Iconic New England Photo Location Is Restored
THE BARTONSVILLE COVERED BRIDGE was built across the Williams River in that Vermont village in 1870 and was a popular rail photo prop since Rutland Railroad days. But on August 28, 2011, the 159-foot lattice truss was washed away by flooding caused by the tor- rential rains of Tropical Storm Irene. Fortunately the bridge was in- sured, and the Town of Rockingham decided to replace the span in kind after determining that the cost would be about the same as a new con- crete bridge. The tab will be covered by a combination of money from
Genesee & Wyoming Industries
RAILAMERICA DEAL GOES THROUGH: On December 28, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Industries completed its acquisition of short line holding company RailAmerica, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary. Before the merger GWI owned 66 short line and regional railroads in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Europe, while RA owned an additional 45 lines in the U.S. and Canada. G&W has adapted its logo to each newly acquired line. Genesee & Wyoming will embark on a
quest to clean up the ragtag former RA loco- motive fleet and has already started to assign fresh GWI-painted power to former RA lines, including SD40-3s to the Wellsboro & Corn- ing and New England Central. In fact, the first brand-new power to be acquired by GWI since MP15DC’s 45 and 46 in 1980 were R.J. Corman Railpower RP20BD gensets Nos. 2001 and 2002 for the Central Railroad of In- diana, a former RailAmerica operation. They were assembled at Norfolk Southern’s Junia- ta Shop and delivered in December 2012.
insurance, the town, the state, and FEMA. On January 2, 2013, loaded Vermont Rail System ethanol train 263 (above) passed the nearly-com- pleted bridge on former Rutland trackage behind Vermont Railway GP38-2 No. 202, Green Mountain GP40 No. 305, and CEFX SD9043MAC No. 125. See page 54 of the November 2011 R&R for Jim Shaughnessy’s vin- tage color photo of a Rutland freight behind an RS3 at the same loca- tion. — WITH INFO FROM KEVIN BURKHOLDER
MBTA
TAKE THE T TO THE CAPE: This summer travelers will be able to take the CapeFlyer between Boston and Cape Cod on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day. There will be one Friday afternoon departure from Boston, one run in each direction of Satur- days and Sundays, and possibly a Monday morning return trip to Boston. Bicycles will be accommodated. The service is sponsored by the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority and will use MBTA equipment and crews running over the T between South Station and Lakeville, where a Cape Rail pilot will board to guide the T crew over Massachusetts Coastal and Cape Cod Central trackage (owned by Mass- DOT) to Buzzards Bay and Hyannis. Despite the relatively low speeds on the south end of the line, the two-hour travel time is expected to be competitive with buses and private autos due to the long weekend traffic tieups at the two highway bridges between the mainland and the Cape.
CORRECTIONS AND OMISSIONS: The December news photo of the Amtrak B32-8WH on the Pennsylvanian was taken by Michael T. Burkhart and the November photo of Norfolk South- ern SD60E No. 6920 was shot by NS photographer Casey Thomason. In December’s Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation story, the group’s new facility is adjacent to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the Eastside light rail won’t be open until 2015, so take the streetcar instead.
24 JANUARY 2013 •
RAILFAN.COM A tie replacement and surfacing program
this spring will maintain Class II track and a passenger train speed limit of 30 m.p.h. on state-owned trackage. Grade crossing surfaces and signaling will also be improved along with bridge repairs, drainage work, and brush cut- ting. Station improvements will include hand- icap accessibility and upgraded platforms and parking areas. Welded rail had been laid from Lakeville
and Buzzards Bay in 1986 to accommodate the Amtrak Cape Codder, which ran on week- ends between New York and Hyannis from 1986 to 1996. Concurrently, work also had been started on the installation of an auto- matic block signal system as far south as Buz- zards Bay. The system was never completed, although many signal masts, heads, and sig- nal cases had been installed. The line has seen little maintenance since then, and today only Cape Rail’s Mass Coastal uses the Lakeville-Buzzards Bay line to reach its freight interchange with CSX at Middleboro and to service the SEMASS trash to energy plant at Rochester.
Cape Rail’s Cape Cod Central runs a vari-
ety of dinner trains and excursions between Buzzards Bay and Hyannis, and new majority owner Iowa Pacific recently moved a pair of ex-Susquehanna E9s to the Cape for passen- ger service.
KEVIN BURKHOLDER
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