I was once used as a brakeman then conductor at that Ferry Street yard. I always liked working next to the water. Squatters had moved in along the river bank and were using railroad water works for their needs. I think they were rousted when the condos were built. Do you remember the Aceriana (check my spelling) Club up the street. Burned down in the 80's some time. Emeril used to play around the yard too.
@@fixedgearfever69 Said yard was next to the Mechanic's Hall. How about the Chickering Yard across the mainline (New Haven) from Northeastern. It was the site of one of the earliest ball parks in Boston. I worked on the former B&A and I believe the yard near Copley Sq. had another name (not sure).
@@ernestpassaro9663 A former branch line from Nashville to Lebanon, Tennessee was abandoned in 1936. A short stretch was relaid to a new industrial park on the former rail line. It only lasted for a few years while Kroger had a huge warehouse distribution center. When Kroger moved there wasn't enough business from the few other shippers to be worthwhile, so it was abandoned - again! and the tracks pulled back up, except for about one mile from Lebanon Junction to a couple of shippers.
@@ernestpassaro9663 indeed. Union Pacific was notorious for delayed shipments. They took on the problems and debt of SP and Mopac . Probably still paying off those retirement bonds. MoPac was so bad JB Hunt wouldn’t work with them.
@@fixedgearfever69 customers today don't want to wait for freight shipments railroads are notoriously slow in getting shipments to the customer and are only cheaper than trucks at a 250 mile or better haul !
Wow i haven't seen that train line used in a very long time. I remember when i was 4 years old there use to be a old coal steam train that use to go by my Grandparents house it would shake the house as it went by and if my Grandmother had clothes on the line she would rush outside to take it in before the train would cover the clothes in ash.
My mother and her parents lived in a mining town in Kentucky back in the 1910s. Their house backed up to the railroad. Some coal hoppers derailed and fell over, dumping a couple of hundred tons of coal in a neighbor’s back yard. The railroad got its hopper cars out but as you might guess the neighbors were happy to have a couple of carloads of coal in their back yard. To the railroad the coal wasn't worth picking up so everyone was happy. The neighbors had years’ worth of coal and made a little money selling coal to others.
As close as any connection to another rail operator this renewal will achieve will be the stone's throw where the Tiverton swing bridge was removed. The old bridge became a hazard to navigation so it's gone. A new bridge will be far too pricey for either the MBTA, Massachusetts or Rhode Island to even consider. Being an engineering challenge presents an even larger gap. Nice thought but during my railroad time I found that Bridge and Building Dept. was not even remotely interested in maintaining the now removed structure. A small story about the New Haven. When the Neponset River drawbridge span between Dorchester and Wollaston burned in the 1960's the move was on for MBTA resumption of passenger service. The Army Corps of Engineers offered to replace the burned structure (get this) free of charge as a training exercise. You got it...the New Haven declined. Was replaced 40 years later, don't know the price tag.
That stub end will accommodate a couple of GP38s (just barely) and that's it --- there's no point to a long stretch of parallel track unless they plan to extend the branch somewhere.
That is really great News to here and see.That really wonderful wonderful news. That way the Railroad will be there forever now .Alford in South Florida USA Today
there was an old line in washington state over stampede pass that was owned by the milwaukee road rr that was abandoned when the railroad went bankrupt in 1980, around y2k bnsf acquired the right of way and restored it, but it took a lot of work as the route was in really bad shape. the tunnel at stampede pass had an elaborate ventilation blower system that had been destroyed and looted by vandals setting fire to it, so that had to be completely rebuilt along with a damaged trestle and a few other bridges and dozens of spots where the tracks were washed out. took a few years and now it's one of the busiest freight lines in the state.
@@6toeNL When I was a freight conductor on a siding just east of the Mansfield interlocking they added a track for a lumber company, National Lumber. During construction I suggested they had better place the switch to the new track on the west end of the new warehouse to allow for ample switching headway. No it was installed east of the new building which allowed for two engines and two cars to be turned at a time and bulkhead flats engines and one car because of length of the flats. It added over an hour and a half of switching time when a full setup was ordered. On several occasions lead truck of the engine pushed the wheel stops and derailed. The land necessary to accommodate 8 cars and the engines was unavailable though not developed at that time so back and forth for what seemed an interminable amount of time. In Fall River they have the land and use approval dating back a century.
Very cool video about an abandoned railroad line getting restored, I always like to here about those than lines getting abandoned. I don't live in this "neck of the woods" so I don't know the heritage of this line, whether it's ex New York New Haven & Hartford or ex Boston & Maine. It's similar to the restoration of the abandoned portion of the Staten Island Railroad that hadn't seen a freight train since 1991. That line began to get work done to it in 1998 and was partially reopened opened again in 2006 or '07. (The ROW east of Arlington Yard to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal is still abandoned) Restoring an abandoned right of way can often be a rather tedious and time consuming project. First, the right of way has to be cleared of potentially decades worth of foliage, trees can sometimes grow through abandoned tracks between the ties (sleepers) and needs to be removed. Nine times out of ten, there will be nothing salvageable from the old tracks (rows of rotted ties, badly worn rails, even twisted rails, washouts etc) and they'll have to completely rebuild everything from "scratch" basically. Most of the railroad equipment will more than likely have to be brought to the worksite by truck as the abandoned rail line will often be severed from active rail lines and not to mention completely overgrown with weeds and trees. I noticed that the tracks in this video are being re-laid with "stick rail" (39' jointed rail) and not "ribbon rail" (continuously welded rail), is all of this trackage being restored with "stick rail"?
Railroads Built America highways and airports destroyed it we would not have it interstate highway system if it was not for government subsidy and we would not have Coast-to-Coast Airways without them being subsidized as well this country is foolish and then neglect of its rail system 100 years ago we had the greatest system of electric rails for passenger service in our cities all over everywhere and they all got cut up so people were forced to buy Model Tees but that was when American cars for cheap and fuel was cheap and now nothing is cheap people spend three times as much for the car they drive at for the house they live in
@@frankmarkovcijr5459 I agree with you 100%. The US's rail infrastructure is just a "shell" of it's former self because of the Air Industry and also the National Highway System, thanks to this competition, railroads had to cut unprofitable passenger train services and sought to eliminate unprofitable lines. If you were to compare the current US rail network from a railroad atlas or a map, verses one from say the 1920's, you'll definitely notice that about roughly 2/3 of the rail network from that era no longer exists. Some rail companies such as the Milwaukee Road and the Rock Island, have literally abandoned thousands of miles of track during the 1970's and 80's. (The Rock Island saw system wide abandonment, following a system wide strike, shortly after the Milwaukee Road abandoned it's West Coast Extension in 1980.) The Milwaukee Road for example, embargoed it's West Coast Pacific Extension in February or March of 1980, from Butte, MT to Tacoma, WA. A distance of roughly 2,000 miles. From what I understand, there are still some segments of the former Milwaukee Road Mainline that were saved from scrappers and one is in Idaho, currently operated by the St. Marie's River Railroad Co, to serve a number of lumber industries. With that being said, it's now mostly impossible to get back that infrastructure that a lot of America lost decades ago.
@@Jay-320x Thanks Jay. Did this trackage go into Orleans, MA through Cape Cod by any chance? I briefly stayed with relatives there and there was a hiking / biking trail on an abandoned ROW, I think running east of Hyannis, MA. Was that the NYNH&H / Old Colony Line at all?
If you think a dump truck riding the Rails sounds wild, how does a tractor trailer truck sound? I got a first hand account of seeing that while assisting a work train at Memphis, Tennessee last fall!
@@themonkeyhand actually it's a special semi equipped with knuckle couplers and specialized equipment that allows it to feed the new rail safely and quickly down along side the main line for future installation by the track gang. Basically, the truck attaches itself to the rear of the work train and is towed to the designated location where new rail needs to be laid. Unfortunately, the train cannot exceed 10mph while the truck is attached to the rear of the train, so pretty much most of the time is used up getting to and from the work area, but once the work actually starts, it actually goes fairly quickly. It's quite an operation!
Glad to see the line extension. I ran around that stub track many times when switching the Fall River yard before the highway reconstruction. There was talk of the extension serving a freight customer south of the yard as well. I think it was Gold Medal flour. Did that ever happen?
Greetings from Birmingham UK. Interesting video this, thank you for sharing. It was good to see how the line was being rebuilt, how long is it now, and might it be extended in the future? Either way it's great to have trains back where they belong. From the comments it seems there is much support for the line, let's hope it translates into usage. On a personal note I think I prefer the livery of 2010 over the 2007 variant. I've subbed so I can follow progress. Good luck all. 🙂🙂
Railroads companies have cut back SO much their freight is backing up throughout America. They've been doing this from the forties which now we paying more at the store. Plus big companies buying out the compilation then cutting track lines.
Its interesting how the neighbor changed during the time they were rehabilitating the line. If you look in the background at time index beginning at 13:52, there is a large warehouse and a blue/gray building. At 19:06 the warehouse is gone an the smaller building now appears to be a restaurant.
I worked as a brakeman and conductor in the Ferry Street yard. The real big Fall River Station was up in Bowenville. UN-1 and NU-2 handled traffic for all stations between Myricks and Newport. BX-1 did all the local work. I was a brakeman on UN-1 the night the water main was taken down from the Ferry Street overhead bridge by an over-dimension car out of Kaiser Aluminum in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. J and J Corrigated got two switches a day. Borden Chemical, the Holsum bakery, Thompson Chemical and I think Goodyear Tire along with the State Pier, the Tiverton Freighthouse, and Bowenville yard all got daily service. I fully doubt freight service could make any sort of return here in a sustainable volume. When Weyerhauser moved away from the pier in Portsmouth that started the erosion of freight demand.
Thanks for sharing your story! It’s amazing that this video has attracted a former railroad employee that worked this trackage. It’s too bad how much freight has disappeared since your time on the railroad. I agree that freight will never grow in this area again, especially south of Fall River towards Aquidneck Island. We’ll be lucky to get the track to the Rhode Island State Line back in service for direct service to Gold Medal Bakery and potentially to serve the City of Fall River sewage treatment plant.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Yours is a fast reply. If only this speed could be applied to the South Coast project. Optimism is in the air where my time was a killer as the Taunton Division dried up and died. I could not face the older brakemen and conductors if they were to see where their hearts and souls had gone.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos At this writing: the CSX purchase of PanAm railways is considered a pre acquisition. (only info I could find). I guess it is a 10 month elvaluation before a final decision is made. Do you think, if it is all good and done, there will be a positive impact, in that area as well as the northeast?
hello - as a kid in 1969 I remember picking up a few copies of a Q-7 report on New Haven stationery, though officially under Penn Central control.... BX -1 was the train.... Engineer Barr and Conductor Cawley were the names on the form.... don't ask me why I would remember their names so many years later...... btw, I was hiking the tracks in New London, Ct..... your story rang a bell and I wanted to respond....
@@williammorse8330 Thanks for your reply.I'm confused by the info on the "Q". Cawley was a Shoreline Division conductor that I remember. Barr doesn't ring a bell though likely a Shoreline engineman. There were two sides to UN-1 and NU-2. U = New Bedford N = New Haven (Cedar Hill Yard) to equalise the miles to the divisions that ran over the route. Taunton Division had one side, Shoreline Division had the other. I imagine the "Q" was for UN-1 rather than BX-1. UN and NU were long winded jobs....stopped everywhere. New London was an interchange with the Central Vermont. Do you remember the USS Fulton that was moored on the Groton side of the Thames? It was a sub tender. Railroaders used to call it the "Neversail" because it was forever tied up. Setting off cars for the CV was shitty. Had to cut off the CV block in Groton and bring the CVs to the station. Meaning the head brakeman ( me ) had to ride the last car over the drawbridge hanging on to the side of the car. Pinched my cheeks the entire time. Backed over to the CV at Palmer's Cove. All done with air, no radios. But I'd do it all over again. Iron men, wooden boxcars.
I drive past this line frequently, and over the past weekend, drove by the Battleship Cove rail yard under the Braga Bridge. We're trying to figure out where the MBTA terminus will be once the commuter line is reactivated. I had expected that siding would be ideal for parking commuter rail trains, but they have not built any platforms along that stretch. Do you know where the MBTA Battleship Cove station will be located? Great video! I remember when they were rebuilding that stretch of track! Very exciting! It's a shame that they removed the railroad bridge here in Tiverton, it would have been interesting to see the line rehabilitated from that point through to Newport. Unfortunately, there are now buildings built on the right-of-way a little further down towards the state line, and they want to convert the right of way from the state line to the Sakonnet River Bridge as a bike path.
There has been talk of going further south to directly serve a bakery. Currently they transload in Wharf yard which is about a mile north of the bakery.
@@mollycaz1 Because service ended doesn't necessarily mean that the railroad was torn up. I cannot vouch for the continued existence of the roadway though. There was an ongoing entanglement between abutters and the railroad over certain cosmetic landscaping encroaching upon the right of way that the MofW used herbicides to eliminate. Turned out that the railroad owned more land than had been used for years.
@@mollycaz1 Added opinion. There was a movable bridge further on down the line that was removed because it became and constituted a hazard to navigation. At the time of removal...over 20 years ago...the restoration of passenger service was not in the deck. Concurrently Rhode Island wasn't interested in footing the bill for any rail projects. Cutting to the chase, the existing freight customers couldn't and wouldn't provide assurances of traffic growth so rail service vaporized. 20 or 30 years ago was the moment to seize for railroad growth.
Thanks for watching! A run around track is a double ended siding track that allows a locomotive to uncouple from its train, pass it on the siding, and get to the other end. Generally this is used to have the train switch directions or during other switching moves.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Maybe a station stop could be created at a location just short of the RI state line. A group in NH, called New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association, has been working so to extend MBTA service north of the Lowell Station (on their Lowell Line). My belief to them is to stop at the south end of the present Pheasant Lane Mall, whereas its large parking lot extends south, into MA. (Take a look on Google's Earth and take note that NONE of the mall's structure enters MA. The very southernmost part of any of the mall's structure follows the state line, but, does NOT enter Massachusetts at all! Only the mall's parking lot enters MA.)
@@JBell._ Newport segment a mere extension of the Fall River branch. I believe the swing bridge at Tiverton is gone. I truly believe any through service to Newport will never happen. Replacing the Tiverton bridge would find opposition from every possible direction. There was an option to replace the bridge up near the Fall River Country Club near the former Thompson Chemical. That would only work if the Dighton would open again. And it appears that is impossible.
Railroad companies have cut ✂️ their own throats by not maintaining track to save money 🙄. Since so much freight coming in they can't keep up with demand from agriculture, military, manufacturing to sea shipments. So many landscape track bedding dated back to the twenties. Now they have to hire more personnel. Plus gaining new customers to those abandon areas.
Doeß the shear cost of revitalising this line going to be worth it through freight and or passenger useage Something closed it down in the past is the future going to be any different
Truckers are more highly regulated than any other major industry, and therefore much more costly. Plus, the cost of diesel fuel is going to skyrocket with government pushing this stupid Green New Deal, so railroad transportation is making a huge comeback. Would love to see passenger rail travel get more affordable as well.
They’re rebuilding the rail track the old fashioned way. In Europe they use one long machine train that unscrew the rails, digs out ballast gravel, replace the wooden sleepers for concrete ones, place the (new) rails and screw it to the sleepers, reuse the ballast gravel and adding new gravel and vibrates the ballast gravel in place. America seems to be way behind in rail infrastructure. Or do they have such a machine train and aren’t they using it because the track is too short, in other words it is not efficient to use it in case.
Unfortunately America has become very much against rail starting in the late 40s. The government spends countless amounts of money on the interstate highway system and on constructing, maintaining and expanding the airline industry but does nothing to help the rail industry. The rail industry is mostly privately funded and is taxed by the same government that assists it's competitors.
@@ruffian2952 I had considered hopper cars but wondered of the dump on tracks might cause hoppers to derail. I thought there was a tractor with scoop to remove and disperse the crushed rock.
@@catgynt9148 There exists a type of hopper that is designed to "plow" stone. We had them when I was a brakeman here in Fall River. You can direct the falling stone to either the inner guage or outside the guage with little or no lost stone to wheel crush. Could you be related to Ibsen's Peer Gynt?
@@ruffian2952 thanks for sharing this. I admit to being color blind to styles and variations of rail cars. My father grew up in Bellevue, Ohio - home of Nickel Plate RR. He passed when I was very young and my only rail experience was riding in Europe and sitting at crossings. Gynt is old family name that will die with me; my wife and all male cousins on Dad’s side only had daughters (no sons).
This would have been great if it were not for dreadful camera work. If you're gonna put out a video on YT, at least use a tripod to steady the camera. Jeez.
love when the rails are all hidden in vegetation, makes the train's locomotion so much more satisfying for sone reason
I'm a Fall River native. Lived at 200 Beach Street. Used to go to railroad yard and watch the trains when I was a little. Love trains.
Do you remember the Copley yard in Boston? The precursor to. 800 Boston St prudential center. Boston. Used to be a rail center for New England.
I was once used as a brakeman then conductor at that Ferry Street yard. I always liked working next to the water. Squatters had moved in along the river bank and were using railroad water works for their needs. I think they were rousted when the condos were built. Do you remember the Aceriana (check my spelling) Club up the street. Burned down in the 80's some time. Emeril used to play around the yard too.
@@fixedgearfever69 Said yard was next to the Mechanic's Hall. How about the Chickering Yard across the mainline (New Haven) from Northeastern. It was the site of one of the earliest ball parks in Boston. I worked on the former B&A and I believe the yard near Copley Sq. had another name (not sure).
Glad it's being put back to its original purpose. Rather than yet another bike trail
Amen.
Exactly
Good to see a short line refurbishing tracks the big railroads abandoned.
Thanks for watching
As someone who moved to the area a few years back. I have always been curious when they fixed this line. Great video and now I’m a new subscriber
Wonderful childhood memories being revitalized makes me smile. Progress may not be linear, but there seems to be hope for a more balanced world.
Linear has been replaced by abstruse. Pity.
just the sounds those trains make makes me smile. so cool..😀
Wow this was a amazing catch, its very nice to see a r r come back to life :-) thanks
Usually once they are abandoned that's it about 99 percent of the time nice to see it come back to life
@@ernestpassaro9663 A former branch line from Nashville to Lebanon, Tennessee was abandoned in 1936. A short stretch was relaid to a new industrial park on the former rail line. It only lasted for a few years while Kroger had a huge warehouse distribution center. When Kroger moved there wasn't enough business from the few other shippers to be worthwhile, so it was abandoned - again! and the tracks pulled back up, except for about one mile from Lebanon Junction to a couple of shippers.
People are figuring out that railroads are an efficient way to ship large amounts of goods
At least 4x the fuel efficiency of trucks, and they don’t trash the public highways like big rigs.
Classic human nature. Forget the past over time and it suddenly is a new discovery.
@@ClockworksOfGL has anyone forgotten why they lost out to trucks very poor service !
@@ernestpassaro9663 indeed. Union Pacific was notorious for delayed shipments. They took on the problems and debt of SP and Mopac . Probably still paying off those retirement bonds. MoPac was so bad JB Hunt wouldn’t work with them.
@@fixedgearfever69 customers today don't want to wait for freight shipments railroads are notoriously slow in getting shipments to the customer and are only cheaper than trucks at a 250 mile or better haul !
Wow i haven't seen that train line used in a very long time. I remember when i was 4 years old there use to be a old coal steam train that use to go by my Grandparents house it would shake the house as it went by and if my Grandmother had clothes on the line she would rush outside to take it in before the train would cover the clothes in ash.
My mother and her parents lived in a mining town in Kentucky back in the 1910s. Their house backed up to the railroad. Some coal hoppers derailed and fell over, dumping a couple of hundred tons of coal in a neighbor’s back yard. The railroad got its hopper cars out but as you might guess the neighbors were happy to have a couple of carloads of coal in their back yard. To the railroad the coal wasn't worth picking up so everyone was happy.
The neighbors had years’ worth of coal and made a little money selling coal to others.
yes!..bring all our railroads back!
Well... Bring most back. Because that would be an awful noise for me (Abandoned tracks run through my front yard where I live)
@@JellyCrainerSlogoCLIPS also abandoned tracks in the middle of woods broke down bridges well trestles as you would call em
Wow. This is Great to see!
Riding our father’s magic carpet made of steel.
This was great! Keep up the great work
Nice job on the old New Haven line. Are they going to continue the construction. To link up with the p and w? And a possibility with the MBTA
As close as any connection to another rail operator this renewal will achieve will be the stone's throw where the Tiverton swing bridge was removed. The old bridge became a hazard to navigation so it's gone. A new bridge will be far too pricey for either the MBTA, Massachusetts or Rhode Island to even consider. Being an engineering challenge presents an even larger gap. Nice thought but during my railroad time I found that Bridge and Building Dept. was not even remotely interested in maintaining the now removed structure. A small story about the New Haven. When the Neponset River drawbridge span between Dorchester and Wollaston burned in the 1960's the move was on for MBTA resumption of passenger service. The Army Corps of Engineers offered to replace the burned structure (get this) free of charge as a training exercise. You got it...the New Haven declined. Was replaced 40 years later, don't know the price tag.
No
You don’t see or hear this happening very often. And rarely on a Class I Railroad. Thanks! 👍
Very true, especially in the North Central MA area!
It's nice to see rails being opened and fixed
That stub end will accommodate a couple of GP38s (just barely) and that's it --- there's no point to a long stretch of parallel track unless they plan to extend the branch somewhere.
You'd have thought they'd have made the head shunt bigger!
Nice to see the old line come back to life again
It was frustrating to see it go to hell.
Very Cool!! Thanks for posting!!!
It is a great piece of news ! Thank you very much for sharing it !👍😁
Keep up the good work double thumbs up
That is really great News to here and see.That really wonderful wonderful news. That way the Railroad will be there forever now .Alford in South Florida USA Today
there was an old line in washington state over stampede pass that was owned by the milwaukee road rr that was abandoned when the railroad went bankrupt in 1980, around y2k bnsf acquired the right of way and restored it, but it took a lot of work as the route was in really bad shape. the tunnel at stampede pass had an elaborate ventilation blower system that had been destroyed and looted by vandals setting fire to it, so that had to be completely rebuilt along with a damaged trestle and a few other bridges and dozens of spots where the tracks were washed out. took a few years and now it's one of the busiest freight lines in the state.
The Northern Pacific then the Burlington Northern used Stampede Pass.The Milwaukee used Snoqualmie Pass.
Great to hear that it's being put to good use again .
@@barbaradarnell7376 Would that particular line run through Centralia? Rather would either of the lines run through Centralia?
very interesting on how they do the track work nowadays..... and encouraging.... thank you for posting ! Bill in Bellows Falls, Vermont
16:37......so good to see a New Haven locomotive on this line......thanks for sharing 👍
If you are looking for more come see the Hyannis to Bourne tourist train. Two of them here.
And here we see a locomotive in it's natural grass environment.
great video 🚄🚄👍
Couldn't have given us another 5-10 feet of track at there end, there? :D
That calls foresight into play.
@@ruffian2952 meaning?
@@6toeNL Wow....try foresight not employed in giving another 5-10 feet of rail to use. Piss poor planning.
@@ruffian2952 ah I understand. I'd assume they will derail quite easily with the current situation
@@6toeNL When I was a freight conductor on a siding just east of the Mansfield interlocking they added a track for a lumber company, National Lumber. During construction I suggested they had better place the switch to the new track on the west end of the new warehouse to allow for ample switching headway. No it was installed east of the new building which allowed for two engines and two cars to be turned at a time and bulkhead flats engines and one car because of length of the flats. It added over an hour and a half of switching time when a full setup was ordered. On several occasions lead truck of the engine pushed the wheel stops and derailed. The land necessary to accommodate 8 cars and the engines was unavailable though not developed at that time so back and forth for what seemed an interminable amount of time. In Fall River they have the land and use approval dating back a century.
Just AMAZING I love it!!
Another great video. I love seeing old rail come back to life. Thanks for the share.
P.S. please someone buy this creator a gimbal for Christmas!
Beautiful video like and subscribed from Czech Republic 🙂👍👍👍
I like watching videos of mountain railroads in Czech. Lots of abandoned railways in Europe as well.
Very cool video about an abandoned railroad line getting restored, I always like to here about those than lines getting abandoned. I don't live in this "neck of the woods" so I don't know the heritage of this line, whether it's ex New York New Haven & Hartford or ex Boston & Maine. It's similar to the restoration of the abandoned portion of the Staten Island Railroad that hadn't seen a freight train since 1991. That line began to get work done to it in 1998 and was partially reopened opened again in 2006 or '07. (The ROW east of Arlington Yard to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal is still abandoned) Restoring an abandoned right of way can often be a rather tedious and time consuming project. First, the right of way has to be cleared of potentially decades worth of foliage, trees can sometimes grow through abandoned tracks between the ties (sleepers) and needs to be removed. Nine times out of ten, there will be nothing salvageable from the old tracks (rows of rotted ties, badly worn rails, even twisted rails, washouts etc) and they'll have to completely rebuild everything from "scratch" basically. Most of the railroad equipment will more than likely have to be brought to the worksite by truck as the abandoned rail line will often be severed from active rail lines and not to mention completely overgrown with weeds and trees. I noticed that the tracks in this video are being re-laid with "stick rail" (39' jointed rail) and not "ribbon rail" (continuously welded rail), is all of this trackage being restored with "stick rail"?
This section of track is using stick
Railroads Built America highways and airports destroyed it we would not have it interstate highway system if it was not for government subsidy and we would not have Coast-to-Coast Airways without them being subsidized as well this country is foolish and then neglect of its rail system 100 years ago we had the greatest system of electric rails for passenger service in our cities all over everywhere and they all got cut up so people were forced to buy Model Tees but that was when American cars for cheap and fuel was cheap and now nothing is cheap people spend three times as much for the car they drive at for the house they live in
@@frankmarkovcijr5459 I agree with you 100%. The US's rail infrastructure is just a "shell" of it's former self because of the Air Industry and also the National Highway System, thanks to this competition, railroads had to cut unprofitable passenger train services and sought to eliminate unprofitable lines. If you were to compare the current US rail network from a railroad atlas or a map, verses one from say the 1920's, you'll definitely notice that about roughly 2/3 of the rail network from that era no longer exists. Some rail companies such as the Milwaukee Road and the Rock Island, have literally abandoned thousands of miles of track during the 1970's and 80's. (The Rock Island saw system wide abandonment, following a system wide strike, shortly after the Milwaukee Road abandoned it's West Coast Extension in 1980.) The Milwaukee Road for example, embargoed it's West Coast Pacific Extension in February or March of 1980, from Butte, MT to Tacoma, WA. A distance of roughly 2,000 miles. From what I understand, there are still some segments of the former Milwaukee Road Mainline that were saved from scrappers and one is in Idaho, currently operated by the St. Marie's River Railroad Co, to serve a number of lumber industries. With that being said, it's now mostly impossible to get back that infrastructure that a lot of America lost decades ago.
It's a branch of the Old Colony Lines, former NYNH&H. B&M was on the north side of Boston.
@@Jay-320x Thanks Jay. Did this trackage go into Orleans, MA through Cape Cod by any chance? I briefly stayed with relatives there and there was a hiking / biking trail on an abandoned ROW, I think running east of Hyannis, MA. Was that the NYNH&H / Old Colony Line at all?
Never seen a dump truck rigged for tracks, pretty wild.
That is how they did the stone work up in Taunton for bringing back the Cape Codder.
If you think a dump truck riding the Rails sounds wild, how does a tractor trailer truck sound? I got a first hand account of seeing that while assisting a work train at Memphis, Tennessee last fall!
@@randallellison6421 Why did they need to have that? Did it have machinery on the back being used?
@@themonkeyhand actually it's a special semi equipped with knuckle couplers and specialized equipment that allows it to feed the new rail safely and quickly down along side the main line for future installation by the track gang. Basically, the truck attaches itself to the rear of the work train and is towed to the designated location where new rail needs to be laid. Unfortunately, the train cannot exceed 10mph while the truck is attached to the rear of the train, so pretty much most of the time is used up getting to and from the work area, but once the work actually starts, it actually goes fairly quickly. It's quite an operation!
New line for passenger services? Now that really is quite something.
Glad to see the line extension. I ran around that stub track many times when switching the Fall River yard before the highway reconstruction. There was talk of the extension serving a freight customer south of the yard as well. I think it was Gold Medal flour. Did that ever happen?
The extension has yet to happen.
Greetings from Birmingham UK. Interesting video this, thank you for sharing. It was good to see how the line was being rebuilt, how long is it now, and might it be extended in the future? Either way it's great to have trains back where they belong. From the comments it seems there is much support for the line, let's hope it translates into usage. On a personal note I think I prefer the livery of 2010 over the 2007 variant. I've subbed so I can follow progress. Good luck all. 🙂🙂
Thanks for sharing🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃
What ahhhh blessing. GREAT JOB 👏
Nice job. Awesome
Ohh loved the sound of those machines - one sounded much like a GM EMD 567 and the red one sounded much familiar to a EMD 645E3
Railroads companies have cut back SO much their freight is backing up throughout America. They've been doing this from the forties which now we paying more at the store. Plus big companies buying out the compilation then cutting track lines.
Its interesting how the neighbor changed during the time they were rehabilitating the line. If you look in the background at time index beginning at 13:52, there is a large warehouse and a blue/gray building. At 19:06 the warehouse is gone an the smaller building now appears to be a restaurant.
I worked as a brakeman and conductor in the Ferry Street yard. The real big Fall River Station was up in Bowenville. UN-1 and NU-2 handled traffic for all stations between Myricks and Newport. BX-1 did all the local work. I was a brakeman on UN-1 the night the water main was taken down from the Ferry Street overhead bridge by an over-dimension car out of Kaiser Aluminum in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. J and J Corrigated got two switches a day. Borden Chemical, the Holsum bakery, Thompson Chemical and I think Goodyear Tire along with the State Pier, the Tiverton Freighthouse, and Bowenville yard all got daily service. I fully doubt freight service could make any sort of return here in a sustainable volume. When Weyerhauser moved away from the pier in Portsmouth that started the erosion of freight demand.
Thanks for sharing your story! It’s amazing that this video has attracted a former railroad employee that worked this trackage. It’s too bad how much freight has disappeared since your time on the railroad. I agree that freight will never grow in this area again, especially south of Fall River towards Aquidneck Island. We’ll be lucky to get the track to the Rhode Island State Line back in service for direct service to Gold Medal Bakery and potentially to serve the City of Fall River sewage treatment plant.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Yours is a fast reply. If only this speed could be applied to the South Coast project. Optimism is in the air where my time was a killer as the Taunton Division dried up and died. I could not face the older brakemen and conductors if they were to see where their hearts and souls had gone.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos At this writing: the CSX purchase of PanAm railways is considered a pre acquisition. (only info I could find). I guess it is a 10 month elvaluation before a final decision is made. Do you think, if it is all good and done, there will be a positive impact, in that area as well as the northeast?
hello - as a kid in 1969 I remember picking up a few copies of a Q-7 report on New Haven stationery, though officially under Penn Central control.... BX -1 was the train.... Engineer Barr and Conductor Cawley were the
names on the form.... don't ask me why I would remember their names so many years later...... btw, I was hiking
the tracks in New London, Ct..... your story rang a bell and I wanted to respond....
@@williammorse8330 Thanks for your reply.I'm confused by the info on the "Q". Cawley was a Shoreline Division conductor that I remember. Barr doesn't ring a bell though likely a Shoreline engineman. There were two sides to UN-1 and NU-2. U = New Bedford N = New Haven (Cedar Hill Yard) to equalise the miles to the divisions that ran over the route. Taunton Division had one side, Shoreline Division had the other. I imagine the "Q" was for UN-1 rather than BX-1. UN and NU were long winded jobs....stopped everywhere. New London was an interchange with the Central Vermont. Do you remember the USS Fulton that was moored on the Groton side of the Thames? It was a sub tender. Railroaders used to call it the "Neversail" because it was forever tied up. Setting off cars for the CV was shitty. Had to cut off the CV block in Groton and bring the CVs to the station. Meaning the head brakeman ( me ) had to ride the last car over the drawbridge hanging on to the side of the car. Pinched my cheeks the entire time. Backed over to the CV at Palmer's Cove. All done with air, no radios. But I'd do it all over again. Iron men, wooden boxcars.
Great video.
Wow. That's great, I think, to bring history to life. 🚂
I drive past this line frequently, and over the past weekend, drove by the Battleship Cove rail yard under the Braga Bridge. We're trying to figure out where the MBTA terminus will be once the commuter line is reactivated. I had expected that siding would be ideal for parking commuter rail trains, but they have not built any platforms along that stretch. Do you know where the MBTA Battleship Cove station will be located?
Great video! I remember when they were rebuilding that stretch of track! Very exciting! It's a shame that they removed the railroad bridge here in Tiverton, it would have been interesting to see the line rehabilitated from that point through to Newport. Unfortunately, there are now buildings built on the right-of-way a little further down towards the state line, and they want to convert the right of way from the state line to the Sakonnet River Bridge as a bike path.
The station will be along the run around tracks and is planned to be in service by 2030.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos was
This a part of the New York New Haven line?
@@fixedgearfever69 This was previously part of the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad from 1893 until 1968.
Battleship Cove is the station locale. End of line.
So good to see. What new customer is on line? How many miles of track and was it original B&M?
The restored track is just a run around and it was the New Haven
Was this rebuilt for the south coast rail project that’s currently underway? Plus when was this taken?
Dates in video
@@SouthCoastRailVideosyou also didn’t answer the first question that I had here.
@Dan C. That makes sense. Thanks for the info Dan!
Yes, the new track is part of the South Coast Rail from Fall River to Boston South Station
www.mass.gov/south-coast-rail
Beautiful engine.
AWESOME!!!😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁🎈😁
That is awesome i love it.
I recognize that train! How did it get from the Cape to Fall River
Are they ever gonna reach Riverside again? MTBA has any plans towards getting there?
i wish csx would re activate the old manon rail road line in Salem IN
customers?
Pretty awesome to see a railroad go back to tip-top shape! 14:14 - Are they going to continue it that way?
It has been talked about but there has been no real progress on it other than vegetation clearing.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Cool thanks!
This is actual infrastructure . Not gender reassignment assistance or abortion funding in 2021 .
....and then you wake up and realize that railroads are built by corporations. Your ideology and prejudice is irrelevant here.
@@fredygump5578 *I sexually identify as a freight train, are you transphobic and railphobic?*
@@originalm3233 Oh, so you like to go around tooting your horn? They have a word for that, but you probably won't like it
@@fredygump5578 *You are transphobic Mr. Forrest Gump.*
Please no non-RR related politics. Please.
Aren't they eventually rebuilding the track further down to the state line?
That is proposed but not sure if/when that’ll happen
Excellent video!!!! Are there plans to go further past the end of the run around?
There has been talk of going further south to directly serve a bakery. Currently they transload in Wharf yard which is about a mile north of the bakery.
It's alway nice to see railroad track put back in service.What does a "ballast regulator" do?
It helps shape the ballast structure around the ties.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Thanks.
Is passenger rail coming to Fall River??
So is the run around switch as far as the line will be restored?
There’s a possibility of going south another two miles to provide direct service to a bakery.
In America we love trains
Where the track ends and the two engines start its run . Did the track ever keep going where the woods is ?
Continued on to Newport.
@@ruffian2952 are they going to restore that end ? Is there still track there ?
@@mollycaz1 Because service ended doesn't necessarily mean that the railroad was torn up. I cannot vouch for the continued existence of the roadway though. There was an ongoing entanglement between abutters and the railroad over certain cosmetic landscaping encroaching upon the right of way that the MofW used herbicides to eliminate. Turned out that the railroad owned more land than had been used for years.
@@mollycaz1 Added opinion. There was a movable bridge further on down the line that was removed because it became and constituted a hazard to navigation. At the time of removal...over 20 years ago...the restoration of passenger service was not in the deck. Concurrently Rhode Island wasn't interested in footing the bill for any rail projects. Cutting to the chase, the existing freight customers couldn't and wouldn't provide assurances of traffic growth so rail service vaporized. 20 or 30 years ago was the moment to seize for railroad growth.
Right at the beginning, is that a 3rd track to the far left?
Yes, it was a customer spur
Would "bom dia" be an appropriate "Good day" for that area?
What is a run around? Enjoyed the restoration but don't know much about trains.
Thanks for watching! A run around track is a double ended siding track that allows a locomotive to uncouple from its train, pass it on the siding, and get to the other end. Generally this is used to have the train switch directions or during other switching moves.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Thank you much for the info. I have seen that but didn't know it was called that.
It's good to see trains using this railroad line again eventually they'll have to remove all the brush grass and debris off the rails and ties too
is this close to battleship cove?
Yes
Da hora muito bonito parabens
Why does the track stop there?
The should continue the Track past the stop sign and connect the Fall River Line to the Newport one
Hopefully one day that will happen but the State of Rhode Island would have to kick in some serious cash.
@@SouthCoastRailVideos maybe if MBTA comes to Fall River
@@SouthCoastRailVideos Maybe a station stop could be created at a location just short of the RI state line. A group in NH, called New Hampshire Railroad Revitalization Association, has been working so to extend MBTA service north of the Lowell Station (on their Lowell Line). My belief to them is to stop at the south end of the present Pheasant Lane Mall, whereas its large parking lot extends south, into MA.
(Take a look on Google's Earth and take note that NONE of the mall's structure enters MA. The very southernmost part of any of the mall's structure follows the state line, but, does NOT enter Massachusetts at all! Only the mall's parking lot enters MA.)
@@JBell._ Newport segment a mere extension of the Fall River branch. I believe the swing bridge at Tiverton is gone. I truly believe any through service to Newport will never happen. Replacing the Tiverton bridge would find opposition from every possible direction. There was an option to replace the bridge up near the Fall River Country Club near the former Thompson Chemical. That would only work if the Dighton would open again. And it appears that is impossible.
What year was this track ended before restoration.
Around 2000 or so
Is there something wrong ? No Sir The Engineer Assistant is changing the points.
How far South will the train be going .... Tiverton, RI ?? It must END there, No $$$$ to rebuilt the tressel bridge over the Sakonnet river
Tiverton is it, if Rhode Island antes up for their portion. Too the bridge was a swing bridge not a trestle.
Why’d they bring it back to life?
They needed a run around track to more easily service customers
How long has it been abandoned
Never abandoned just underutilized.
You do not tell us if it is freight or passenger. Snd if freight then for which industry.
This was done for ease of freight operations for Gold Medal Bakery and Borden & Remington in Fall River, MA
A better "Before and After" edit would have been great to make comparison...
Abandoned railroad track restored - Fall River, MA - Part 2
th-cam.com/video/FGo53XRwQdo/w-d-xo.html
Railroad companies have cut ✂️ their own throats by not maintaining track to save money 🙄. Since so much freight coming in they can't keep up with demand from agriculture, military, manufacturing to sea shipments. So many landscape track bedding dated back to the twenties. Now they have to hire more personnel. Plus gaining new customers to those abandon areas.
Doeß the shear cost of revitalising this line going to be worth it through freight and or passenger useage Something closed it down in the past is the future going to be any different
Times obviously changed. They don’t do rail investments lightly.
That saddest part about this is that it shows that there aren't enough trucker's out there to help move a are fright.
Truckers are more highly regulated than any other major industry, and therefore much more costly. Plus, the cost of diesel fuel is going to skyrocket with government pushing this stupid Green New Deal, so railroad transportation is making a huge comeback. Would love to see passenger rail travel get more affordable as well.
They’re rebuilding the rail track the old fashioned way. In Europe they use one long machine train that unscrew the rails, digs out ballast gravel, replace the wooden sleepers for concrete ones, place the (new) rails and screw it to the sleepers, reuse the ballast gravel and adding new gravel and vibrates the ballast gravel in place. America seems to be way behind in rail infrastructure. Or do they have such a machine train and aren’t they using it because the track is too short, in other words it is not efficient to use it in case.
Unfortunately America has become very much against rail starting in the late 40s. The government spends countless amounts of money on the interstate highway system and on constructing, maintaining and expanding the airline industry but does nothing to help the rail industry. The rail industry is mostly privately funded and is taxed by the same government that assists it's competitors.
It could also be that the contractor couldn't afford such a machine (purchase or lease) and submit a winning bid for the project.
@@ruffian2952 In the USA those track machines are used on main line railroads. Too cumbersome to bring out to a short line job.
Question is will it be a heritage rr, scenic rr or a commuter rout
Freight railroad
The overall project is commuter service. Freight is a passive partner and beneficiary
It's too bad somebody hasn't come up with a drop bottom dump truck I know to be hard with the undercarriage
Too bad they could not bring ballast rock by gondola cars.
You could but removing the stone from a closed bottom car not feasible. Hopper cars more in order.
@@ruffian2952 I had considered hopper cars but wondered of the dump on tracks might cause hoppers to derail. I thought there was a tractor with scoop to remove and disperse the crushed rock.
@@catgynt9148 There exists a type of hopper that is designed to "plow" stone. We had them when I was a brakeman here in Fall River. You can direct the falling stone to either the inner guage or outside the guage with little or no lost stone to wheel crush. Could you be related to Ibsen's Peer Gynt?
@@ruffian2952 thanks for sharing this. I admit to being color blind to styles and variations of rail cars. My father grew up in Bellevue, Ohio - home of Nickel Plate RR. He passed when I was very young and my only rail experience was riding in Europe and sitting at crossings. Gynt is old family name that will die with me; my wife and all male cousins on Dad’s side only had daughters (no sons).
Is that how you build railroad tracks in the US? No wonder your railroads are bad.
Intermodal transport saves money
Thanks for watching!
4:12 Maybe they wet to reduce dust.
This would have been great if it were not for dreadful camera work. If you're gonna put out a video on YT, at least use a tripod to steady the camera. Jeez.
Someone needs to teach that dump driver how to tailgate a load of rock
I would love to jump behind the controls of that train for 5 minutes!
Then jump off just before it crashed?
@@algrayson8965 Just have to time it right! 👍👍👍
Trump's magic wand still at work.
Sure wish I understood railway economics.
not many do......
Simple credo....steal what you can. Was like that during my time, no reason to expect it changed
Seems that RR managements have the same problem.
That seems like a waste of money and gas. Turn tables are a thing.
Out of focus footage - who did the photography, USN or CIA?
Wow in my city.... lol
Damn trim all those weeds lol
THE TREE BELONGS YOUR FELL DOWN IN MY YARD WHO GO CLEAN THE BIG BRANCHES I HAVE IN MY YARD IT IS VERY DANGER
Is this a black neighborhood?
No, the Portuguese tore it down years ago. Or were they Cape Verdian?
The rail was there before the neighborhood and the city issued the permit to build by the rail
For safety sake get some round up for those weeds. Not those weeds, get the weeds I’m talking about.
Paraquat a more favorable vehicle now.