Abandoned freight spur being restored? - Plainville, CT - 6/2023

[@alwhalen3488]

This spur was used to load gravel for transportation to their facility in Waterbury, CT. It was a shuttle service using cuts of seven former D&H short hopper cars. For several years it ran as a dedicated train 5 days a week. Sometimes the crew hauled other freight to Waterbury, but more often it was just the stone. The quarry is on the other side of I-84 and they had a fleet of dump trucks to shuttle the stone over to the dumping ramp. Most days the cars would be gravity rolled down to the bumper using the handbrakes so that the engine would be able to connect to the proper end for transit to Waterbury. When it was raining then the engine had to pull the cars down with air and shove out to the main for a run around move first. The seven cars fit with the east car under the ramp. The tail track to the bumper could hold two engines and seven cars if you touched the knuckle to the bumper. I ran this route for several years in the early nineties. The crossing signals were added shortly after an influential local resident (probably under the influence) ran into the side of the fifth car moving over the crossing that they claimed to not see and sustained serious injuries because of it. Crossbucks, advance warning signs, reflective tape on the cars and two fusees in the road did not get their attention.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for the info. I’m surprised it was such a short haul.

[@e7walnut365]

Hi Al 👋

[@louislamonte334]

Thrilled to see this!

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@tomy.1846]

Always good to see! 😃

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching!

[@trainlover0315]

I live down the street in New Britain near CVS and from what I can see it’s hard to tell if they are restoring it. All of the track on that side of the crossing is now gone completely (from the looks of it) and they seem to be digging out the mountain behind it, almost as if Tilcon was building a second facility. If my memory serves me right, I believe the concrete wall where they would dump into the railcars is now gone and dug away too. I was hoping for PAR/B&E to get to Stone service for PLED/EDPL, but we can only wait and see what the future holds.

[@SWITCHMASHER]

when tomasso had shipments my father was every so often on the crew that served the quarry. great to dee it going back into service

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching. We’ll see if it gets rebuilt.

[@jkimnach8701]

Looks like the start of a bike path

[@bradfordthompson8326]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyes Another South Coast Quarry inspiration TRANSLOAD RAILWAY FACILITIES..LOOKING FORWARD TO FIRST TRAINS 😢🎉😂❤❤❤

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@RailfanDownunder]

Superb.... So very interesting - thanks for posting and I have let all my railfan friends here in Australia know about your KZbin channel via Facebook

[@scottcannell5584]

I'm a railfan from Australia too. Been watching his videos for quite a while. Good to see a fellow Aussie on here. Cheers Scott

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching guys

[@newpylong]

Tilcon used to load here and when I worked for the railroad we had a PL-2 job to switch them because the traffic was hot. Like many customers, Guilford lost them. I had heard they were going to get cars again perhaps it's going to happen.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@johnbruetsch8739]

Love these videos of unused/abandoned tracks being put back into use,- TRAINS DON’T POLLUTE OR CAUSE ROAD TRAFFIC !🇺🇸

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@gandolfthegardener]

Rail costs are still lower than truck and less polluting. Congested highways could be a pick me up for rail?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@gandolfthegardener]

@@SouthCoastRailVideos You're most welcome.

[@WHJeffB]

My guess is that if it does in fact get rebuilt for regular use, it's for a large project where they're going to be shipping a lot of product over a significant distance, so rail shipment makes a lot of sense.

[@gandolfthegardener]

@@WHJeffB I agree.

[@WHJeffB]

Just an update... I don't think this siding is going back in service. Went by there at lunch today and they've torn up the turnout and all the other trackage on the siding side of the road. I would think that's pretty definitive. Looking at the video, the turnout in situ looked to be in good shape, so based on that and the fact that it's missing now, I think the siding is done for. Probably tax or liability/insurance reasons, but who knows.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Unfortunately you may be right

[@grommit700]

Can you make a video on the open former yard in Waterbury?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

If there’s eventually work to restore it I would consider going to check it out. I believe there was a proposal to use it for containers but haven’t heard anything serious about it in some time.

[@grommit700]

I wonder if the old yard in north haven could become a yard again for something. Like for to augment the trucking industry. The property is already open. That's half the battle completed already.

[@mandcsdad1]

Unfortunately it looks more like permanent removal of tracks. Same type of grading they did near me when tracks were removed. Great video

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching. I wasn’t sure when I saw that either. We’ll see.

[@chadmoore9336]

Journey Rd/372. Inactive quarry.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@timd6637]

I really enjoy watching your videos and following along on Google Earth. So I would like to make a request that, when possible, you could always include the cross street with the locality in your captions. This will make it much easier to find the location on the map. Thank you so much and keep the videos coming!

[@monolight1327]

try 367 New Britain Ave, Plainville, CT ;)

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@jimfuller113]

Much rather see it restored then being pushed aside for a rail trail

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@bradfordthompson8326]

Any new Updates?😊😊

[@WHJeffB]

Interesting... I work not to far from this in Farmington, been by it several times over the years and it caught my interest long ago. Pulling up the track must have been fairly recent. Wonder how reliable your rumor source is. Besides pulling up the track to the dump, they also severed the connection across the street, which had been intact up to that point. Will have to stop by and check it out on my lunch break next week...

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@alwhalen3488]

Judging by the cleanup and flat grading of the track area I am guessing this is a permanent removal of the rails to facilitate sale of the property. Unless there is indication that Tilcon wants to re-activate the quarry I would see no reason to rebuild this spur. Such is life!

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Could be, guess we’ll see

[@syeet1234]

Which RR company would this quarry be served by?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Pan Am soon to be Berkshire & Eastern

[@newpylong]

Pan Am Southern with CSX being the current carrier. Within a couple months to be the Berkshire & Eastern (GWI) as the carrier.

[@happyhome41]

Interesting. That little bit of rail to the bumper would seem hardly long enough to allow a locomotive plus any cars to get past the switch and back to the loading area.

[@shortliner68]

Out of curiosity from your comment, I just did a rough estimate of track distances using the scale on Google Maps satellite imaging. From the switch points to the bumper post is roughly 400 feet. The removed part of the siding extended about 250 feet beyond the far end of the dump structure.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

It’s enough room

[@happyhome41]

@@shortliner68 NICE Thank you.

[@BaluDerBaer933]

What has happened there until now?

[@csxtommy6562]

Looks more like a total removal then a rebuild.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@danielunger9340]

Are they gonna fix the rails going over the main road too or just ta that one part only?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

I don’t know the full plans

[@danielunger9340]

@@SouthCoastRailVideos that's cool hopefully they do redo both rails n crossings

[@haroldreardon8070]

Nothing happening here, just further abandonment and some minor clean up.

[@danmathers141]

It doesn't look like anything is being done.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

Thanks for watching

[@MCHunterJumper]

This looks like another one of those rails to trails thing, rather than restoring. However I hope I am wrong.

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

It is most definitely not a rails to trails. This is a short spur with a switchback that goes no where desirable and is only several hundred feet long.

[@jamest9282]

True, but the metacomet trail has a road section right there, could be going towards a trail that's already there

[@jerrys9226]

I wonder when this was last used?

[@SouthCoastRailVideos]

I was told around 2004