at that point it definitely would have been a contender. As a kid I remember seeing the big hump in action and many other yard tracks busy with freight switchers and consists.

You might find this thread interesting on Railroad.net

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=70521

John

 

[Maas124]

I'd nominate Denver. At one point, UP, C&S, D&RGW, CC, and MoPac all serviced it. Currently it has a lot of light rail, has a small section of old trolley track(w/ trolleys!) and the state rr museum near by. Also has several yards.
Cheerio.