24-03-22 PHOTOS: Greenfield

For years I was aware that my cousin lived in "western Mass", but I always assumed it was somewhere inaccessible and didn't press further. It was only in 2024 that I discovered it lived only 8 minutes from downtown Greenfield, home to a Vermonter stop and terminus of Amtrak's new Valley Flyer service, which extends some Springfield Line trains. With three round trips per day I quickly arranged a visit as his location would also allow access to a cache of vintage Boston and Maine signaling that I had confirmed on a COVID era Vermonter trip to White River Jct. In this set of photos ( mirror ) I will travel up to Greenfield with a short layover at New Haven and then catch some freight action at the Crossroads of the B&M.

During my wait for the 7am northbound Acela at the BWI airport rail station, I happened to catch northbound MARC Penn Line train with SC44 #80 and split level cab car #8055 and a late running 5-car Amtrak Train 67 en-route to Newport News with ASC-86 #663.

BWI has pretty poor Acela options with 7am and 3pm as the two daily northbound departures, which usually has me going to DC as the first leg of my trip, but this time the 7am met my schedule needs and price point and dutifully arrived with power car #2013 leading.

Not much to say about the trip up except I got this photo of HAROLD tower in Sunnyside, NY that somehow managed to avoid getting demolished in the whole East Side Access debacle.

Here we see power car #2012 on the end of my train after I got off at New Haven. This Acela trainset is one of only a few that have sequentially numbered power cars.

Metro North M8 #9222 hanging out on the New Haven station through track.

Despite the advertisements, I was going to have to leave riding the CTRail Hartford Line for another day. Instead I walked over to Church Street for some view of Amtrak's motor storage yard while waiting for the northbound Vermonter. In the yard were a trio of MP15DC cab end switchers, including #539 and #537, used for Springfield Line MoW service along with several P42DC's including #123.

Hiding back under the Church St bridge was Amtrak 40th anniversary Phase 2 heritage unit #130.

My northbound Vermonter train 56 arrived with ACS-86 #651 on point. 

On board the Vermonter I caught a Hartford Line train laying over north of Hartford with Mafersa cab car #1705.

Reactivation of the downtown Windsor Locks station was ongoing with a new high level platform under construction. This will replace the AmShelter that has been in service since 1981.

In other Springfield Line news, the single main track over the Connecticut River bridge has been switched from the south to the north side of the bridge. Future plans are call for full double tracking all the way to Springfield.

Passing southbound Vermonter Train 55 near Enfield, CT.

Until CP-98 on the former Conrail Boston Line can be reconfigured, the Vermonter and Valley Flyer trains will have to continue backing out of Springfield Union Station around the curve to cross the line via the diamonds at SPRING tower.

To get photos out of rear of Train 56 I booked business class, which on the Vermonter means what used to be the first class seating on the Metroliner service trains with large faux leather 2+1 seats. 

The Greenfield Amtrak Station is located just north of the junction between the Boston and Maine's Mechanicville and Connecticut Valley main lines. Later amalgamated into the Guilford Rail system and then partly spun off into a joint venture with Norfolk Southern, CPF-385 had both the north-south and east-west lines running side-by-side allowing trains to transfer between them in either direction. CPF-385 was modified with a new switch and cantilever signal in 2018 when the CT Valley line was rebuilt for passenger service.

A group of railfans standing nearby indicated that they were waiting for a series of trains to get released from East Deerfield Yard and sure enough the daily westbound NS intermodal run appeared on the main track led by SD60E #6959, C44-9W #9871 and ES44AC #8089. A condition of CSX's purchase of the Guilford Rail System will move this train to the Boston Line under a trackage rights agreement leaving the long term viability of the Hoosac Tunnel route in doubt.

About 5 minutes after the NS move vanished around the curve, a local freight came up from the yard and waited for the restricting indication on the B&M vintage signal bridge to change to Approach before proceeding. Power was a pair of Main Central GP40-2's, #381 and #345, sandwiching Bay Line GP40-2 #3019. The presence of a short line locomotive from Florida was due to the CSX merger spinning off the NS joint venture to the anaconda-like G&W, which had previously snapped up the Bay Line.

Just when I thought things were done for the day, a third train rounded the curve out of Deerfield yard, this time routed for the northbound CT Valley Line with a short cut of hopper cars for local delivery. Lead unit was Ottowa Valley Railway GP40-2LW #3029 and ex-CN GP40-2 #6409.

After the local vanished around the curve my cousin appeared and it was time to head out to dinner. Next time I'll be back as I check out East Deerfield yard and drive up the Connecticut River valley to the Putney siding on the New Englande Central.