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I'm driving out to Boston from Detroit to see my sister. Just wondering if there are any good places to train watch there. I'll be there for about a week. I know Conrail use to be in Boston because the tracks ran by my sisters house. I don't have any idea what railroads are out there now. Anybody?

Not much freight traffic in the city since CSX vacated Beacon Park a few months ago.

You may have to go out to the "burbs" to see much train action. PanAm and CSX are out there. I think P&W is too.

Boston is the largest city in New England, but much like Detroit, little freight traffic passes through the city given its geography. CSX is the only major Class 1 player, and their local presence has diminished recently with the closing of Beacon Hill Yard in the Allston neighborhood along I-90. Traffic handled there has now moved to Worcester and West Springfield. Providence & Worcester and Pan Am do have a presence although I'm not familiar with it. I think a local RailAmerica outfit is around the hub as well but am not sure which that is. If you like passenger, it's a good place to be. Amtrak runs the Acela, NE Regionals, and Lake Shore Limited out of South Station and the Downeaster Service from North Station (ex B&M), so you've got a good variety of diesels and electrics covered there. This is the north end of the electrified NE Corridor, so there's plenty to see.

If you're at all interested in mass transit, the MBTA ("the T") is in my opinion one of the most comprehensive transportation systems in America. They run heavy commuter rail, light-rail, subway/surface lines, trackless trolleys, buses, and ferries. There's some old stuff to be found on the roster still: the well known Mattapan high-speed extension of the Red Line runs with WWII era PCC streetcars over private ROW, some Red Line subway cars date from 1969, Type 7 light rail cars operate on the Green Line, and, and there's still a few RTS city buses to be found. The system is very well connected and a great way to get around. If you want to go to Worcester, for example, to railfan, the T commuter train goes there. I understand the Worcester Amtrak/T station is beautiful.

A WORD OF CAUTION: Everyone is still very jumpy in Boston after the bombing there last month. I was in Boston photographing the PCCs earlier this week and had a couple transit operators on my case about taking photos. The T specifically states no permit is required for non-commercial photography (they did require a permit after 9/11), but people are understandably antsy. Once I explained what I was doing and why I was interested, they relaxed some. But expect that, especially in the city, and be respectful of their concern.

If you're completely bored and have an interest on the way up or down, detour down to the New Haven area in Connecticut and I'll be happy to give you a tour of the historic streetcar museum I work at.

So I found a city to go to on my way home called Palmer. Suppose to be a hot spot. Anybody been there?

Haven't been there but it's where the New England Central ( the ex-RA,now G&W property in question thats mentioned above) crosses the CSX Boston-Albany mainline.

i wouldn't exactly call Palmer "hot", but it is a neat place. In addition to the NEC+CSX, there's also the Mass. Central (which used to get an 8am start) and Amtrak (the Vermonter has do a funny back-up move from there to Springfield).

Amusingly the old depot at the diamond is now a restaurant called the Steaming Tender that markets to railfans. They have a website, and tucked beneath the menu and such are "train schedules" which are pretty accurate. Personally i prefer the misnamed Day&Night Diner (which has luncheonette hours) a few blocks NW up Main Street. It's an old Worcester 'railcar' diner from the 30's that's wicked New England.

Operationally not too much is that different on CSX since the Conrail days, manifest will run westbound in the midafternoon, and intermodal starts with the St.Louis train leaving Worcester at 8pm, and the 2 Chicago trains late night (you might snag the later working Springfield at sunrise). Eastbounds filter east as a fleet in the early morning.


Try looking at the New England Railfan forum at Railroad.net:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewforu ... a87e494e57

As far as Boston proper, there are still a few freight quirks there. CSX still runs a local from Framingham to Chelsea and back, spurring off the now commuter mains a hair east of Beacon Park and the then runs slowly by MIT in Cambridge thru Somerville to the produce docks in Chelsea. Also there's a second CSX local that used to push caboose first up from Readville through Dorchester to S.Boston. While on the topic of CSX, the only enginehouse in Mass. is in Lower Allston: the crews for every road train start there light engine, back out onto the mains again at the east end of Beacon Park and then head west to pick up their freight.

Pan Am has a rare presence in Boston, a local comes down from Lowell overnight (and used to go dead on the law more often than not in Somerville) and turn on the grounds of what used to be the largest freight yard in New England, now a two track siding. A couple days a week (1?) some of that freight continues up to Salem and Peabody. And while the Big Dig has wrapped up, there's some stone from Ossippee,NH that unloads a bit north of North Station, i'm not sure if this still operates as an infrequent unit train or if those cars are now moved on the local from Lowell. For the sake of completism, there is a local out of Ayer that used to come down through Concord, but the last i payed attention to it Guilford was doing its best to run itself into the ground, and i don't think that that line was subsumed into the Pan Am Southern (the PAS has noticeably better service, and is turning around the west end).

Thanks for all the info. Much appreciated.